Font fixes for *nix / The last 10.70 build

October 15, 2010 · by Ruari Ødegaard

In follow up to Toman's font post, here is the build he promised you. For more details of how the fonts have changed on Linux and FreeBSD please read it first.

As the title above states this is also the last 10.70 build. Being a 10.70 build it does not include extensions. The first build with extensions will be an 11.00 build and we'll get it to you as soon as possible. In the mean time please keep all comments on extensions in Olli's extention blog post. It is not fair to those uses who have eagerly awaited these fixes to fill up their blog post with off topic comments.

Ok, with that out of the way, let the testing begin!

WARNING: This is a development snapshot: It contains the latest changes, but may also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, it may not work at all.

Download

Changelog
Desktop

DSK-315664 (Unite works only on local computer)

Linux/FreeBSD

Speed up startup of Opera on Linux and FreeBSD
Get font properties from the native environment: Countless small fixes that were difficult and time consuming!
Add a preference for setting Opera to prefer fontconfig over UI toolkit settings

Core

CORE-31343 (Crash found during automated testing)

Readers' comments

Comments left by My Opera members under the original post: the first 50, as archived.

Jaywin Jacob Varghese15. October 2010, 10:45
testing...
fashisti15. October 2010, 10:45
keep going i love you
Zotlan15. October 2010, 10:46
First startup certainly seems quicker than before. Let's hope it stays that way.
Ruari Ødegaard15. October 2010, 10:48
@Zotlan: It will. The fix is related to our font changes.
Khaled Khalil15. October 2010, 10:49
there was an old post about how to report font and language issues, may be not in the desktop team blog though, can someone remind me where i can find it ?

Edit: found it:
http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/2010/05/04/feedback-on-fonts-issues

Edit 2: well, i think this is no more the same case.
Fav15. October 2010, 10:53
There are some issues with SSL cert sign, when you mark a checbox to ignore warning and trust this cert, same question is asked every time after opera is restarted.
withme15. October 2010, 10:59
I hope that "as soon as possible" means today
Łukasz Janik15. October 2010, 11:06
please add to the search engines to show the suggestions as you type into the window of search engines users, as well as adding a search engine (from scratch) it too.
Ar1Pe15. October 2010, 11:09
Thank you. Testing.
Ria Nav15. October 2010, 11:13
Thank you. Keep it up.
David Håsäther15. October 2010, 11:24
Really glad you're working on fonts!

I still have a problem getting the font I want though. I want normal web pages to use Droid Sans and Droid Serif for sans-serif and serif fonts respectively. Where would I configure this in Gnome? The only font preferences I know of are Appearance > Font, but that doesn't seem to affect anything.

And I can't change this in the Opera font prefs either (DSK-302196).

But still, I'm glad it's getting worked on.
hurug15. October 2010, 11:27
I hope this one will crash less
ouzowtf15. October 2010, 11:31
Seems like
Being a 10.70 build it does not include extensions.

and the tags
not-11.00-yet, no-extensions

are working so far

Keep up the good work!
Nico15. October 2010, 11:32
"http://snapshot.opera.com/windows/This-Is-Not-Yet-11.00-So-No-Extentions-Yet_10.70-9071/"

I'm about to upgrade my current Ubuntu-installation this weekend, so this Build comes just right in time (Windows 7 is still my main OS )
nimu_chan15. October 2010, 11:50
Ohhh.... Thanks
Just install!!
iPristy15. October 2010, 11:57
I'm afraid to ask is html fixed wallpaper only working in Fedora maybe?
Ivan Filho15. October 2010, 11:59
"This-Is-Not-Yet-11.00-So-No-Extentions-Yet_10.70-9071" haha!

I've put Opera on hold for about 2 weeks because it's become just too slow to shutdown. Maybe I have too many open tabs

Definitely going to give this build a try!
Unrealmirakulix15. October 2010, 11:59
is Scrolling and before/next with Logitech working again? Problem is old and appears also on 10.63 final
Khaled Khalil15. October 2010, 12:00
well here is a fast review on start up with almost the same session:

before this build:
"4808 ms - Init core completed"

this build with Fontconfig unchecked (on gnome):
"3609 ms - Init core completed"

this build with Fontconfig checked:
"2312 ms - Init core completed"

though, without prior configuration, fonts look really bad with Fontconfig enforced.
joshas15. October 2010, 12:01
Faster startup - great. And fonts really looks better. Cannot wait for stable version 11 to come out
Дмитрий15. October 2010, 12:05
I hope that the next Opera 11.00 will be amazing! Waiting!
sleepyhead15. October 2010, 12:08
nvm, was a temporary thing
Robert9015. October 2010, 12:10
Fonts are worse for me. Up to date Arch using KDE (never touched a font setting). Before this build they looked perfect, but now they look pixelated. Enabling or disabling the "prefer fontconfig setting" doesn't seem to make a difference.
Zotlan15. October 2010, 12:15
One font annoyance; buttons (like the post comment button on this page) now have serif fonts, any reason for this?
Khaled Khalil15. October 2010, 12:19
i have a serious problem regarding some Arabic fonts, that was introduced with 10.00 i think, but not been fixed by this build with and without Fontconfig.
(to be frank, i didn't report it before)

here is a screenshot of the front page of Arabic Wikipedia:
screenshot
the two lines in boxes-letters should read like:
Originally posted by wikipedia-ar:

ندعوك للمساهمة في أسبوع تطوير المقالات الأكثر شعبية وهو أحد الأسابيع المتعددة من أسابيع الويكي
ندعوك للمساهمة في تطوير مقالة بنين ضمن مشروع تطوير بلد الأسبوع (راجع خلية العمل)

anything needed before reporting ?
should i stick to this steps even now ?
Case15. October 2010, 12:27
"Add a preference for setting Opera to use fontconfig"

Yes! It looked like you had no intention of supporting fontconfig anymore for a while. Thanks a lot for this!
J-K-L15. October 2010, 12:35
Originally posted by Robert90:

Fonts are worse for me. Up to date Arch using KDE (never touched a font setting). Before this build they looked perfect, but now they look pixelated. Enabling or disabling the "prefer fontconfig setting" doesn't seem to make a difference.

The same for my LinuxMint Debian. Until now opera was the only app where fonts looked really 100% perfect. Now opera looks the same 90% perfect like the rest... The gnome settings or .font.conf never delivered the same results as the opera font rendering. It seems like I have to finally figure out, how to set them up right

After all, I think it is the right way for opera to respect the settings of the desktop environment.

Nice weekend everyone
vasstr15. October 2010, 12:37
last build? no DSK-314006 fix?
how nice, simple text selection isn't working and it's fine! best browser on earth.
Gereford15. October 2010, 12:45
Cool. Testing and waiting Opera 11
Bill P15. October 2010, 12:48
In mail received folder some letters look bad (bold'ish) using Times New Roman

img707.imageshack.us/img707/8903/fontshn.jpg

ps - how do I embed images in a post? thanks
Case15. October 2010, 12:52
One small problem (not font related) - as with the previous weekly, Note in Google Reader bookmarklet doesn't work, the popup window doesn't show.

And confirming the serifs on buttons.

Originally posted by J-K-L:

The same for my LinuxMint Debian. Until now opera was the only app where fonts looked really 100% perfect. Now opera looks the same 90% perfect like the rest...

You should be able to get to where Opera was before if you disable autohinter and enable full hinting. Didn't test it, though, so I don't really know if there are any problems with that, and of course there could always be problems related to your distro as well.
mithatates15. October 2010, 13:01
Some userscripts sometimes run, sometimes can't run.
win Xp SP3...
Tommy A. Olsen15. October 2010, 13:04
Originally posted by Robert90:

Before this build they looked perfect, but now they look pixelated. Enabling or disabling the "prefer fontconfig setting" doesn't seem to make a difference.

Can you post a screenshot of this? Before and after side by side on a page where you see the problem.
Tommy A. Olsen15. October 2010, 13:06
I can't reproduce the serifs on form elements. You who reproduce, which locale do you have? echo $LC_ALL;echo $LANG
Tenno Seremel15. October 2010, 13:09
Fonts does not look like KDE fonts at all :\ Rainbows… There wasn't any problems with 10.6x. /goes looking for a solution.
Zotlan15. October 2010, 13:12
Originally posted by toman:

I can't reproduce the serifs on form elements. You who reproduce, which locale do you have? echo $LC_ALL;echo $LANG

Was that directed at me? The result of that command is
en_GB.UTF-8

This is on Opensuse 11.3 with KDE 4.5
Corey Mwamba15. October 2010, 13:13
You can't see me, but I am now currently worshipping the ground you walk on.

I can read web pages on my laptop again!
Gousti Fruit15. October 2010, 13:16
Sorry but my fonts are still perfect with this build !
Robert9015. October 2010, 13:21
Originally posted by toman:

Can you post a screenshot of this? Before and after side by side on a page where you see the problem.

Here you go New on the left, old (9067) on the right.

Edit:
Also seems like every page is affected, my.opera.com, google, wikipedia you name it. Also the address bar, text on tabs etc are affected (for example the D of "Desktop" on the tab)

Edit2:
Delete that, never took the time to setup the fonts in KDE, enabled anti-aliasing in systemsettings and fonts are fine now
Sergei Stolyarov15. October 2010, 13:25
Excelent work! Bug with bold italic tahoma is almost fixed. Thank you.
Amund15. October 2010, 13:31
Have some problems with NSL on http://www.digi.no/ with previous and current build.
Edit: now problems using other browsers
ouzowtf15. October 2010, 13:34
Originally posted by Robert90:

Originally posted by toman:

Can you post a screenshot of this? Before and after side by side on a page where you see the problem.
Here you go New on the left, old (9067) on the right.
So for you the right one is better??? I thought I was drunk when I was looking at the right side.
ouzowtf15. October 2010, 13:35
Originally posted by amundgjersoe:

Have some problems with NSL on http://www.digi.no/ with previous and current build.
Edit: now problems using other browsers

I can not see NSL on this page.
Jaywin Jacob Varghese15. October 2010, 13:35
Unable to scroll to bottom of print preview using mousewheel in Windows XP and 7.
Sergei Stolyarov15. October 2010, 13:40
Hey, unixteam, please take a look at problem with opera link. It's not working at all for many linux users.
AndrewLow15. October 2010, 13:41
This snapshot has the same problem some snapshots had (I can't remember which ones). If you set as Speed-Dial background or desktop background an image which isn't fully loaded the part at the bottom is black. I didn't try if it has the same problem also while saving an image...
If you wanna try, here there is a big image, if you're speedy enough you can re-simulate the issue. http://static.myopera.com/community/graphics/speeddials/Opera-Background-Clouds2.jpg
Kertesz Laszlo15. October 2010, 13:41
The fonts do not have antialiasing in this one. At all. The previous version looked fine, this one has disabled antialiasing or something.

Debian Squeeze, Gnome - the libcairo2 library is a patched one to have really smooth system fonts. The versions up to this one worked perfectly well, had the best looking fonts on my system.

This version however messed up the fonts.
Toggling the "prefer fontconfig settings" has no effect. I have xft, antialiasing enabled.
z@h3k15. October 2010, 13:51
Tommy A. Olsen15. October 2010, 13:54
Originally posted by gradinaruvasile:

The fonts do not have antialiasing in this one. At all. The previous version looked fine, this one has disabled antialiasing or something.

Can you post the output of the following command please:

opera -debugfont
Kertesz Laszlo15. October 2010, 13:57
Originally posted by toman:

Can you post the output of the following command please:

opera -debugfont

Here you go:

$ opera -debugfont
(edited away the added fonts. - Toman)
opera: font choices for default fonts:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: Comic Sans MS
fantasy: Impact
monospace: DejaVu Sans Mono

opera: Xft baseline settings:
opera: antialias: yes
opera: hinting: yes
opera: autohint: no
opera: hintstyle: full
opera: rgba: rgb
opera: lcdfilter: legacy

opera: Toolkit font render settings:
opera: antialias: yes
opera: hinting: yes
opera: autohint: not specified
opera: hintstyle: full
opera: rgba: rgb
opera: lcdfilter: not specified

opera: Final settings adjusted by fontconfig:
opera: antialias: yes
opera: hinting: yes
opera: autohint: no
opera: hintstyle: full
opera: rgba: rgb
opera: lcdfilter: legacy

opera: font choices for ChineseSimplified:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: Comic Sans MS
fantasy: Impact
monospace: DejaVu Sans Mono

opera: font choices for ChineseTraditional:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: Comic Sans MS
fantasy: Impact
monospace: DejaVu Sans Mono

opera: font choices for ChineseUnknown:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: Comic Sans MS
fantasy: Impact
monospace: DejaVu Sans Mono

opera: font choices for Japanese:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: Comic Sans MS
fantasy: Impact
monospace: DejaVu Sans Mono

opera: font choices for Korean:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: Comic Sans MS
fantasy: Impact
monospace: DejaVu Sans Mono

opera: font choices for Unknown:
serif: DejaVu Serif Condensed
sans-serif: DejaVu Sans
cursive: DejaVu Sans Mono
fantasy: Impact
monospace: Comic Sans MS