Re: cairo now default?

[Yuri Khan]

On Tue, 28 Jan 2020 at 23:26, Colin Baxter <address@hidden> wrote:

> I agree, yours look at same. Here at mine:
>
> A. emacs1-splash.png; emacs1-scratch.png
>
> ./configure --without-cairo
>
> B. emacs2-splash.png; emacs2-scratch.png
>
> ./configure
>
> The configure options tell me I have no Harfbuzz and I get the no
> "Harfbuzz" warning message.
>
>
> I'm no expert, but to me, the fonts in B. look weaker than those in A.

I recognize the difference between your two sets of screenshots as
being caused by different hinting styles used by the two font
renderers. Those in A seem to use slight or no hinting. Those in B use
strong hinting.

On an X11/GNU/Linux desktop, hinting style can be configured in at
least three ways. One is via the Xft.hintstyle resource; another is
/etc/fonts/fonts.conf or one of the files included from it, typically
one of /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-{full,medium,none,slight}.conf;
and the third one is via the XSETTINGS protocol, provided by the
desktop environment and configured somewhere in its control panel.

For the record, I’m strongly in the slight hinting camp, and
would/will be much annoyed if/when Emacs decides to use strong hinting
despite my configuration.