[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Terminus as default font in kde?
From:       Eike Hein <hein () kde ! org>
Date:       2007-12-16 0:41:42
Message-ID: 47647446.4020909 () kde ! org
[Download RAW message or body]

Martin K. Schreder wrote:
> default kde look is terrible, especially in combination with
> "ceramic" theme. Thanks god that looks is so easy to change in kde.

"Keramik" hasn't been the KDE default widget style since
KDE 3.4.0 was released in March 2005.

As James pointed out, KDE does not specify or ship any
particular font families by default, but rather defaults
to generic names like "Sans-serif" that the platform's
font system aliases to particular fonts. In practice
this tends to be the DejaVu family on most Linux distri-
butions today, and for good reasons: It's the best mix
of wide Unicode coverage and quality hinting[1] infor-
mation available under a free license.

Note that Terminus, on the other hand, barely includes
Latin and incomplete Cyrillic. Also, Terminus is a non-
scalable bitmap font and thus only available in a limi-
ted set of sizes. It's simply not up to the task of
being the default UI font for the audience and range of
applications of a desktop environment (nor is it inten-
ded to be, of course - it's a coding font for English
speakers).

Plus, as Arnold points out, fixed-width fonts that do
not allow for proper kerning[2] are rather outmoded for
any application that does not specifically benefit from
the grid layout they enable (such as coding), now that
our computers have the ability to do better.


Personally, I suspect that you like Terminus primarily
because it gives you good results without the blurring
that goes along with enabling anti-aliasing. There are
scalable screen fonts with wider Unicode coverage that
achieve the same through copious amounts of embedded
TrueType hinting information, like Matthew Carter's
Tahoma (non-free, unfortunately).


1 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting
2 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning

-- 
Regards,
Eike Hein, hein@kde.org
 
>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]