IDEA linux fonts

Hi,
you can turn antialiasing on (there are 2  settings, one for editor pane one for interface)
This is how my fonts look within intellij:
http://www.machak.com/idea_8.png (ubuntu 8.10)

btw, this is somewhat irrlevant to your question, but it seems there are some legal issues with apple and fonts smoothing on linux,
so you can tweak font rendering a bit more if you like:
http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/10/15/tweak-your-font-rendering-for-better-appearance/
http://rewind.themasterplan.in/2007/07/15/sexy-smooth-fonts-on-kubuntu/

eh, after resizing your image I see eclipse font is much bolder, I don't know how to tweak that (except to set it to bold)

Could you show me where that "one for interface" is?

Thank you.

Hi,

I, too, would very much like to know how to effect these font options on my Linux system.

By the way, I always rebuild my local FreeType packages to enable hint interpretation (please don't let Apple know).


Randall Schulz

Self linking is stinky but in case it helps linux peeps:

http://blog.opencomponentry.com/2008/03/31/how-to-fix-butt-ugly-ubuntu-hardy-heron-fonts/

Hi,
I actually changed default fonttype to bitstream vera sans bold, 12 px it's in Settings > Apperiance > override default fonts by (not recomended)
That's why it looks like it's rendering better ;-)
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/ttf-bitstream-vera/1.10/

btw, I would recommend this font as  as default font interface setting for intellij,
it looks much better (even on windows), and it's also more readable imho

Hi,

Being the obedient sort I am, I've simply accepted the "(not recommended)" notice there.

So I wonder... Why is that option "not recommended?"

By the way, Bitstream Vera Sans (not mono) (11 pt) does seem a good choice for the UI.

I prefer Lucida Sans Mono (10 pt) for program text. I also set the "Line spacing" to 0.9, to fit a bit more in vertically. This may be something I can get away with because I use so many blank lines and so much columnar formatting in my code.


Anyway, thanks for pointing out what was in front of my face all along...


Randall Schulz

i call that "crisper" :-)    i did not specifically set it to "bold" -- the "bold"ness effect is probably due to the antialiasing.

I still can't get IDEA Linux to use fonts that look the same as in Eclipse Linux.    If they're both using the same font, how is it possible that they look different???
I know on Mac (probably Windows too) there is a setting in IDEA that allows you to turn on Antialiasing.   I can't find such a setting for the Linux version.
How can antialiasing in IDEA be achieved?  Is it even possible?

Thank you.

Boris

Boris,

Fonts are a complex subject, with additional complications due to Apple IP in the case of TrueType.

First of all, anti-aliasing must be distinguished from font hinting (or, more precisely, the interpretation of font hints when rendering them).

Anti-aliasing is a simple, generic smothing operation that computes grey-scale values for pixels when the font outline pases through that pixel (i.e., the pixel neither entirely within or outside the glyph outline). While it's a good idea, it, like many things involved in typography, simple intuitions fail us. Basic anti-aliasing often produces results that are too "blurry."

Font hinting is a means of adding heuristic information to font outlines that help the rendering software optimize the rendering for a particular font at a particular size on a particular kind of display (optimum rendering for CRTs is very different from that for LCDs, e.g.).

There are also some end-user-configurable parameters to hint interpretation (typicaly presented in configuration dialogs as "light," "medium" and "heavy").

TrueType hinting is Apple-proprietary technology. FreeType 2 includes an interpreter for these hints, but it is not unconditionally included when that software is compiled. Rather, it is a configurable option. Some Linux distributions enable it and others, concerned about legal action from Apple, do not. I use SuSE and openSUSE Linux and as a product of a large corporate entity, Novell, its managers consider enabling TrueType hinting to be too great a legal risk, so they don't. So I routinely re-build my FreeType software from source after reconfiguring it to enable the hint interpreter option.

Java adds extra wrinkles to font handling, but I'm only dimly aware of what those are.


Randall Schulz

Would like to resurrect this thread. I've just installed Ubuntu 10 and RubyMine 2.0.2 and I just can't seem to get the font rending right in RubyMine.  Here is side by side comparison http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6307/aptanarubyminerendering.png Indeed I have the Settings > Editor > Appearance > Use antialiased font turned on. Java version I'm using is "1.6.0_20".  I find it really hard to read fonts rendered that way which blocks me from using RubyMine under Linux :(  Thanks in advance, Evgeniy

Unfortunately there isn't anythingy you can do to mimic Aptana's font rendering.

SWT delegates all font rendening to GTK, which in turns uses Pango (which in turn uses FreeType, which in turn uses Cairo) to render text -- this makes Aptana's font rendering as good (or as bad) as the system default font rendering. IDEA on the other hand delegates font rendering to the JDK, with in turn has it's own internal font rendering algorithm.

In other words: this is a JDK issue, and JetBrains can't really do anything about it, unfortunately.

Actually on Windows I think it's using native ClearType, or something which mimics it pretty nicely (no idea though if that's what JDK does).  So what fonts and font size settings people use with IDEA on Linux? I think nothing I've tried so far is suitable for daily use :(

I use Lucida Sans Typewriter, size 10 (line spacing 0.9) with anti-aliasing enabled.


Randall Schulz

I built the inconsolata font set and use that @ size 13. These links should get you started.

http://www.actsofvolition.com/archive/2007/september/inconsolata

http://code.google.com/webfonts/family?family=Inconsolata

I installed the Inconsolata.ttf from the Google Code page. What I found was:

1. It does not appear as a monospaced font, so I have to disable the monospaced font filter to select it in IDEA
2. It does not appear to be hinted (*), so is ill-suited to being used at small sizes.

(*) I do run FreeType2 software with the hint interpreter enabled. This may be a Java interaction. I ordinarily run IDEA with JDK 7, but using it, IDEA crashes when it tries to scan the available fonts (a symptom I've seen in other applications). This crash does not occur when I run IDEA (9.0.4 EAP #95.521) on JDK 6.

For my purposes, Lucida Sans Typewriter is distinctly preferable.


Randall Schulz