Re: Truetype scaled font issue

> I'm curious why many scaled fonts look perfect in Ubuntu 16
> (freetype 2.6.1) , but terrible in Ubuntu 20 (2.10.1). To
> reproduce in Ubuntu 20:

Perhaps you should ask on an Ubuntu mailing list, as you
describe an Ubuntu issue, the assumption that Freetype is
involved is not entirely plausible.

> 1. $ xfontsel -scaled
> 2. Select these options:  fndry=misc, family=fixed, pxlsz=17.
> 3. Observe ugly font.
> 4. Try other settings, notice how everything is ugly.

> I came across the issue when I had to get the X server working
> with a legacy application running in a VM.

Perhaps you should also ask whoever setup the font configuration
in that VM.

> The app requests a scaled Liberation font

That is confusing: If the way to reproduce is to choose a
'fixed' font, why mention Liberation here?

> in XLFD format.

XLFD is a font selection syntax, while PCF and TTF are font
formats. If Ubuntu were using PCF fonts (and 'fixed' usually is
a PCF font) to satisfy requests in XLFD syntax, since they are
not outline but bitmap based they look bad when scaled by the
X11 font system.