Re: Truetype scaled font issue

> The specific font I was focussing on is from
> "LiberationMono-Regular.ttf" (attached). I don't *think* it contains
> embedded bitmaps?

No, it doesn't.

> The confusing part is, I've used the same file on Ubuntu 8, Ubuntu
> 10 and Ubuntu 16 and it renders correctly on all of them.

It's definitely a bug in the X font setup: The font is treated as
either unhinted or autohinted and then rendered as a mono font.
FreeType doesn't support this.  Monochrome rendering (to be more
precise: bi-level rendering) of TrueType fonts in FreeType gives only
pleasant results for low resolutions if (a) the font contains proper
hints for B/W rendering, and (b) the v35 bytecode engine mode is used.

I guess there are special rules of FontConfig setup files in recent
GNU/Linux distributions that enforce v40 hinting or auto-hinting for
LiberationMono (and maybe all other TrueType fonts).  Apparently
`xfontsel` can only render in monochrome mode; maybe it is possible to
adjust the X font setup for `xfontsel` and friends to enforce v35
hinting?

My conclusion: Not a FreeType bug.


     Werner