Re: Hinting regression in Ubuntu 23.04

On Thursday, May 4, 2023 9:52:43 AM CEST Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> I think you misremember, for the reason mentioned above – just to be
> sure I've checked now that this variation font has no B/W hinting
> instructions.  Its hinting was certainly equally bad with an older
> version of FreeType.

Ok, I solved the problem. There were many coincidences playing a role in the 
original report.

For starters the (real) regression in fonts-ubuntu triggered my attention, but 
unlucky testing against Liberation Sans revealed a change in hinting between 
fonts-liberation and fonts-liberation2, which wasn't installed on my reference 
system. fonts-liberation2 lacks proper hinting (which showed on my 23.04 
system) but fonts-liberation is properly hinted (on the 22.04 machine). Once 
installed, fonts-liberation2 overrides all Liberation fonts, except for 
Liberation Sans Narrow.

Removing fonts-liberation2 and downgrading fonts-ubuntu to fonts-
ubuntu_0.83-6ubuntu1_all.deb seems to solve all the reported problems.

My apologies for the noise and thanks for adding your thoughts to this!


Martin