freetype2 directory and related issues in 4.7

I would like to use a BCI-enabled rendition of the Tahoma font.  I've 
successfully compiled freetype2 (2.41) with the appropriate define to 
enable the bytecode interpreter.  The 'gmake install' places the 
libfreetype* files in /usr/local/lib, so the only way I've found to 
event get the library to work is to: ln -s 
/usr/local/lib/libfreetype.so.11.1 /usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.17.0  (I 
may have the suffixes wrong as I'm not on the machine at the moment, but 
you get the idea.)

So Gnome works, but it's all to no avail.  If I turn 'hinting' off 
(which produces a beautiful Tahoma in other distros), it has the same 
jaggies as  the distribution version.  Any ideas?

Thanks.

Don