anti-aliased fonts

anti-aliased fonts

[sashang]

Hi

Is there support for anti-aliased fonts in emacs? I installed emacs a
few days ago and tried to use it but found that the fonts were
rendered poorly. Some searching of the net revealed that I had to get
a special snapshot installed (apt-get install emacs-snapshot-gtk) to
get anti-aliased fonts. I find this surprising considering that it's
2008 and every other application I use supports anti-aliased fonts.

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Ian Eure]

On Sep 2, 2008, at 7:07 PM, sashang@gmail.com wrote:

> Hi
>
> Is there support for anti-aliased fonts in emacs? I installed emacs a
> few days ago and tried to use it but found that the fonts were
> rendered poorly. Some searching of the net revealed that I had to get
> a special snapshot installed (apt-get install emacs-snapshot-gtk) to
> get anti-aliased fonts. I find this surprising considering that it's
> 2008 and every other application I use supports anti-aliased fonts.
While it is 2008, the emacs version which comes with Debian Etch is  
21.4, which is quite old. Emacs 21 was first released in 2001, and the  
first version of Emacs 22 was in 2007.

I don't use Linux anymore, but I'd expect that recent Emacs packages  
support AA fine.

Long story short, this is a Debian problem, not an Emacs problem.

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Tim X]

"sashang@gmail.com" <sashang@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi
>
> Is there support for anti-aliased fonts in emacs? I installed emacs a
> few days ago and tried to use it but found that the fonts were
> rendered poorly. Some searching of the net revealed that I had to get
> a special snapshot installed (apt-get install emacs-snapshot-gtk) to
> get anti-aliased fonts. I find this surprising considering that it's
> 2008 and every other application I use supports anti-aliased fonts.

What you are after has been introduced only in the CVS branch of
emacs. I run the CVS version daily and its very stable most of the
time. The emacs-snapshot is a recent snapshot of the CVS head and works
well. None of the stable e.g. released versions of emacs prior to the 23
CVS branch have anti-aliased font support. 

The new CVS version has a lot of nice new enhancements that are really
catching emacs up to what most would expect from the worlds greatest
editor, including -

        * Improved support for UTF-8 and other character sets
        * Anti-aliased fonts and support for better font handling using
          xft, otf and n17m
        * Support for dbus
        * User friendly interface to GNU PG
        * Some new useful packages, such as org-mode, nxml-mode, etc
        * A dired like mode for viewing processes in a similar way to
        * top
        * enhanced line wrapping options and more options in the option
          window to do things like set the default font
        * New completions and screen centering/moving features
        * Improved TRAMP 

and lots more. Going on history, it will probably be a while before
version 23 is released as the next stable version. However, as already
mentioned, I find it stable enough to use daily at work and home. 

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[David Combs]

In article <87zlmptvry.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au>,
Tim X  <timx@nospam.dev.null> wrote:
>"sashang@gmail.com" <sashang@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Is there support for anti-aliased fonts in emacs? I installed emacs a
>> few days ago and tried to use it but found that the fonts were
>> rendered poorly. Some searching of the net revealed that I had to get
>> a special snapshot installed (apt-get install emacs-snapshot-gtk) to
>> get anti-aliased fonts. I find this surprising considering that it's
>> 2008 and every other application I use supports anti-aliased fonts.
>
>What you are after has been introduced only in the CVS branch of
>emacs. I run the CVS version daily and its very stable most of the
>time. The emacs-snapshot is a recent snapshot of the CVS head and works
>well. None of the stable e.g. released versions of emacs prior to the 23
>CVS branch have anti-aliased font support. 
>
>The new CVS version has a lot of nice new enhancements that are really
>catching emacs up to what most would expect from the worlds greatest
>editor, including -
>
>        * Improved support for UTF-8 and other character sets
>        * Anti-aliased fonts and support for better font handling using
>          xft, otf and n17m
>        * Support for dbus
>        * User friendly interface to GNU PG
>        * Some new useful packages, such as org-mode, nxml-mode, etc
>        * A dired like mode for viewing processes in a similar way to
>        * top
>        * enhanced line wrapping options and more options in the option
>          window to do things like set the default font
>        * New completions and screen centering/moving features
>        * Improved TRAMP 
>
>and lots more. Going on history, it will probably be a while before
>version 23 is released as the next stable version. However, as already
>mentioned, I find it stable enough to use daily at work and home. 
>
>Tim
>
>-- 
>tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au

Please, where do you get this thing?


David

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Joost Diepenmaat]

dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:

> In article <87zlmptvry.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au>,
> Tim X  <timx@nospam.dev.null> wrote:

>>What you are after has been introduced only in the CVS branch of
>>emacs. I run the CVS version daily and its very stable most of the
>>time. The emacs-snapshot is a recent snapshot of the CVS head and works
>>well. None of the stable e.g. released versions of emacs prior to the 23
>>CVS branch have anti-aliased font support. 
>
> Please, where do you get this thing?

assuming you've got cvs installed, this is how I build mine on linux:

$ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/emacs co emacs
$ cd emacs
$ make clean 
$ ./configure --with-xpm --with-tiff --with-jpeg --with-png --with-rsvg \
  --with-x-toolkit=gtk && make bootstrap && make -j 4

XFT (anti-aliased fonts) and unicode support is enabled by default. If
all that succeeds, test emacs with:

$ ./src/emacs

if that works: install

$ sudo install

you now have a new emacs in /usr/local/bin/emacs

-- 
Joost Diepenmaat | blog: http://joost.zeekat.nl/ | work: http://zeekat.nl/

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Dan Espen]

Joost Diepenmaat <joost@zeekat.nl> writes:

> dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:
>
>> In article <87zlmptvry.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au>,
>> Tim X  <timx@nospam.dev.null> wrote:
>
>>>What you are after has been introduced only in the CVS branch of
>>>emacs. I run the CVS version daily and its very stable most of the
>>>time. The emacs-snapshot is a recent snapshot of the CVS head and works
>>>well. None of the stable e.g. released versions of emacs prior to the 23
>>>CVS branch have anti-aliased font support. 
>>
>> Please, where do you get this thing?
>
> assuming you've got cvs installed, this is how I build mine on linux:
>
> $ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/emacs co emacs
> $ cd emacs
> $ make clean 
> $ ./configure --with-xpm --with-tiff --with-jpeg --with-png --with-rsvg \
>   --with-x-toolkit=gtk && make bootstrap && make -j 4

"make clean" would only work if you've previously done a "./configure"
in this directory.

On a subsequent CVS updates,
"make distclean" might be safer.

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Tim X]

Dan Espen <daneNO@MORE.mk.SPAMtelcordia.com> writes:

> Joost Diepenmaat <joost@zeekat.nl> writes:
>
>> dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:
>>
>>> In article <87zlmptvry.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au>,
>>> Tim X  <timx@nospam.dev.null> wrote:
>>
>>>>What you are after has been introduced only in the CVS branch of
>>>>emacs. I run the CVS version daily and its very stable most of the
>>>>time. The emacs-snapshot is a recent snapshot of the CVS head and works
>>>>well. None of the stable e.g. released versions of emacs prior to the 23
>>>>CVS branch have anti-aliased font support. 
>>>
>>> Please, where do you get this thing?
>>
>> assuming you've got cvs installed, this is how I build mine on linux:
>>
>> $ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/emacs co emacs
>> $ cd emacs
>> $ make clean 
>> $ ./configure --with-xpm --with-tiff --with-jpeg --with-png --with-rsvg \
>>   --with-x-toolkit=gtk && make bootstrap && make -j 4
>
> "make clean" would only work if you've previously done a "./configure"
> in this directory.
>
> On a subsequent CVS updates,
> "make distclean" might be safer.
>
correct. Until you have run ./configure, you don't actually have a
real makefile (thats part of what configure does), so a make clean or
any other make target won't work until at least one ./configure has been
done. 

I personally think its better, after the first build, to do the make
distclean *before* doing the cvs update. 

Note to that after you have done the first initial CVS check-out (co),
you don't have to do it again. I just cd into the emacs source directory
and issue 'cvs update'. its a lot faster than dragging down the whole
thing again.

Also, you don't need the directives for GTK anymore as that is
now the default. You also don't need the directives for the different
image support as they are automatically added if configure finds the
libraries. I only use --enable-font-backend and --prefix and I could
omit prefix as I think the default is /usr/local. Even the
--enable-font-backend may not be necessary anymore, so you can probably
get buy with just ./configure

tim
-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Tim X]

dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:

> In article <87zlmptvry.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au>,
> Tim X  <timx@nospam.dev.null> wrote:
>>"sashang@gmail.com" <sashang@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> Is there support for anti-aliased fonts in emacs? I installed emacs a
>>> few days ago and tried to use it but found that the fonts were
>>> rendered poorly. Some searching of the net revealed that I had to get
>>> a special snapshot installed (apt-get install emacs-snapshot-gtk) to
>>> get anti-aliased fonts. I find this surprising considering that it's
>>> 2008 and every other application I use supports anti-aliased fonts.
>>
>>What you are after has been introduced only in the CVS branch of
>>emacs. I run the CVS version daily and its very stable most of the
>>time. The emacs-snapshot is a recent snapshot of the CVS head and works
>>well. None of the stable e.g. released versions of emacs prior to the 23
>>CVS branch have anti-aliased font support. 
>>
>>The new CVS version has a lot of nice new enhancements that are really
>>catching emacs up to what most would expect from the worlds greatest
>>editor, including -
>>
>>        * Improved support for UTF-8 and other character sets
>>        * Anti-aliased fonts and support for better font handling using
>>          xft, otf and n17m
>>        * Support for dbus
>>        * User friendly interface to GNU PG
>>        * Some new useful packages, such as org-mode, nxml-mode, etc
>>        * A dired like mode for viewing processes in a similar way to
>>        * top
>>        * enhanced line wrapping options and more options in the option
>>          window to do things like set the default font
>>        * New completions and screen centering/moving features
>>        * Improved TRAMP 
>>
>>and lots more. Going on history, it will probably be a while before
>>version 23 is released as the next stable version. However, as already
>>mentioned, I find it stable enough to use daily at work and home. 
>>
>>Tim
>>
>>-- 
>>tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au
>
> Please, where do you get this thing?
>

From the emacs cvs repository at savannah e.g.

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/emacs co emacs

then I just do a 

cd emacs
./configure --enable-font-backend --prefix=/usr/local

check to see if configure finds all the necessary libraries (as reported
in the output from configure) If all is well

make bootstrap

and if all goes well, test by running src/emacs and if that all looks
good

su or sudo to get root privs and do 

make install

If configure reports that it isn't going to support xft, otf etc (the
libraries used to provide anti-aliasing and enhanced font support),
check the INSTALL file to find out what additional libraries you
need. Note that I'm not sure if the --enable-font-backend is still
required - I think it may now do that by default, but have not verified
this. 



Tim
-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[David Combs]

THANKS FOR ALL THE RESPONSES ("FOLLOWUPS")!


David

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Rupert Swarbrick]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 759 bytes --]

Ian Eure <ian@digg.com> writes:

> While it is 2008, the emacs version which comes with Debian Etch is
> 21.4, which is quite old. Emacs 21 was first released in 2001, and the
> first version of Emacs 22 was in 2007.
>
> I don't use Linux anymore, but I'd expect that recent Emacs packages
> support AA fine.
>
> Long story short, this is a Debian problem, not an Emacs problem.

... as a long-time debian user, I feel I should just cut in with a
knee-jerk defence: The debian developers are currently in the process of
refining and polishing a new release, Lenny.

I personally use debian unstable, which currently looks something like
how Lenny will and "apt-cache show emacs" gives the output below. Emacs
will shortly be 22.2+2-3 (!) in Debian.

Rupert



[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/plain, Size: 799 bytes --]

Package: emacs
Priority: optional
Section: editors
Installed-Size: 48
Maintainer: Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org>
Architecture: all
Source: emacs22
Version: 22.2+2-3
Provides: editor, emacsen, info-browser, mail-reader, news-reader
Depends: emacs22 | emacs22-gtk | emacs22-nox
Filename: pool/main/e/emacs22/emacs_22.2+2-3_all.deb
Size: 19564
MD5sum: d5f21152b0b334a3f6fe7ba622d7f602
SHA1: 7bebebf5df8cc0a20ef4ce9dd1dab481e29a877f
SHA256: 52727b53d384248e00f681079804b15428bf0df49854bddcbada2e9bd49c55db
Description: The GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
 GNU Emacs is the extensible self-documenting text editor.
 This is a metapackage which will always depend on the latest Emacs
 release.
Tag: devel::editor, role::dummy, role::metapackage, special::meta, suite::emacs, suite::gnu, use::editing


[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 314 bytes --]

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 03.09.2008 um 19:10 schrieb Rupert Swarbrick:

> Emacs will shortly be 22.2+2-3 (!) in Debian.


These stable versions do not support font anti-aliasing. GTK can  
produce nice menus, but it's recent GNU Emacs 23.0.60 (and before  
23.0.50) from CVS that have the Xft patch incorporated and show  
"strange" looking, i.e., anti-aliased text in the windows, buffers,  
echo areas.

--
Greetings

   Pete

The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day they  
start selling vacuum cleaners.
				– Ernest Jan Plugge

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Ian Eure]

On Sep 3, 2008, at 10:10 AM, Rupert Swarbrick wrote:

> Ian Eure <ian@digg.com> writes:
>>
>> Long story short, this is a Debian problem, not an Emacs problem.
>
> ... as a long-time debian user, I feel I should just cut in with a
> knee-jerk defence: The debian developers are currently in the  
> process of
> refining and polishing a new release, Lenny.
>
I wasn't attacking. I'm a longtime Debian user, and a former Debian  
developer. The problem of balancing stability vs. recent software is  
not a new one, and should be well-known to any Debian user.

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Evans Winner]

Ian Eure <ian@digg.com> writes:

    I don't use Linux anymore, but I'd expect that recent
    Emacs packages support AA fine.

Just out of curiosity... what do you use?

In any case, I have been compiling Emacs from CVS on various
flavors of GNU/Linux for at least a couple of years now.  On
a very few occasions I have had a problem, but in every case
I just don't do `make install' and wait a few days and the
problem gets fixed.  By and large it does work with no
problems.  I don't know how easy it is to compile Emacs on
MS Windows, but Lennart Borgman's EmacsW32 package is
pre-compiled and is a version 23 compile.

I have had problems attempting to compile on GNU/Hurd (the
one and only reason I am not using Hurd right now: no Emacs
= I don't use it) and some BSD variants, though I haven't
tried that hard on BSD.

Re: anti-aliased fonts

[Ian Eure]

On Sep 3, 2008, at 12:56 PM, Evans Winner wrote:

> Ian Eure <ian@digg.com> writes:
>
>    I don't use Linux anymore, but I'd expect that recent
>    Emacs packages support AA fine.
>
> Just out of curiosity... what do you use?
>
Mac OS X. Aquamacs and Carbon Emacs both support antialiased fonts.


> In any case, I have been compiling Emacs from CVS on various
> flavors of GNU/Linux for at least a couple of years now.  On
> a very few occasions I have had a problem, but in every case
> I just don't do `make install' and wait a few days and the
> problem gets fixed.  By and large it does work with no
> problems.  I don't know how easy it is to compile Emacs on
> MS Windows, but Lennart Borgman's EmacsW32 package is
> pre-compiled and is a version 23 compile.
>
It's pretty straightforward on OS X, too. I've compiled a few 22.x  
nightlies to track down some freezing bugs lately.