== Getting nice looking TrueType fonts on Fedora Core

Some TrueType fonts look significantly worse on some Linux distributions
than on Microsoft Windows or MacOS. This is due to the usual reason
that [[things suck FC4FirstIrritations]] on Linux: patents. TrueType
fonts can have special hints for looking good at low resolution, but
using those hints is apparently covered by some Apple patents in (some)
countries with software patents.

(For the gory details, see [[here
http://freetype.sourceforge.net/patents.html]].)

Pretty much everyone on Linux uses the FreeType library to render
TrueType fonts. FreeType has implementations of the patented stuff,
but Fedora Core (and I believe some other Linux distributions) build the
system FreeType libraries with it disabled due to the patent issues.

So to get nice looking TrueType fonts, all you need to do is rebuild the
FreeType RPMs with the patented bytecode interpreter enabled, like so:

# set up a [[sane RPM build environment RPMBuild]].
# get the FreeType source RPM and unpack it.
# find the line near the start of _freetype.spec_ that says '_%define
  [[without_bytecode_interpreter|]] 1_.' Change the 1 to a 0.
# change the _Release_ field to mark your change; I usually add '_.cks.0_'
  or the like to it.
# optionally, add an entry at the top of the _%changelog_ section about
  this.
# _rpmbuild -bb freetype.spec_ \\
  (you may need to install some -devel RPMs that it needs)
# update to your new FreeType RPM with '_rpm -U_' or the like.
# restart the X font server so that it's using the new FreeType shared
  library: quit X, then do _/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart_, then restart
  X.

On an [[x86_64|]] machine, you probably want to rebuild *both* the
native 64-bit RPM and the i386 version (and now you know why I was
looking into cross-build RPMs [[yesterday MockBuilding]]). Rebuilding
only the 64-bit RPM will leave any 32-bit programs that directly use
FreeType with bad-looking TrueType fonts; this includes OpenOffice,
ImageMagick, and a 32-bit Firefox (if you've installed one in order to
get Flash et al working).