gtk-font-hack

The gtk-font-hack is a patch against the GDK (distributed with the GTK). It smooths fonts in GTK and GNOME programs. As its name suggests, it is a hack and really font smoothing should be done in other ways. The patch will therefore not be included in the GDK distribution for the foreseeable future.

It works by drawing text on an off-screen buffer and then drawing it quarter size (half length) on to the screen. The result is that fonts appear to have been anti-aliased (badly) and a quarter of their normal size. Even unscalable fonts are smoothed. It would probably be more accurate to call the process "smudging".

If you use this program, contact me. I shall not continue development unless someone offers to help or it seems a bunch of people want me to. I haven't the time otherwise.

Issues to be fixed

Version 0.2-gtk-1.2.6

Beta (i.e. doesn't work properly but doesn't core dump on me any more).

I should appreciate help!

Changes

Known bugs

Please report bugs.

Please report bugs.

If you use this program, contact me. I shall not continue development unless someone offers to help or it seems a bunch of people want me to. I haven't the time otherwise.

Recipe

  1. Download
  2. Get GTK sources. Might not work on versions other than 1.2.6, but I'd guess it probably will on quite a range.
  3. Untar and patch (you might need GNU patch)
    % tar zxf /incoming/gtk-1.2.6.tar.gz
    % cd gtk-1.2.6
    % patch -p1 < /incoming/gtk-font-hack-0.2-gtk-1.2.6.diff
    
  4. configure; make, as usual.
  5. You can try it out without installing, by
    export LD_PRELOAD=$(PATH_TO_GTK_SOURCE)/gtk+-1.2.6/gdk/.libs/libgdk-1.2.so
    
    and then running your GTK/GNOME programs as usual (obviously from this same terminal).
  6. You should double the point size of the fonts in your gtkrc, to get the same size displayed. Ditto for any other fonts you might use.

Version 0.1-gtk-1.2.6

Alpha (i.e. doesn't work properly).

I should appreciate help!

Known bugs

Please report bugs.

Please report bugs.

Recipe

  1. Download
  2. Get GTK sources. Might not work on versions other than 1.2.6, but I'd guess it probably will on quite a range.
  3. Untar and patch (you might need GNU patch)
    % tar zxf /incoming/gtk-1.2.6.tar.gz
    % cd gtk-1.2.6
    % patch -p1 < /incoming/gtk-font-hack-0.1-gtk-1.2.6.diff
    
  4. configure; make, as usual.
  5. You can try it out without installing, by
    export LD_PRELOAD=$(PATH_TO_GTK_SOURCE)/gtk+-1.2.6/gdk/.libs/libgdk-1.2.so.0.5.1
    
    and then running your GTK/GNOME programs as usual (obviously from this same terminal).
  6. You should double the point size of the fonts in your gtkrc, to get the same size displayed. Ditto for any other fonts you might use.