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Font rendering on GNOME vs KDE (lemdro.id)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Is it just me or fonts really look better on GNOME and other (gtk DEs)? With the same font smoothing/anti-aliasing settings, text in GNOME is smoother and more similar to MacOS fonts.

A good example is Cantrell font. It looks way better in GNOME than in KDE.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I was gonna call antialiasing and smoothing settings, but

With the same font smoothing/anti-aliasing settings

Where did you set those? Do other fonts like Noto / Liberation also look different on Gnome? Is it a difference between GTK vs Qt rather than which DE it runs on?

I don't have Gnome so I can't compare directly, but on KDE fonts look identical between GTK and Qt applications, and the compositor isn't involved with font rendering. Which leads me to, some settings have to be different on Gnome vs KDE.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I set those using the Sustem Settings (KDE) and Tweaks (GNOME). To me all fonts look a bit different between Gnome and KDE.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Choose a font and size, then do screenshots of the same word on kde and gnome. Then open gimp, put each screenshot in a layer, align them and make it show the difference. Then you objectively know if and how they're different

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Can you share the exact settings and screenshots to compare?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Are you using gnome x11 or gnome wayland and plasma x11 or plasma wayland?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The settings are not an exact match between desktops, even though they are named the same. The backend library, Freetype, that renders fonts is the same, however.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I thought fonts always looked better on QT DEs.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Take a screenshot?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The backend should be the same (Freetype)… only difference I can think of is that GNOME uses Wayland by default while KDE defaults to X11 and offers Wayland as an option. Do you have a HiDPI screen?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use X11 on both DEs with an Apple Cinema Display 27".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I use X11 on both DEs with an Apple Cinema Display 27".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I tend to think it’s a difference between GTK and Qt – anecdotal, but I get (what I see as) better rendering in LXDE, XFCE, and Gnome and a more heavier hand in LXQT and KDE – I haven’t done any decent comparisons comparing Qt apps inside Gnome or GTK apps inside KDE to give any sort of baseline though …

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm just upset that they took bitmap font support away from me angery

Low res displays unusable now.