Subpixel font rendering for FC13 (Ubuntu Patches)

anshuljain · #1 27th May 2010, 12:27 PM

Hi all,
Tried out the latest Fedora 13 release for kicks, and seem to be liking it so far

I'm an openSUSE user and created some RPMs (on openSUSE) for myself which have the Ubuntu font rendering patches in them. I played around with the Fedora RPMs and managed to patch freetype-freeworld, cairo, fontconfig and Xft to achieve subpixel hinting on par with Ubuntu

I wanted to share them with the Fedora community, if interested. Is there any place like an openSUSE Build Service for Fedora where I can host them...or maybe some community site that can host them? A screenshot of my desktop:-

I'm using Calibri font with slight hinting, 96 dpi and Xft filter set to hintslight.

-Anshul

marvin_ita · #2 27th May 2010, 01:00 PM

Hello,
read the guidelines at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/Join

Note that if your package has a license not compatible with fedora guidelines you can use another package submission system like rpmfusion.

Mattia

leigh123linux · #3 27th May 2010, 01:03 PM

Try setting up a dropbox repo.

https://www.dropbox.com/home

Zanpactou · #4 27th May 2010, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anshuljain

Hi all,
Tried out the latest Fedora 13 release for kicks, and seem to be liking it so far

I'm an openSUSE user and created some RPMs (on openSUSE) for myself which have the Ubuntu font rendering patches in them. I played around with the Fedora RPMs and managed to patch freetype-freeworld, cairo, fontconfig and Xft to achieve subpixel hinting on par with Ubuntu

Great but there is a very good reason why Fedora doesn't do that.
The technology is patented. Distributing software which does that in countries which recognise software patents requires a license from the patent holder.
Patent licensing costs money.

Redistribute it at your own risk.

Thanks,
Zanpactou

KStorm · #5 27th May 2010, 06:14 PM

Keep us posted; the screenshot looks great.

anshuljain · #6 28th May 2010, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanpactou

Great but there is a very good reason why Fedora doesn't do that.
The technology is patented. Distributing software which does that in countries which recognise software patents requires a license from the patent holder.
Patent licensing costs money.

Redistribute it at your own risk.

Thanks,
Zanpactou

Thanks, I'm aware of the history behind these patches. Software patents are not applicable in my country- India. Users are advised to check for their countries before installing these RPMS.

I'll probably setup a dropbox repo and host it there sometime soon. I have built only 32-bit RPMs and not 64-bit as I do not have access to a 64-bit system. However, I'll put the SRPMs and interested users can rebuild it themselves.

Edit: The theme in the screenshot is the Shiki Brave theme with an SVN version of the murrine engine+ubuntu lucid patch. I wont be able to put the SRPMS today, only the 32-bit RPMS.

brebs · #7 28th May 2010, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anshuljain

advised to check for their countries

IMO, users couldn't care less about the potential patent issues (which Ubuntu of course find acceptable) - they want decent-looking fonts, dammit

Obligatory links: huge Gentoo fonts thread and my old Fedora 9 thread.

pete_1967 · #8 28th May 2010, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brebs

IMO, users couldn't care less about the potential patent issues (which Ubuntu of course find acceptable) - they want decent-looking fonts, dammit

Tell that to the patent holder company's lawyers, I'm sure they understand and drop all demands, threats and charges against you, the distributor of their patented technology.

brebs · #9 28th May 2010, 09:53 AM

OMG, it's MS knocking on my front door! I know it's MS because they're wearing black jeather jackets and jackboots. Quick, delete all my patented files!

Yeah, right

Notice that MS hasn't sued Ubuntu. It doesn't look like Ubuntu has ever been sued for anything. I think patent holders are roughly 2.5 zillion times more likely to go after Ubuntu, rather than me and my custom-patched builds. I suppose I could say "sorry" and offer them half a Smartie as full and final payment for any infringement, if they insisted.

Users are not distributors. I was talking about *users*.

Edit: And just to add more fuel to the patent-paranoia fire, there's this interesting fedora-devel-list post.
Edit2: Maybe MS haven't sued, because they would expect to lose ("prior art" or whatever-it's-called, in the Apple II).

Oponium · #10 28th May 2010, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brebs

OMG, it's MS knocking on my front door! I know it's MS because they're wearing black jeather jackets and jackboots. Quick, delete all my patented files!

Yeah, right

Notice that MS hasn't sued Ubuntu. It doesn't look like Ubuntu has ever been sued for anything. I think patent holders are roughly 2.5 zillion times more likely to go after Ubuntu, rather than me and my custom-patched builds. I suppose I could say "sorry" and offer them half a Smartie as full and final payment for any infringement, if they insisted.

Users are not distributors. I was talking about *users*.

he has a point.

Zanpactou · #11 29th May 2010, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oponium

he has a point.

Yeah, that both of you don't realise that Canonical license (Pay for) The technology from the patent holders, then ship it to you for free.
Doing so is detrimental to software innovation and free software.
It is also not economically sustainable.
RedHat would never put the Fedora community in such a position. It would be against Fedora's policy.

brebs · #12 29th May 2010, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanpactou

Canonical license (Pay for) The technology from the patent holders

In the context of this thread (i.e. font rendering)... got any evidence for that? I can't find any, and this article seems to contradict you. Heck, even an old diff for cairo from gnewsense contains the cleartype patches, with no mention of Microsoft's patent.

Zanpactou · #13 30th May 2010, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brebs

In the context of this thread (i.e. font rendering)... got any evidence for that? I can't find any, and this article seems to contradict you. Heck, even an old diff for cairo from gnewsense contains the cleartype patches, with no mention of Microsoft's patent.

They do it for h.264 and if they are not doing it for the true type patent holders, they should be doing so if they want to ship freetype2 with the bytecode interpreter on.
http://www.freetype.org/patents.html
It's Apple who are the main patent holders. Not Microsoft.

brebs · #14 30th May 2010, 07:45 PM

Let me repeat my question, since it is unanswered:

In the context of this thread (i.e. font rendering)... got any evidence for that?

H.264 is not relevant to font-rendering, so stay on-topic. Kindly note the word evidence above.

"Evidence" does NOT mean "my personal thoughts, backed up by nothing whatsoever." This is the Internet, we have google, and a zillion URLs to potentially link to - I'm expecting you (or someone else) to find a meaningful URL to back up your point.

For bonus points, you could explain why gnewsense also includes these patches

Zanpactou · #15 30th May 2010, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brebs

Let me repeat my question, since it is unanswered:

In the context of this thread (i.e. font rendering)... got any evidence for that?

H.264 is not relevant to font-rendering, so stay on-topic. Kindly note the word evidence above.

"Evidence" does NOT mean "my personal thoughts, backed up by nothing whatsoever." This is the Internet, we have google, and a zillion URLs to potentially link to - I'm expecting you (or someone else) to find a meaningful URL to back up your point.

For bonus points, you could explain why gnewsense also includes these patches

No body owes you anything mate. Please go and troll somewhere else.
If you don't even understand who holds the patent for the true type byte code interpreter, even after I have provided a link containing that information, providing you with any further information is utterly pointless. You have no use for it.
I am also willing to bet that you aren't involved in the Fedora project in any meaningful way either. You shouldn't be.
h.264 is a patented software technology and so is the true type byte code interpreter for comparison. If you fail to understand what a software patent is, there is no need for you to be involved any further in this thread talking about patents.

Thanks for taking the time to send this thread so wildly off topic just to try to further your pointless hate filled agenda. No one wants to talk to you. Bye bye.