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Using XFree86-4.0.1-0.43 and a CT65555 card, TrueType and Type1 fonts are scaled so that resx = 75 and resy = 100. Other fonts (bitmapped?) are unaffected. The problem appears to be independent on whether the font directories are in XF86Config or served from xfs, or whether the freetype or xtt module (or neither) is loaded. XFree86-SVGA-3.3.6-32 displays the fonts correctly when served from XFree86-xfs-4.0.1-0.43. Similarly, ftview shows the TrueType fonts correctly. The problem also existed with the XFree86 4 from Pinstripe, viz. XFree86-4.0.1-0.37.
Does the problem still appear in XFree86-4.0.2-12.1 located at: ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris/xfree86
Problem still evident with XFree86-4.0.2-12.1, fonts served using xtt and freetype modules and via xfs.
Please attach your X server log, XF86Config-4 and your /etc/X11/fs/config using the link below.
Problem seems to have gone away, now using XFree86-4.0.3-8 and XFree86-xfs-4.0.3-8. TrueType fonts, served from xfs, scale correctly. *shrug*
Created attachment 16488 [details] XFree86.0.log
Created attachment 16489 [details] XF86Config-4
Created attachment 16490 [details] /etc/X11/fs/config
Sorry, I lie. I restarted X and the problem reappeared as originally reported (all scalable fonts, at least according to gfontsel) with X resolution of 75 and Y resolution of 100, leading to vertically elongated characters/glyphs. I've attached the logs you requsted.
I'm not the guy who logged the bug, and I don't have a service agreement, but I just want to add for the record that I'm seeing this with a relatively clean (I did install Ximian, but Ximian doesn't touch that stuff, and I see the same thing if I use KDE) 7.1 install and a Matrox G450 card using the XFree86 mga server and the beta mga.o driver from Matrox. I also see the problem with the stock XFree86 packages and the XFree86 from Mike Harris' test builds (4.0.3-14). If I bring up gfontsel & select a TT font, it tells me that the Resolution X is 75, but the Resolution Y is 100, and if I bring up xfontsel and preselect a TT font maker like Microsoft or Monotype, I can only choose those resolutions. Interestingly enough, this problem was not seen before I upgraded the card from a Voodoo3, so this appears (on the face of it) to be a problem that's revealed only with certain drivers.
Same thing here. I'm using the stock RedHat XF86Config and /etc/X11/fs/config. I have a Matrox G200. Perhaps the problem is related to DPMS: XFree86 4.0.3 detects my screen, and the physical dimensions of it. From this it deduces the dpi-setting of the display, as shown by xdpyinfo: ... screen #0: dimensions: 1152x864 pixels (333x241 millimeters) resolution: 88x91 dots per inch ... I didn't find how to set the dpi to another value.
I found a workaround! When I read ben.de.rydt's comments, I noticed he is running at 1152x864. I've been running at the same resolution excusively for what seems like years. I changed the resolution to 1024x768 (telinit 3, edited XF86Config-4 by hand, telinit 5) and the fonts are now showing properly at 75x75. They're not elongated any more. Now, that's *all* I can choose in xfontsel, just as before I could only choose 75x100, but at least this is reasonable. xdpyinfo shows 78x81 dpi. My guess is that the TrueType renderer is rounding off the dpi info to the nearest value. 78x81's closest match would be 75x75, while it appears that it's rounding 88x91 to 75x100. If it's going to do that, it really should (IMO) round so that the X and Y resolutions are identical. I haven't tried other resolutions (death before 800x600, even in the name of science). I'd be willing to bet that a higher resolution would result in 100x100 rendering.
Tested hypothesis -- at 1280x1024, the only TT resolution available is 100x100 -- I strongly suspect renderer is rounding the resolution and is non constrained to keep the resolutions equal.
Very weird. I don't see how that can be due to X itself, I suspect it has to do with the toolkit. What happens if you specify a given resolution to xlsfonts -l? Try: xlsfonts -l -fn '-monotype-arial-medium-r-normal--*-120-110-110-p-*-iso8859-1'
$ xlsfonts -l -fn '-monotype-arial-medium-r-normal--*-120-110-110-p-*-iso8859-1' DIR MIN MAX EXIST DFLT PROP ASC DESC NAME --> 0 255 some 0 34 16 4 -monotype-arial-medium-r-normal--18-120-110-110-p-0-iso8859-1 However, if I do this when running at 1152x864: $ xlsfonts -l -fn '-monotype-arial-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1' DIR MIN MAX EXIST DFLT PROP ASC DESC NAME --> 0 255 some 0 34 12 3 -monotype-arial-medium-r-normal--17-120-75-100-p-0-iso8859-1 Note that the default resolution displayed is 75 x100. It's scaling it correctly based on (my hypothesis) the best guess for the values xdpyinfo is returning: screen #0: dimensions: 1152x864 pixels (333x241 millimeters) resolution: 88x91 dots per inch However, the fonts look much better when they're scaled proportionally in the X and Y directions, especially in this case were one dimension is rounded up and the other rounded down. If this would give 90x90, I think we'd all be in better shape.
If X cannot probe your monitor correctly then it won't scale fonts correctly unless you specify the display width/height for dpi in the config file.
AFter playing with this somewhat, I agree that it's not a bug, it's a residual artifact resulting from the different ways X and TT fonts are designed to be used. The fonts are scaling as correctly as they can be scaled. X is probing the monitor correctly in these cases, but it seems to be able to handle only 75dpi or 100dpi in the end. This means that depending on the monitor resolution, you'll get 75x75dpi, 75x100dpi, 100x75dpi, or 100x100dpi. (I've been able to generate each of these cases by tweaking the screen resolution.) As the X fonts aren't available in the mixed-resolution case, they'll display in one or the other symmetrical resolutions, while the TrueType fonts will display in the asymmetrical resolution, creating the appearance that the TT fonts are "squished". To fully "solve" this problem, X would need to support more symmetric font resolutions (80x80, 85x85, 90x90, etc. -- not a nice solution) or always round the screen resolution symmetrically (80x91 would go to 75x75 or 100x100 instead of 75x100 -- also not a good solution). Tweaking the resolution itself or overriding DCC in the config file by specifying the DisplaySize (in millimeters in the Monitor stanza) seem to be the best solutions. Thanks, folks!