NetBSD Problem Report #60991

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Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2026 23:21:09 +0000 (UTC)
From: nia@pkgsrc.org
Reply-To: nia@pkgsrc.org
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: fontconfig prefers Luxi Type1 fonts for Latin text, which are extremely ugly
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X-From4GNATS: "nia@pkgsrc.org via gnats" <gnats-admin@NetBSD.org>

>Number:         60991
>Category:       xsrc
>Synopsis:       fontconfig prefers Luxi Type1 fonts for Latin text, which are extremely ugly
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    xsrc-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Nov 10 23:25:01 +0000 2026
>Last-Modified:  Tue Nov 10 23:30:03 +0000 2026
>Originator:     nia
>Release:        netbsd-11, netbsd-10
>Organization:
The NetBSD Fontdation
>Environment:
>Description:
fontconfig's default configuration seems to prefer, of all fonts
installed with NetBSD, the Luxi Type1 fonts. These are an odd choice
since they seem to be difficult for freetype to render properly,
resulting in extremely ugly on-screen text.
>How-To-Repeat:
boot up freshly installed netbsd, then:

# startx
# pkg_add basilisk
# basilisk https://en.wikipedia.org

Observe extremely ugly font rendering.
>Fix:
Adjust xsrc/external/mit/fontconfig/dist/conf.d/60-latin.conf to remove
the Luxi entries.

Liberation Sans and Bitstream Vera Sans are both available in NetBSD
base and are much better choices.

A similar change unfortunately needs to be made in pkgsrc since
many applications will use fontconfig from pkgsrc, which overrides the
base system's configuration.

>Audit-Trail:
From: "Nia Alarie" <nia@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@gnats.NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/60991 CVS commit: xsrc/external/mit/fontconfig/dist/conf.d
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2026 23:28:22 +0000

 Module Name:	xsrc
 Committed By:	nia
 Date:		Tue Nov 10 23:28:22 UTC 2026

 Modified Files:
 	xsrc/external/mit/fontconfig/dist/conf.d: 60-latin.conf

 Log Message:
 Adjust fontconfig's default preference order to prefer Bitstream Vera
 and Liberation fonts over the Luxi Type1 fonts, which freetype struggles
 to render.  Helps make the default text rendering better in e.g.
 GTK applications and web browsers.

 XXX this change also needs to happen in pkgsrc.

 PR xsrc/60991: fontconfig prefers Luxi Type1 fonts for Latin text, which
 are extremely ugly


 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -u -r1.1.1.5 -r1.2 \
     xsrc/external/mit/fontconfig/dist/conf.d/60-latin.conf

 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.

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