Bugzilla – Bug 129081
sans font defaults to Verdana when MSfonts are downloaded
Last modified: 2006-11-10 16:42:01 UTC
The default font sans-serif is currently mapped to Verdana, if the Microsoft fonts are downloaded via YOU. As Verdana is not Helvetica compatible, this gives users a lot of headaches, as the metrics of the default font doesn't match the most often used metric. I have an example of an pdf that looks bad in kpdf, because it falls down to sans-serif, while xpdf explicitely loads Nimbus Sans, which is Helvetica compatible. All Helvetica compatible fonts should come first in the default list. The same goes for serif and monospace, of course.
Can you please attach the example pdf for reference?
I submitted the following change to STABLE: ++++++ suse-post-user.conf ++++++ --- /work/SRC/all/BASE/fontconfig/suse-post-user.conf 2005-09-27 14:54:36.000000000 +0200 +++ /sakura/mfabian/suse-packages/STABLE/fontconfig/suse-post-user.conf 2005-10-20 11:58:41.000000000 +0200 @@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ <prefer> <family>Times New Roman</family> <family>Thorndale AMT</family> - <family>SUSE Serif</family> <family>Nimbus Roman No9 L</family> + <family>SUSE Serif</family> + <family>Bitstream Vera Serif</family> <family>Luxi Serif</family> <family>Likhan</family> <family>FreeSerif</family> - <family>Bitstream Vera Serif</family> <family>Times</family> <family>TSCu_Times</family> <family>BPG Chveulebrivi</family> @@ -39,15 +39,15 @@ <alias> <family>sans-serif</family> <prefer> - <family>Verdana</family> <family>Arial</family> <family>Albany AMT</family> + <family>Nimbus Sans L</family> + <family>Verdana</family> <family>SUSE Sans</family> + <family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family> <family>Luxi Sans</family> <family>Mukti Narrow</family> <family>FreeSans</family> - <family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family> - <family>Nimbus Sans L</family> <family>Helvetica</family> <family>TSCu_Paranar</family> <family>BPG Glaho</family> @@ -67,15 +67,15 @@ <alias> <family>monospace</family> <prefer> - <family>Andale Mono</family> <family>Courier New</family> <family>Cumberland AMT</family> - <family>SUSE Sans Mono</family> <family>Nimbus Mono L</family> + <family>Andale Mono</family> + <family>SUSE Sans Mono</family> + <family>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</family> <family>Luxi Mono</family> <family>Mukti Narrow</family> <family>FreeMono</family> - <family>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</family> <family>Terafik</family> <family>TSCu_Paranar</family> <family>BPG Courier</family>
This will not change the default fonts slightly: - If the Microsoft webfonts are installed: + "Arial" will be used for "sans-serif" instead of "Verdana". "Arial" is metric compatible to "Helvetica", "Verdana" is not, it is wider. + "Courier New" will be used for "monospace" instead of "Andale Mono". + no change for "serif" - If the Microsoft fonts are *not* installed but the Agfa fonts are installed: + no change for any of "serif", "sans-serif", and "monospace" - If neither the Microsoft fonts nor the Agfa fonts are installed: + "Nimbus Roman No9 L" will be used for "serif" instead of "SUSE Serif" because "Nimbus Roman No9 L" is metric compatible to "Times". + "Nimbus Sans L" will be used instead of "SUSE Sans" for "sans-serif" because "Nimbus Sans L" is metric compatible to "Helvetica". + "Nimbus Mono L" will be used instead of "SUSE Sans Mono" because it is compatible to "Courier".
Closing as FIXED because the above change is submitted to STABLE.
The problem in kpdf seems to have been fixed in the meantime. Matthias and me just tried and could not reproduce the problem in kpdf anymore. If a pdf-document, which specifies "Helvetica" but does not embed the font, is displayed with kpdf, it is displayed correctly no matter which font is made the default for "sans-serif". kpdf requests "Helvetica" (probably it didn't do that before) and then the rule in /etc/fonts/conf.d/30-urw-aliases.conf defines "Nimbus Sans L" as a suitable replacement for "Helvetica". Therefore, I believe that we are free now to choose what looks nicest as the defaults for "sans-serif", "serif", and "monospace", we don't have to choose fonts which are metric compatible to the Adobe fonts any more.
fontconfig package with defaults changed as follows submitted to STABLE: Index: suse-post-user.conf =================================================================== --- suse-post-user.conf (revision 47) +++ suse-post-user.conf (working copy) @@ -12,10 +12,10 @@ <prefer> <family>Times New Roman</family> <family>Thorndale AMT</family> - <family>Nimbus Roman No9 L</family> <family>DejaVu Serif</family> <family>SUSE Serif</family> <family>Bitstream Vera Serif</family> + <family>Nimbus Roman No9 L</family> <family>Luxi Serif</family> <family>Likhan</family> <family>Frank Ruehl CLM</family> @@ -50,11 +50,11 @@ <prefer> <family>Arial</family> <family>Albany AMT</family> - <family>Nimbus Sans L</family> <family>Verdana</family> <family>DejaVu Sans</family> <family>SUSE Sans</family> <family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family> + <family>Nimbus Sans L</family> <family>Luxi Sans</family> <family>Mukti Narrow</family> <family>Nachlieli CLM</family> @@ -85,13 +85,13 @@ <alias> <family>monospace</family> <prefer> - <family>Courier New</family> - <family>Cumberland AMT</family> - <family>Nimbus Mono L</family> <family>Andale Mono</family> <family>DejaVu Sans Mono</family> <family>SUSE Sans Mono</family> <family>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</family> + <family>Courier New</family> + <family>Cumberland AMT</family> + <family>Nimbus Mono L</family> <family>Luxi Mono</family> <family>Mukti Narrow</family> <family>Miriam Mono CLM</family> ============================================================