Ubuntu Font Family

Which is the correct sub-pixel font rendering setting?

Asked by linuxsapien

There are four main font rendering engines within Ubuntu.

One will find these in the "appearance Preferences", then the "Font" tab.

If set to "Sub-Pixel Smoothing", and if one clicks the "details" button, there we will find the "Sub-pixel Order".

The question really, is, how does one know which way the LCD monitor is displaying these?.. By selecting each there is a very subtle change, but from what I gather, its the RGB and BGR that achieve what i would consider "best". Though I do understand that the vertical display has a slight top and bottom "blur". What is this trying to do to the font?

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Paul Sladen (sladen) said : 		#1

Most modern TFTs are arranged with sub-pixels in the order 'Red-Green-Blue;Red-Green-Blue' (RGB) running horizontally left-to-right. This will be correct in about 90% of cases.

The other settings are there to deal with 'tablet'-type use cases. Putting a widescreen monitor arranged as portrait will mean that the pixels now go RGB *vertically*. If upside down they'd be BGR horizontally, and 90-degrees rotated again they would be BGR vertically.

Using a magnifying glass (or borrowing somebody's eyewear) should allow the chance to look at a section of white screen area close-up. The ordering should be visibly apparent.

On a CRT monitor with a triangular arrangement of sub-pixels, the settings are not useful. It is best to disable sub-pixel anti-aliasing when taking screenshots for publication, as unless your setup matches the viewer's setup, the effect will be counter-effective.

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