OpenOffice with freetype bytecode interpreter?
Hi: Suse 7.3 I have learned that OpenOffice 1.0 and 1.0.1 have integrated the freetype library into OO, and of course the bytecode interpreter is turned off. Hence, TT fonts render poorly. It seems Mandrake has created a patch to fix this, but I'm wondering if any similar effort has been done on Suse. I am using the OO downloaded from openoffice.org, BTW, not a package from Suse. I am *not* interested in antialiasing fonts, but rather using the bytecode interpreter which causes the fonts to not have the choppy look. I use LCD monitors and don't like antialiasing anyway. But I want the fonts to look right. I am in the process of downloading the OO source package, and I would be willing to build it and apply the mods needed to get a bytecode enabled freetype compiled into it, with some help. With enough help, it is possible that I could make an .rpm and find a place to stick it for everyone to use (like maybe suse.com?) Thanks for comments. -- _____________________ Christopher R. Carlen crobc@earthlink.net Suse 7.3 Linux 2.4.10
I doubt there'd be much demand: antialiasing is already working perfectly in
OO 1.0.1 under SuSE 8.0.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Carlen"
Michael Carr wrote:
I doubt there'd be much demand: antialiasing is already working perfectly in OO 1.0.1 under SuSE 8.0.
But did you read my post? I am not interested in antialiasing, I am interested in hinting. In other words, turn off your antialiasing, and see how good it looks. On LCD monitors, antialiasing is not so desirable. On an LCD it is better to have the fonts not antialiased. Then, it is very helpful to have the hinting working properly or the fonts look choppy, or otherwise crummy. Now, I have learned that all one needs to do it run OpenOffice like this: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 ooffice1.0/soffice& and this will override the internally included freetype lib inside OO that *doesn't* have the hinting done but *does* antialias, do you realize the difference? So, perhaps Suse 8.0 had put a wrapper around OO that uses this library preload. Or perhaps they don't, and you think your fonts are the best they can get because you are using antialiasing, but if you turned off antialiasing and looked at them on an LCD you'd see that they look marginal. Good day! _____________________ Christopher R. Carlen crobc@earthlink.net Suse 7.3 Linux 2.4.10
Forgive my flippancy, Chris: it's simply that when I showed your query to a colleague who uses both 8.0 and OO 1.0.1 on a laptop -- albeit at improbably high res -- he didn't seem to recognise the problem you were describing. Take care, Michael
I have always been unimpressed by the look of Open Office and its predecessors, and your advice on preloading works wonders. For others that might be persuaded, there is a little gotcha. The LD_PRELOAD command only works as is from a terminal command line. If you try to run it within a KDE menu, it does not work. To get it to work from a KDE menu, a separate two line script is needed. #!/bin/bash LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 \ /usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/swriter This script is called 'preload-swriter' and is placed in /usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program. Remember to be root and set the permissions to 0755! The KDE menu 'Command'entry must be changed from: "/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/swriter" to "/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/preload-swriter" et voilà! The process has to be repeated for other modules in the OO suite (such as scalc. Hope that this is useful. Basil Fowler On Friday 26 Jul 2002 01:42, Chris Carlen wrote:
Michael Carr wrote:
I doubt there'd be much demand: antialiasing is already working perfectly in OO 1.0.1 under SuSE 8.0.
But did you read my post? I am not interested in antialiasing, I am interested in hinting. In other words, turn off your antialiasing, and see how good it looks. On LCD monitors, antialiasing is not so desirable. On an LCD it is better to have the fonts not antialiased. Then, it is very helpful to have the hinting working properly or the fonts look choppy, or otherwise crummy.
Now, I have learned that all one needs to do it run OpenOffice like this:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 ooffice1.0/soffice&
and this will override the internally included freetype lib inside OO that *doesn't* have the hinting done but *does* antialias, do you realize the difference?
So, perhaps Suse 8.0 had put a wrapper around OO that uses this library preload. Or perhaps they don't, and you think your fonts are the best they can get because you are using antialiasing, but if you turned off antialiasing and looked at them on an LCD you'd see that they look marginal.
Good day!
_____________________ Christopher R. Carlen crobc@earthlink.net Suse 7.3 Linux 2.4.10
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Or easier way: edit the /usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/soffice, and add these 2 lines: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 export LD_PRELOAD This way, don't need to change the KDE menu. Regards, Verdi On Saturday 27 July 2002 07:13, Basil Fowler wrote:
To get it to work from a KDE menu, a separate two line script is needed.
#!/bin/bash LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 \ /usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/swriter
This script is called 'preload-swriter' and is placed in /usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program. Remember to be root and set the permissions to 0755!
The KDE menu 'Command'entry must be changed from:
"/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/swriter"
to
"/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/program/preload-swriter"
et voilà!
The process has to be repeated for other modules in the OO suite (such as scalc.
Hope that this is useful.
Basil Fowler
participants (4)
-
Basil Fowler -
Chris Carlen -
Michael Carr -
Verdi March