More information.... 1. The SuSE installation did not install 100dpi fonts by default, I have now installed them, but there is not a lot of difference. 2. It seems the problem is with the anti-aliasing. When smaller point sized truetype fonts are rendered (with aa enabled), if the vertical is less than two pixels wide then there is a grey or light blue "shadow" added to the right or left of the vertical. If the point size or style causes the vertical to be two or more pixels wide then there is no "shadow". The net effect is to make the font verticals appear approx. 1.5 times thicker (similar to bold). I have tried various combinations of enabling hinting and excluding aa but haven't been able to achieve a good combination. 3. Adobe fonts seem fine, and don't have this extra thickening shadow at all point sizes. Does this mean anything to anyone? Would a screen capture of xmag be of use? Thanks again for all your help... Mike.