Beautiful Linux

(version 0.2)

Introduction
Howto
Screenshots

Introduction

As I have stated in my blog, the default look of most Linux distros tends to be ugly. This is of course a matter of personal preference - some people like anti-aliasing, for instance, and some (like me) don't. And while Linux is about choices, it's also about knowledge. Turning a stock Slackware into what you see is a matter of minutes if you know what to do, but a matter of days if you have to Google around for it.

I consider this work in progress, because the results you can see in the screenshots have been build over months, and I did not write everything down. But I will add things as I recall them. If you find something missing, please email me.

Before applying any of these changes, have a look at those screenshots. If you like the results, go ahead.

I have not taken into account any possible legal issues here. You are invited to check them according to your national legislation.

Howto

So here are my recipies for a beautiful Linux. They are based on Slackware, but should be applicable for other distros as well.

Windows Fonts

I do recommend to install the Windows fonts. Some distros provide them (SuSE, Arch), some don't. If you own a copy of Windows, you can copy them over. This is how I do it:

create the directory
```
  mkdir /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/TTF_WIN
```

copy the files to this directory and make sure they are world-readable

  cd /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/TTF_WIN 
  cp <source>/*.ttf .
  cp <source>/*.TTF .
  chmod 444 *

issue the following commands to make the fonts available
```
  mkfontscale
  mkfontdir
  fc-cache
```

in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, Section "Files", add

  FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF_WIN"

restart X

Correct DPI value

There seems to be a bug in Xfree86 and Xorg where the correct DPI value is not always correctly calculated. In Section "Monitor", simply add the correct dimensions of the screen surface, in mm. If your screen is 30,4 by 22,8 cm, add the following:

  DisplaySize 304 228

In order to check the DPI value calculated, use the following command:

  xdpyinfo | grep resolution

Bytecode interpreter

Again, some distros come with the bytecode interpreter enabled, and some don't. Arch does, Slackware doesn't. For Slackware, you can

either
- get a precompiled Freetype package from Linuxpackages (there's one available for 10.1, at least)
- as of Slackware 11.0, rebuild the freetype package with the provided SlackBuild, by uncommenting one single line
- compile Freetype yourself, according to these instructions

modify /etc/fonts/local.conf like this:

  <?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
  <fontconfig>
    <dir>/usr/local/share/fonts</dir>
    <dir>/usr/share/fonts</dir>
    <dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
    <match target="font">
      <edit name="antialias" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
      <edit name="hinting" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit>
      <edit name="autohint" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
    </match>
  </fontconfig>

System-wide configuration

in /home/<user>/.gtkrc-2.0
```
  gtk-font-name = "Verdana 9"
```

Application configuration

KDE

Control Center / Appearance and Themes / Fonts:
- set all fonts to Verdana 10, except Fixed Width which is set to Courier New 10
- disable anti-aliasing
Use the Panther mode of Baghira as Window decoration

OpenOffice

in Tools / Options / OpenOffice.org / View, disable the Screen font antialiasing option
OO as of 2.0.x (don't remember what exact version) has a problem with Tahoma as a menu font; use Verdana instead

Mozilla / Firefox

in Edit / Preferences / Appearence / Fonts, set
- Proportional to "Sans Serif 12"
- Serif to "Times New Roman"
- Sans Serif, Cursive and Fantasy to "Verdana"
- Monospace to "Courier New 12"
- Minimum Font size to "11"
- disable the "allow documents to use other fonts" option
- set Display Resolution to "System Settings"; as of Firefox 2.0, this has been replaced by the "layout.css.dpi" value in "about:config", which must be set to 0.
in URL about:config, set
- font.antialias.min to "0"

Konsole

Settings / Font: set to "Medium"

Screenshots

The plain desktop (35KB)

Slashdot on Mozilla (116KB)

OpenOffice Writer with a Times New Roman text (48KB)

PyMusique and a Console (64KB)

Page last updated on Thursday 14 Aug 2008 20:18:38.