threads / patch / 29885

patchgitk: use symbolic font names "sans" and "monospace" when available

Subject: [PATCH] gitk: use symbolic font names "sans" and "monospace" when available

## tl;dr

6 messages between Mar 8, 2012 and Mar 19, 2012. Diffs are folded; open one to read it.

replies: 5people: 4as markdown or json

Jonathan Nieder· Mar 8, 2012, 12:30 UTC · lore

The following only concerns systems using X and the client-side font rendering framework from freedesktop.org. Windows and Mac OS X are not affected.

Starting with version 8.5, Tk uses freetype and fontconfig by default to render fonts on platforms that support it. Gitk currently defaults to the font Helvetica for the interface and Courier for diffs, and both unfortunately look rather bad on screen in the default configuration on many Linux distros with anti-aliasing and poor hinting.

It is better to default to "sans" and "monospace", which are mapped by fontconfig to some appropriate font of the sysadmin and user's choosing (typically Bitstream Vera Sans and Mono). The result looks more sensible and it makes gitk feel like a well-behaved software citizen since its fonts match other native apps.

This patch does not change the appearance of gitk for users that have already run it, since gitk uses the remembered UI and diff font names from ~/.gitk

Requested-by: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
Hi,

A variant of this patch that just unconditionally set the fonts has been in Debian for more than a year, but just now I finally got around to making it conditional. Tested with tk 8.5 (where fontconfig is used) and tk 8.4 (where it isn't) and the autodetection seems to work.

Sensible?
Jonathan
 gitk-git/gitk |    5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
Show changes to gitk-git/gitk +5 −0
diff --git a/gitk-git/gitk b/gitk-git/gitk
index 64ef3c40..6981cb20 100755
--- a/gitk-git/gitk
+++ b/gitk-git/gitk
@@ -11426,6 +11426,11 @@ if {[tk windowingsystem] eq "aqua"} {
     set mainfont {{Lucida Grande} 9}
     set textfont {Monaco 9}
     set uifont {{Lucida Grande} 9 bold}
+} elseif {![catch {::tk::pkgconfig get fontsystem} xft] && $xft eq "xft"} {
+    # fontconfig!
+    set mainfont {sans 9}
+    set textfont {monospace 9}
+    set uifont {sans 9 bold}
 } else {
     set mainfont {Helvetica 9}
     set textfont {Courier 9}

-- 
1.7.9.2
Josh Triplett· Mar 8, 2012, 12:46 UTC · re: Jonathan Nieder · lore

Re: [PATCH] gitk: use symbolic font names "sans" and "monospace" when available

On Thu, Mar 08, 2012 at 06:30:11AM -0600, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
Show 23 quoted lines
> The following only concerns systems using X and the client-side font
> rendering framework from freedesktop.org.  Windows and Mac OS X are
> not affected.
> 
> Starting with version 8.5, Tk uses freetype and fontconfig by default
> to render fonts on platforms that support it.  Gitk currently defaults
> to the font Helvetica for the interface and Courier for diffs, and
> both unfortunately look rather bad on screen in the default
> configuration on many Linux distros with anti-aliasing and poor
> hinting.
> 
> It is better to default to "sans" and "monospace", which are mapped by
> fontconfig to some appropriate font of the sysadmin and user's
> choosing (typically Bitstream Vera Sans and Mono).  The result looks
> more sensible and it makes gitk feel like a well-behaved software
> citizen since its fonts match other native apps.
> 
> This patch does not change the appearance of gitk for users that have
> already run it, since gitk uses the remembered UI and diff font names
> from ~/.gitk
> 
> Requested-by: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>
Show 34 quoted lines
> ---
> Hi,
> 
> A variant of this patch that just unconditionally set the fonts has
> been in Debian for more than a year, but just now I finally got around
> to making it conditional.  Tested with tk 8.5 (where fontconfig is
> used) and tk 8.4 (where it isn't) and the autodetection seems to work.
> 
> Sensible?
> 
> Jonathan
> 
>  gitk-git/gitk |    5 +++++
>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/gitk-git/gitk b/gitk-git/gitk
> index 64ef3c40..6981cb20 100755
> --- a/gitk-git/gitk
> +++ b/gitk-git/gitk
> @@ -11426,6 +11426,11 @@ if {[tk windowingsystem] eq "aqua"} {
>      set mainfont {{Lucida Grande} 9}
>      set textfont {Monaco 9}
>      set uifont {{Lucida Grande} 9 bold}
> +} elseif {![catch {::tk::pkgconfig get fontsystem} xft] && $xft eq "xft"} {
> +    # fontconfig!
> +    set mainfont {sans 9}
> +    set textfont {monospace 9}
> +    set uifont {sans 9 bold}
>  } else {
>      set mainfont {Helvetica 9}
>      set textfont {Courier 9}
> -- 
> 1.7.9.2
>
Mark Hills· Mar 8, 2012, 21:19 UTC · re: Jonathan Nieder · lore

Re: [PATCH] gitk: use symbolic font names "sans" and "monospace" when available

On Thu, 8 Mar 2012, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
Show 23 quoted lines
> The following only concerns systems using X and the client-side font
> rendering framework from freedesktop.org.  Windows and Mac OS X are
> not affected.
> 
> Starting with version 8.5, Tk uses freetype and fontconfig by default
> to render fonts on platforms that support it.  Gitk currently defaults
> to the font Helvetica for the interface and Courier for diffs, and
> both unfortunately look rather bad on screen in the default
> configuration on many Linux distros with anti-aliasing and poor
> hinting.
> 
> It is better to default to "sans" and "monospace", which are mapped by
> fontconfig to some appropriate font of the sysadmin and user's
> choosing (typically Bitstream Vera Sans and Mono).  The result looks
> more sensible and it makes gitk feel like a well-behaved software
> citizen since its fonts match other native apps.
> 
> This patch does not change the appearance of gitk for users that have
> already run it, since gitk uses the remembered UI and diff font names
> from ~/.gitk
> 
> Requested-by: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Sounds reasonable to me.
Acked-by: Mark Hills <mark@pogo.org.uk>
Show 32 quoted lines
> ---
> Hi,
> 
> A variant of this patch that just unconditionally set the fonts has
> been in Debian for more than a year, but just now I finally got around
> to making it conditional.  Tested with tk 8.5 (where fontconfig is
> used) and tk 8.4 (where it isn't) and the autodetection seems to work.
> 
> Sensible?
> 
> Jonathan
> 
>  gitk-git/gitk |    5 +++++
>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/gitk-git/gitk b/gitk-git/gitk
> index 64ef3c40..6981cb20 100755
> --- a/gitk-git/gitk
> +++ b/gitk-git/gitk
> @@ -11426,6 +11426,11 @@ if {[tk windowingsystem] eq "aqua"} {
>      set mainfont {{Lucida Grande} 9}
>      set textfont {Monaco 9}
>      set uifont {{Lucida Grande} 9 bold}
> +} elseif {![catch {::tk::pkgconfig get fontsystem} xft] && $xft eq "xft"} {
> +    # fontconfig!
> +    set mainfont {sans 9}
> +    set textfont {monospace 9}
> +    set uifont {sans 9 bold}
>  } else {
>      set mainfont {Helvetica 9}
>      set textfont {Courier 9}
> 
-- 
Mark
Paul Mackerras· Mar 18, 2012, 23:25 UTC · re: Jonathan Nieder · lore

Re: [PATCH] gitk: use symbolic font names "sans" and "monospace" when available

On Thu, Mar 08, 2012 at 06:30:11AM -0600, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
Show 23 quoted lines
> The following only concerns systems using X and the client-side font
> rendering framework from freedesktop.org.  Windows and Mac OS X are
> not affected.
> 
> Starting with version 8.5, Tk uses freetype and fontconfig by default
> to render fonts on platforms that support it.  Gitk currently defaults
> to the font Helvetica for the interface and Courier for diffs, and
> both unfortunately look rather bad on screen in the default
> configuration on many Linux distros with anti-aliasing and poor
> hinting.
> 
> It is better to default to "sans" and "monospace", which are mapped by
> fontconfig to some appropriate font of the sysadmin and user's
> choosing (typically Bitstream Vera Sans and Mono).  The result looks
> more sensible and it makes gitk feel like a well-behaved software
> citizen since its fonts match other native apps.
> 
> This patch does not change the appearance of gitk for users that have
> already run it, since gitk uses the remembered UI and diff font names
> from ~/.gitk
> 
> Requested-by: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Thanks, applied.
Paul.

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