Switching your default Sans/Sans Serif/Monospace Fonts 2.5

And another update on my quest to a great .fonts.conf configuration, update from my updated-original post.

All stuff still applies, but newer freetype/fontconfig builds now support the Byte Code Interpreter, which provides a truly great font experience in combination with good fonts (*cough* hint: ChromeOS Fonts *cough*). My updated .fonts.conf is as follows (enabled BCI, enabled Sub-Pixel Rendering, enabled LCDFilter):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!--?xml version="1.0"?>-->
<!--DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">-->
<!-- ~/.fonts.conf for per-user font configuration -->
<fontconfig>
  <!-- Alias commonly used default names -->
  <!-- serif, sans-serif, sans and monospace -->
  <!-- to the ChromeOS fonts -->
  <alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Tinos</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Arimo</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>sans</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Arimo</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>monospace</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Cousine</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <!-- Replace Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana and Courier New -->
  <!-- with their counterparts. Strong binding used to override -->
  <!-- distribution defaults -->
  <match target="pattern" name="family">
    <test name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Arial</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="strong">
      <string>Arimo</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="pattern" name="family">
    <test name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Times New Roman</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="strong">
      <string>Tinos</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="pattern" name="family">
    <test name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Verdana</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="strong">
      <string>Arimo</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="pattern" name="family">
    <test name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Courier New</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="strong">
      <string>Cousine</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="pattern" name="family">
    <test name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Courier</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="strong">
      <string>Cousine</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <!--    BCI Hinting     -->
    <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
    <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
      <const>hintfull</const>
    </edit>
    <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
      <const>rgb</const>
    </edit>
    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
    <!--    Auto Hinting, BCI works better for me 
        Your mileage may vary 
-->
    <!--
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
                <bool>true</bool>
            </edit> 
        <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
                <const>hintmedium</const>
            </edit>
-->
    <!--    Turn off Autohinting for bold fonts -->
    <!--
    <match> 
        <test name="weight" compare="more">
                <const>medium</const>
                </test>
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
                <bool>false</bool>
               </edit>
       </match>
-->
  </match>
</fontconfig>

I am now truly satisfied on my Arch Linux box – while Ubuntu might have the best font experience out of the box, an equal experience on any decent modern distribution is just a configuration file and some great fonts away.