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.

Installing NoMachine NX on ArchLinux

Pain in the butt… if you don’t know you need to specify redhat as system. From then on it’s smooth sailing. Download from nomachine.com and then:

# switch to root
cd /usr
tar xfvz <nxnode-whatever is current version now>
tar xfvz <nxclient-whatever is current version now>
tar xfvz <nxserver-whatever is current version now>
ln -s /etc/rc.d /etc/init.d
/usr/NX/scripts/setup/nxnode –install redhat
/usr/NX/scripts/setup/nxserver –install redhat
rm /etc/init.d

That’s pretty much it. You might want to create your own keys instead of the default NoMachine keys by doing /usr/NX/scripts/setup/nxserver --keygen, but it’s not required.

(Yes, I know – there is FreeNX in the Arch repositories. It works… kind of. Resuming a session from Windows to Linux and vice versa might work, but usually does not. Hence for personal use I prefer the original NoMachine distribution – the two connection limit is usually more than enough. PS: Did I say I love NX? It’s an awesome product in so many ways.)