Fixing fontconfig for proper rendering of Microsoft fonts

This post is more of a reminder / howto to *me* and is lifted from stefan.angrick's blog.

This, in particular, applies to Cambria and Calibri.

If it doesn't already exist, create a file fonts.conf in the directory ~/.config/fontconfig/  That file will need to contain the following content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

Firefox 4.0 Beta 10 has AWFUL font rendering!

Wow. Just took FF beta 10 for a test-drive, and I have got to say, the font rendering is awful. Look at a screenshot of Chrome vs. Firefox:




This may not look like a big deal in such a small sample, but trust me, after browsing for a few minutes, the eye strain was unbearable.

At this rate, I'm pretty sure that IE9 will regain market share after FF4 is released.