[tor-qa] Font debugging page (TBB 5.0a4)

David Fifield david at bamsoftware.com
Thu Aug 6 16:42:39 UTC 2015


On Thu, Aug 06, 2015 at 09:41:50AM -0700, David Fifield wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 06, 2015 at 01:36:57PM +0200, Moritz Bartl wrote:
> > On 08/06/2015 11:43 AM, David Fifield wrote:
> > > Oh, very interesting. It seems the difference is only in one code point,
> > > in the "cursive" and "fantasy" styles (last two columns): [...]
> > > Could you make screenshots of the two renderings? 
> > 
> > Attached. I don't see any difference between default and cursive.
> 
> That's very interesting. In just that one code point, your computer
> chooses a sans-serif font for the "fantasy" and "cursive" styles, while
> mine chooses a serif font. Probably we would find more examples if we
> tested more of Unicode.
> 
> I would not have expected a difference like this. It does not come down
> to small rendering differences; the browser is simply choosing a
> different font. Perhaps there is something non-deterministic about how
> Firefox (or Fontconfig) loads its font files. Like, maybe it iterates a
> directory in inode order and takes the first match when there is a tie.
> 
> Interestingly, even our two "default" screenshots are not
> pixel-identical. It looks like it comes down to different hinting
> settings. It is especially apparent in the small text at the top. I
> attach an animation comparing the two renderings. This is the realm of
> #16739.

Oops, actually I meant #16672.


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