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It’s always nice to read about someone contributing to open source. Looking at the screenshots I have a question for the KDE users here. I am surprised by the

It’s always nice to read about someone contributing to open source. Looking at the screenshots I have a question for the KDE users here. I am surprised by the incorrect kerning and strange padding on display in the interface. Is that normal or is it a consequence of it being so customisable the author likes settings which leads to this result?

vhanda 4y ago
In my experience, it's normal. Eventually you get used to it, and start ignoring it. Sadly. I'd switched to Gnome for many years, but in the end - being able to easy tweak the desktop to my liking drove me back to KDE.
shmerl 4y ago
Can you please point out what that means in that sceenshot? Fonts generally got pretty good with fontconfig, but I suppose there are always some edge cases.
- xbar 4y ago
  Perhaps lowercase o gets excessive space? I'm guessing here. It's the only element that seems even remotely mis-kerned.
  - shmerl 4y ago
    I don't really see anything off about it personally.
  - jesperwe 4y ago
    For example look at the "New" in the dark screen. N/e too wide compared to e/w.
    - shmerl 4y ago
      Here it's zoomed in: https://i.imgur.com/jFeQJTm.png https://i.imgur.com/jFeQJTm.png Looks like equal distance but there is more blurring between e and w so they can appear closer.
  - gizmo 4y ago
    The 'a' in trash is also noticeably off.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  It’s very obvious if you look at "Documents" in the first screenshot. The spacing between D, o and c is a lot larger than between t and s. For the padding, you can see that the spacing is strange under and over the toolbar icons. There is a lot of space between the icon in the title bar and the icon in the toolbar. Alignement between icons and texts in the file browser sidebar seems suspect to me too especially for "Pictures". I know some people don’t care about that kind of things but I find it unsettling. Looking at it I know I wouldn’t be able to use KDE.
bityard 4y ago
I can't speak to the kerning (it looks fine to me, I guess I'm not a font nerd) but in those screenshots, the user has selected monochrome subpixel rendering and either no or very light hinting. These together make the text a bit more blurry than it does on my own machine. And of course, it's also possible that using a better font would improve things.
- realgeniushere 4y ago
  How can you see subpixel rendering in a screenshot? I don’t think that’s possible.
  - formerly_proven 4y ago
    https://i.imgur.com/59y7QeH.png https://i.imgur.com/59y7QeH.png
    - realgeniushere 4y ago
      Huh. TIL
Symbiote 4y ago
I've never noticed it before, but I see the same. Do you think there are any problems other than "Ne" in "New"? https://i.imgur.com/zCDzqAe.png https://i.imgur.com/zCDzqAe.png (2× resolution screenshot as it's from a high-DPI screen)
christophilus 4y ago
KDE is like that. The kerning, padding, and font sizes always feel off to me. It’s partly why I use Gnome.

vhanda 4y ago

In my experience, it's normal. Eventually you get used to it, and start ignoring it. Sadly. I'd switched to Gnome for many years, but in the end - being able to easy tweak the desktop to my liking drove me back to KDE.

shmerl 4y ago

Can you please point out what that means in that sceenshot? Fonts generally got pretty good with fontconfig, but I suppose there are always some edge cases.

xbar 4y ago
Perhaps lowercase o gets excessive space? I'm guessing here. It's the only element that seems even remotely mis-kerned.
- shmerl 4y ago
  I don't really see anything off about it personally.
- jesperwe 4y ago
  For example look at the "New" in the dark screen. N/e too wide compared to e/w.
  - shmerl 4y ago
    Here it's zoomed in: https://i.imgur.com/jFeQJTm.png https://i.imgur.com/jFeQJTm.png Looks like equal distance but there is more blurring between e and w so they can appear closer.
- gizmo 4y ago
  The 'a' in trash is also noticeably off.
WastingMyTime89 4y ago
It’s very obvious if you look at "Documents" in the first screenshot. The spacing between D, o and c is a lot larger than between t and s. For the padding, you can see that the spacing is strange under and over the toolbar icons. There is a lot of space between the icon in the title bar and the icon in the toolbar. Alignement between icons and texts in the file browser sidebar seems suspect to me too especially for "Pictures". I know some people don’t care about that kind of things but I find it unsettling. Looking at it I know I wouldn’t be able to use KDE.

bityard 4y ago

I can't speak to the kerning (it looks fine to me, I guess I'm not a font nerd) but in those screenshots, the user has selected monochrome subpixel rendering and either no or very light hinting. These together make the text a bit more blurry than it does on my own machine. And of course, it's also possible that using a better font would improve things.

realgeniushere 4y ago
How can you see subpixel rendering in a screenshot? I don’t think that’s possible.
- formerly_proven 4y ago
  https://i.imgur.com/59y7QeH.png https://i.imgur.com/59y7QeH.png
  - realgeniushere 4y ago
    Huh. TIL

Symbiote 4y ago

I've never noticed it before, but I see the same. Do you think there are any problems other than "Ne" in "New"? https://i.imgur.com/zCDzqAe.png https://i.imgur.com/zCDzqAe.png (2× resolution screenshot as it's from a high-DPI screen)

christophilus 4y ago

KDE is like that. The kerning, padding, and font sizes always feel off to me. It’s partly why I use Gnome.