Hi everyone.
I'm somewhat new to linux and I'm struggling to find a distro that provides nice sharp text (ala. Windows). I've tried a lot of different distros (with KDE of course) and played with their font settings but no matter what I do I end up with a font thats just average looking.

The text on the screenshots on the KDE 4.2 beta page looks really sharp and readable. How do I get a font like that? Is it a new font in KDE 4.2? Do you know what distro was used (maybe that's how to get the font?), or what font settings was used or what font in general (non-linux maybe)?

Sincerely,
kTk

That are most likely the default fonts, so DejaVu Sans.

neverendingo wrote:That are most likely the default fonts, so DejaVu Sans.

That's not the default fonts here (running openSUSE 11.1 with KDE 4.2 beta 2), my defaults are Sans Serif. Perhaps openSUSE is the culprit?
I really want to have a desktop that looks like the KDE 4.2 pictures (including the black theme), but I don't know how. openSUSE has a boring grey look as default, I looked for places to change it to something like "default KDE", which I hoped would look like on the screens here, but I couldn't find such a theme.

I noticed the taskbar looks somewhat transparent on the screens as well (vista effect), is this default?

Do you have the DejaVu Font installed?
The default Theme decoration is Oxygen, as well as the Window decoration.
But if you have effects enabled in KWin you should have a slightly transparent panel, yes.

AFAIK OpenSuSE is shipping a modified default look. But trying to change to the above mentioned parts should do the trick.

neverendingo wrote:Do you have the DejaVu Font installed?
The default Theme decoration is Oxygen, as well as the Window decoration.
But if you have effects enabled in KWin you should have a slightly transparent panel, yes.

AFAIK OpenSuSE is shipping a modified default look. But trying to change to the above mentioned parts should do the trick.

Yes, I tried changing to the DejaVu font, but it looked terrible. Really blurred and almost unreadable font. Tried enabling anti-aliasing but it doesn't seem to change anything.
The default openSUSE theme is Oxygen. The thing is, it's not KDE oxygen apparantly since it's not anything near black like the one on the screens. I tried all the themes in openSUSE, and none of them makes it look even remotely like the one on the screens.
Btw this is not a machine-centric problem as I get ugly fonts on all 3 of my computers including a laptop.
Do you know of a distro that actually includes this 'real' Oxygen theme? Perhaps Kubuntu afaik that's black?

Yes, Kubuntu is shipping with the black Oxygen.

For the OpenSuSE parts you can maybe wait for some other input as i am not using it.

neverendingo wrote:Yes, Kubuntu is shipping with the black Oxygen.

For the OpenSuSE parts you can maybe wait for some other input as i am not using it.

Alright. I got Kubuntu now. I'll try to install it and see if it looks more like the screens. Give me half an hour to get it installed.

Thanks for your help so far.

Uhmm, ok... that's fast...

I dunno what fonts are used in the first few screenshots (The desktop grid one is mine) but I use Lucida Grande with slight hinting and no subpixel rendering. Looks lovely.

@OP
Now as you have Kubuntu, try this:
If you like Windows fonts (I myself like Trebuchet MS), then you can download the package:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

Also, I remember to have used "Liberation Sans" font. That should look good with anti aliasing.

kTk wrote:

neverendingo wrote:Do you have the DejaVu Font installed?
The default Theme decoration is Oxygen, as well as the Window decoration.
But if you have effects enabled in KWin you should have a slightly transparent panel, yes.

AFAIK OpenSuSE is shipping a modified default look. But trying to change to the above mentioned parts should do the trick.

Yes, I tried changing to the DejaVu font, but it looked terrible. Really blurred and almost unreadable font. Tried enabling anti-aliasing but it doesn't seem to change anything.
The default openSUSE theme is Oxygen. The thing is, it's not KDE oxygen apparantly since it's not anything near black like the one on the screens. I tried all the themes in openSUSE, and none of them makes it look even remotely like the one on the screens.
Btw this is not a machine-centric problem as I get ugly fonts on all 3 of my computers including a laptop.
Do you know of a distro that actually includes this 'real' Oxygen theme? Perhaps Kubuntu afaik that's black?

A workaround for this is to choose the oxygen theme, then open Personal Settings>>Advanced>>Desktop Theme Details
Then change the Panel Background to a black themed background. I use Elegance, for instance. You then choose (Customized) as your theme and there you have it!
Here's my desktop with the oxygen theme and a black panel in OpenSUSE 11.1 KDE 4.2.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/24/ ... omized.png

Hope this at least helps with the Oxygen theme issue!

I use Bitstream Vera fonts. They look similar to the ones used in the announcements. I would suggest trying those.

Only Sebas can actually tell us what fonts are used for quite a few of the screenshots. I would like to know as well.