[Kde-print-devel] [Bug 128912] New: Printing by All KDE Applications is bad

[Mohd Asif Ali Rizwaan]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=128912         
           Summary: Printing by All KDE Applications is bad
           Product: kdeprint
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: unspecified
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kde-print-devel kde org
        ReportedBy: maarizwan rediffmail com


Version:           unknown (using KDE 3.5.3, Frugalware Linux)
Compiler:          Target: i686-pc-linux-gnu
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.16-fw5

I thought it was just KOffice which has bad truetype printing, but later I discovered that All KDE applications print bad (just try kwrite/kate with Times New Roman). The TrueType fonts used are printed badly. But Postscript fonts are printed nicely by KDE PRINT SYSTEM. The same True Type Font when converted and installed as postscript font (.pfb) the printout is great!

Possible Solutions (for better printing):

A. Visually Good and Printing Good (Win-Win solution)
   a) Remove all TTF fonts (esp. when Antialiasing is used in "kcmshell fonts")
   1. creating .PFB fonts with ttf2pt1 (syntax: ttf2pt1 -b <fontname.ttf>)
   2. and installing only the .PFB fonts will print the text nicely.
   3. and the display will not look bad either.
   
If both TTF and PFB are installed then KDE Print system uses TTF for embedding (even though we created/installed .PFB postscript fonts) hence causing UGLY printouts with any KDE application, including kwrite, kword ...

If we remove TTF (and use converted pfb fonts) then the printouts are great! 

B. Visually BAD but Printing Good (X antialiased turned off) (Lose-Win solution)
   1. installing .pbf will get good printouts but X Display font look ugly.


C. Visually Good Printing Good (Half Win-Win Lose-Lose solution)

A) KDE System should Manage Fonts dynamically.
1. We should Installing/Enabling The TTF files which are used for Display only. and the remaining TTF should be removed/replaced with .PFB files.
2. Installing/Enabling The PFB files for Printing.

B) User should manual install TrueType Fonts for his/her display and install fonts required for printing. like Verdana for display, times new roman, arial, etc., as .pfb for printing.


Expected Behavior:
-----------------
The Print System should prefer (give priority) to existing .pfb postscript fonts instead of TTF truetype fonts for better printing with KDE applications.

For printing -> pfb should be used.
For Display -> ttf should be used.

When both ttf and pfb are installed printout look ugly. removing ttf gets better printout with the same font converted to pfb is installed (alone).

It will take a Year or so, for QT4 and KDE 4 to come out for better printing ability. Till then Will KDE suffer for printing, why can't QT3 be patched/fixed for this kerning thing?