Font smoothing in Wine

Question

I've recently switched from Windows to Linux (elementary OS), and installed Notepad++ with Wine.

It works fine, but looks like Windows 95.

I tried setting registry settings to make the fonts look better, and everything from this thread.

I also tried compiling Wine with this patch applied.

Nothing makes a difference to the font rendering.

How can I enable font hinting or anti-aliasing in Wine?

Answer 1

It turned out to be easier than I thought: font substitution.

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Here's how to make the fonts look better:

1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Fonts\Replacements in the Wine registry editor (wine regedit).
2. Create a new string value called Segoe UI, and set its value to Droid Sans (or any other sans-serif font name).
3. Naviagte to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes.
4. Create a new string called MS Shell Dlg and set its value to a sans-serif font (I used Droid Sans again). Create another string called MS Shell Dlg 2 and do the same. [source]
5. Close the registry editor and run wineboot to restart Wine.

Great! Smooth fonts!

But: the monospace font in Notepad++ is still jagged.

The fix for that is quite easy, too:

1. Open the Style Configurator (Settings -> Style Configurator).
2. Choose the font and font size that you want, then check 'Enable global font' and 'Enable global font size' to activate the settings. I chose Droid Sans Mono as the font.

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I hope that this will help someone else too.