Karin Chan

Install OpenJDK Patched With Font Fixes [Ubuntu PPA]

<div style="text-align: justify;">While working on the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/better-font-rendering-in-linux-with.html" title="Better Font Rendering In Linux With Infinality">Infinality</a> article, I've noticed that "<i>slow</i>", who is behind the Infinality PPA for Ubuntu, maintains another <b>PPA for OpenJDK7 which comes with a patch that improves the font rendering for Java / Swing applications in Linux</b>.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Using this patched OpenJDK, the font rendering for Java / Swing applications should look almost native - take a look at these IntelliJ IDEA screenshots (<b>make sure you check out the images in full size</b> - 100% zoom -, or else they will look blurry):</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmE6pk-IWS7-JX3kIFhMyrWJzo6JI-lEk08mUdISan4YDaZOOkDKXQWMSXmyk6EC83buweCg2I0Kos961uJlWItfHdQl8POjQDRzX8HWFNIucQ_2LyzSoaese3Cg-M7lL2Gk2ffKEzGbXs/s1600/intellij-idea-before.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Before installing the patched OpenJDK"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmE6pk-IWS7-JX3kIFhMyrWJzo6JI-lEk08mUdISan4YDaZOOkDKXQWMSXmyk6EC83buweCg2I0Kos961uJlWItfHdQl8POjQDRzX8HWFNIucQ_2LyzSoaese3Cg-M7lL2Gk2ffKEzGbXs/s320/intellij-idea-before.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before installing the patched OpenJDK</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoHPuhNrjSTGW5EWuKAeqPepRlfVLHP_UgLJ-qaLtKHEx7hI-CL7CGfI-1pb7_zPv786hFt_nacPidXWJaJYzqKIwwsNnZZ9lsKfRMAARSbiZ9S4wcfrcs7a6QJNRXDwpsJfJtZkaq8kn/s1600/intellig-idea-after.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="After installing the patched OpenJDK"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoHPuhNrjSTGW5EWuKAeqPepRlfVLHP_UgLJ-qaLtKHEx7hI-CL7CGfI-1pb7_zPv786hFt_nacPidXWJaJYzqKIwwsNnZZ9lsKfRMAARSbiZ9S4wcfrcs7a6QJNRXDwpsJfJtZkaq8kn/s320/intellig-idea-after.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After installing the patched OpenJDK</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And another set of screenshots which use a dark background and different font (taken from the PPA description):</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWZWR1LhYVSGeb3SP2MPWI6j3-OFEr6C5_V35icE8H74p1ZVgXno3hxMllmF0fhmgwKz28TvP56225virCadiQpqzRJxi-a-DL13vsud8iHGrzGztg8Z1AJKa9YtEQyqKg8Gj1GfUWz1FO/s1600/ij-before.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Before"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWZWR1LhYVSGeb3SP2MPWI6j3-OFEr6C5_V35icE8H74p1ZVgXno3hxMllmF0fhmgwKz28TvP56225virCadiQpqzRJxi-a-DL13vsud8iHGrzGztg8Z1AJKa9YtEQyqKg8Gj1GfUWz1FO/s320/ij-before.png" width="311" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4x8hUxKCyXISqlvarj1Njw9CDXzbC77PaTtQrwF_1QYyVD5xvxUKh3iqMZNzUdzt6Es3JvnNcNxYCQt0DmsvVs0ElQdvHyRxJKRY_iMx804jFV1rN1uaMo8_pkG_66BgHjlnYbMGB1at/s1600/ij-after.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="After"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4x8hUxKCyXISqlvarj1Njw9CDXzbC77PaTtQrwF_1QYyVD5xvxUKh3iqMZNzUdzt6Es3JvnNcNxYCQt0DmsvVs0ElQdvHyRxJKRY_iMx804jFV1rN1uaMo8_pkG_66BgHjlnYbMGB1at/s320/ij-after.png" width="315" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: since this is for OpenJDK 7, it obviously doesn't have any effect if you use <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install-oracle-java-jdk-7-in-ubuntu-via.html" title="Install Oracle Java 7 in Ubuntu via PPA Repository">Oracle Java</a> or OpenJDK 6, so make sure your applications use OpenJDK 7 when trying this.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install OpenJDK7 with font fixes in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu 13.04 and 12.04 users can install this patched OpenJDK by using slow's PPA</b>. To add the PPA and upgrade to the patched OpenJDK / OpenJRE, use the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:no1wantdthisname/openjdk-fontfix<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get upgrade</code></pre><br /><b>Arch Linux</b> users can install this via <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/jre7-openjdk-headless-fontfix/">AUR</a>. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For<b> other Linux distributions</b>, you can get the patch from <a href="https://gist.github.com/2963640">HERE</a> (altough that might be an older version of the patch - see <a href="http://www.infinality.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=275">THIS</a>  Infinality forum post for more info).</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Revert the changes</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To revert the changes and install the unpatched OpenJDK back in Ubuntu, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ppa-purge<br />sudo ppa-purge ppa:no1wantdthisname/openjdk-fontfix</code></pre><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>once again, thanks to "<a href="https://launchpad.net/~no1wantdthisname">slow</a>" for the PPA! </i></div>

Install OpenJDK Patched With Font Fixes [Ubuntu PPA]

While working on the Infinality article, I've noticed that " slow ", who is behind the Infinality PPA for Ubuntu, maintains a...

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