I have noticed that the fonts in Maemo could gain a little from better hinting, so I've rebuilt the freetype library with bytecode interpreter enabled.

Note that in some countries the involved algorithms are patented by m$ and apple, so it is illegal to use them without paying a few megabucks to them. So if the respective patent is valid in your country - don't use it. I personally don't care since US patents do not work in my country.

here is it.

After installing the package you'd better reboot, you'll notice the difference immediately after rebooting.

Here's a example screenshot before and after installing the modified library:

Before:


After:


You may notice that some fonts (e.g. the one on titlebar and on the statusbar) significantly changed, while other (the fixed font used by the terminal) is just like before. That's because the terminal font is unhinted, so it does not benefit from the bytecode interpreter (the "dejavu sans mono" font has hinting, but I haven't tried it yet).

If you decide to roll back, execute as root "apt-get -f install" which should eventually install the old version. If this doesn't work, get this.