Top bar w/ radiance theme shows ugly colored fringe (unity2D and, to a lesser extent, unity3D)

Bug #979756 reported by Stéphane Gourichon
158
This bug affects 35 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Unity
New
Undecided
Unassigned
unity-2d (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Context : 12.04 Precise, fresh install (details below).
Launch unity2D session. Default ambiance theme. Look at top bar. Nice subpixel antialiasing on text like everywhere.

Action : switch theme from ambiance to radiance

Expected : still nice subpixel antialiasing on text everywhere.
Observed : bright irrelevant colour fringe on text. Icons remain ok. Drop-down menus remain ok. All other text on screen remain ok. Only top bar default text is bad.

I made two screenshots exactly the same except theme change, with a *4 magnification of the menu part, to make it more obvious.

Detailed information :

Default radiance theme shows nicely antialiased text with subpixel optimization using subtle reddish/bluish colored fringes.
We've seen that for years and it works very well.

On 12.04 precise, switching from ambiance theme to radiance theme creates very saturated coloured fringes around text, including application name, clock, user name (but not top right icons like battery, wifi, gear).

Oddly enough, when clicking on a menu entry, the drop-down menu is correctly rendered and anti-aliased, and it also redraws over the menu name, which becomes nicely rendered, subpixel etc. The clicked menu stands out from its neighbors. Closing the menu brings the ugly rendering again.

It looks like antialias algorithm goes wrong, with very bright colors like cyan instead of subtle reddish/blueish . Math overflow ? Anyway, on clicking a menu the very same text becomes correct. Compare "Search" and "Terminal" in screenshot.

Tech information :

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu precise (development branch)
Release: 12.04

Apt-get update & apt-get upgrade every few hours.

$ LC_ALL=C apt-cache policy unity-2d
unity-2d:
  Installed: 5.8.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 5.8.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 5.8.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity-2d-panel 5.8.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Apr 12 11:59:09 2012
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/unity-2d-panel
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120410)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity-2d
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Stéphane Gourichon (stephane-gourichon-lpad) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Stéphane Gourichon (stephane-gourichon-lpad) wrote :

Returning to Unity3D, the difference observed also exists there.
It is simply much less noticeable.

I made similar screenshots. Exact same description as above applies.

On the x4 zoomed area, one can see that the text always (whatever 2D/3D and theme) has *more contrasted* fringe than the dropdown menu title.

On the x4 zoomed area, radiance theme (bottom), one can see that the text always (whatever 2D/3D) has fringe that extends to the bottom, while the fringe on ambiance theme never expands to the bottom.

Is there some "carved in" rendering option enabled sometimes in the rendering engine ? That might be the triggering parameter.

summary: - Top bar w/ radiance theme shows ugly colored fringe
+ Top bar w/ radiance theme shows ugly colored fringe (unity2D and, to a
+ lessed extent, unity3D)
summary: Top bar w/ radiance theme shows ugly colored fringe (unity2D and, to a
- lessed extent, unity3D)
+ lesser extent, unity3D)
Revision history for this message
Stéphane Gourichon (stephane-gourichon-lpad) wrote :

Forgot attachment(TM) ;-)

Also, of course I searched before reporting, found various issues but not this one.

(offtopic)

For example, this one also affects radiance, but is otherwise unrelated.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-2d/+bug/945455
ubuntu-mono-light icons are ugly in unity-2d transparent panel

That one distorts icons, not text antialiasing.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nux/+bug/927441
Far left character in panel (and launcher popups) distorted

(/offtopic)

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in unity-2d (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Thomas Krause (krause) wrote :

I had some success with setting the environment variable QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM to some value (e.g. 1).

The problem seems to be triggered by the line

   QApplication::setGraphicsSystem("raster")

in unity2dapplication.cpp:144 (http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~unity-2d-team/unity-2d/trunk/view/head:/libunity-2d-private/src/unity2dapplication.cpp#L144). There is a long comment above this statement which explains why this method is used but maybe a unity-developer with more insight could look into this.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Krause (krause) wrote :

I upgraded today my second Notebook and it got exactly the same problem.

My first notebook has an integrated Intel GM965 graphics card and the second one has an integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 (NVidia card is there but not used)

Revision history for this message
Bartosz Radaczyński (radaczynski) wrote :

Indeed, the issue only shows on the top bar, and oddly enough when you actually choose a menu item, it is rendered correctly (i.e. without the fringes). The workaround would be possibly to go to gnome-tweak-tool, fonts and change the antialiasing to grayscale.

I am using nvidia card with nouveau drivers.

Revision history for this message
Peter Mertz (frottier) wrote :

Since Quantal has just seen some tweaks in both themes I gave it a try.

Unfortunately panel fonts in Radiance still look ugly. Will add a screenshot to bug #723167, which I think this one is a duplicate of.

Revision history for this message
Dom (d-o-m-e) wrote :

I can confirm this on my laptop.
Graphics card: ATI M52 [Mobility Radeon X1300]
Fully updated Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity 2D.

Omer Akram (om26er)
Changed in unity-2d (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb) wrote :

Marking as duplicate of LP: #723167 because nobody's working in Unity 2D and it does not make sense to track the same bug for 2D anymore.

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