Bug#696064: iceweasel: Iceweasel uses bitmap fonts, which is really ugly!

[Thomas de Graaff]

Package: iceweasel
Version: 10.0.11esr-1
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,
when rendering http://sounl.org in iceweasel, the fonts look really ugly, square pixel fonts. I found that this was due to the Helvetica font. Disabling Helvetica in the css made the page appear normal. I found that in Debian the only installed helvetica fonts are in /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi and /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi. These are bitmapped fonts.

Solution
Disabling bitmapped fonts in Debian solves the problem:
ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf

I don't know if this is the best solution, but for me it works. I think iceweasel should not use bitmap fonts because they are really ugly. It's better to fall back to another font then to use a bitmapped font in my opinion.

-- Package-specific info:

-- Extensions information
Name: Adblock Plus
Location: /usr/share/mozilla/extensions/{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}/{d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}
Package: xul-ext-adblock-plus
Status: enabled

Name: Default theme
Location: /usr/lib/iceweasel/extensions/{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}
Package: iceweasel
Status: enabled

Name: Firebug
Location: ${PROFILE_EXTENSIONS}/firebug at software.joehewitt.com.xpi
Status: enabled

Name: Nederlands (NL) Language Pack locale
Location: /usr/lib/iceweasel/extensions/langpack-nl at iceweasel.mozilla.org.xpi
Package: iceweasel-l10n-nl
Status: enabled

Name: NoScript
Location: ${PROFILE_EXTENSIONS}/{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}.xpi
Status: enabled

-- Plugins information
Name: Gnome Shell Integration
Location: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libgnome-shell-browser-plugin.so
Package: gnome-shell
Status: enabled

Name: Shockwave Flash
Location: /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so
Status: enabled

Name: iTunes Application Detector
Location: /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/librhythmbox-itms-detection-plugin.so
Package: rhythmbox-plugins
Status: enabled


-- Addons package information
ii  gnome-shell    3.4.2-3      amd64        graphical shell for the GNOME des
ii  iceweasel      10.0.11esr-1 amd64        Web browser based on Firefox
ii  iceweasel-l10n 1:10.0.11esr all          Dutch language package for Icewea
ii  rhythmbox-plug 2.97-2.1     amd64        plugins for rhythmbox music playe
ii  xul-ext-adbloc 2.1-1        all          Advertisement blocking extension 

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages iceweasel depends on:
ii  debianutils         4.3.2
ii  fontconfig          2.9.0-7
ii  libc6               2.13-37
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0  2.26.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-0        2.33.12+really2.32.4-3
ii  libgtk2.0-0         2.24.10-2
ii  libnspr4            2:4.9.2-1
ii  libnspr4-0d         2:4.9.2-1
ii  libsqlite3-0        3.7.13-1
ii  libstdc++6          4.7.2-4
ii  procps              1:3.3.3-2
ii  xulrunner-10.0      10.0.11esr-1

iceweasel recommends no packages.

Versions of packages iceweasel suggests:
ii  fonts-stix [otf-stix]  1.1.0-1
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2       1.10.1+dfsg-3
pn  mozplugger             <none>

Versions of packages xulrunner-10.0 depends on:
ii  libasound2                1.0.25-4
ii  libatk1.0-0               2.4.0-2
ii  libbz2-1.0                1.0.6-4
ii  libc6                     2.13-37
ii  libcairo2                 1.12.2-2
ii  libdbus-1-3               1.6.8-1
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2          0.100-1
ii  libevent-2.0-5            2.0.19-stable-3
ii  libfontconfig1            2.9.0-7
ii  libfreetype6              2.4.9-1
ii  libgcc1                   1:4.7.2-4
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0        2.26.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.33.12+really2.32.4-3
ii  libgtk2.0-0               2.24.10-2
ii  libhunspell-1.3-0         1.3.2-4
ii  libjpeg8                  8d-1
ii  libmozjs10d               10.0.11esr-1
ii  libnotify4                0.7.5-1
ii  libnspr4-0d               2:4.9.2-1
ii  libnss3-1d                2:3.13.6-1
ii  libpango1.0-0             1.30.0-1
ii  libpixman-1-0             0.26.0-3
ii  libreadline6              6.2-8
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.7.13-1
ii  libstartup-notification0  0.12-1
ii  libstdc++6                4.7.2-4
ii  libvpx1                   1.1.0-1
ii  libx11-6                  2:1.5.0-1
ii  libxext6                  2:1.3.1-2
ii  libxrender1               1:0.9.7-1
ii  libxt6                    1:1.1.3-1
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.7.dfsg-13

Versions of packages xulrunner-10.0 suggests:
ii  libcanberra0  0.28-6
ii  libgnomeui-0  2.24.5-2

-- debconf information:
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
	LANGUAGE = (unset),
	LC_ALL = (unset),
	LANG = "en_US.utf8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory