How can I change font rendering to sub-pixel BGR ordering?

Question

In Ubuntu 11.10, I can't find a way to change the sub-pixel byte ordering to BGR. I have a BGR monitor and fonts look blurry because of this. I've installed gnome-tweak-tool but I can't find an option for the sub-pixel ordering. This used to be easy to do with the old font settings window.

Answer 1

You can do this using a GUI (dconf-editor from the package dconf-tools) or on the command-line:

GUI

1. Open dconf-editor
2. In the left pane, go to /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/xsettings
3. In the right pane, change the value of the rgba-order key to bgr:

Command-line

Just run:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings rgba-order 'bgr'

Answer 2

You also may want to change system-wide font settings (and re-login afterwards):

ln -s ../conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-bgr.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d

This fixes sub-pixel rendering on Google Chrome for me, too.

Answer 3

In latest ubuntu versions (such as 22.10) sub-pixel ordering (RGB/BGR/VRGB/VBGR) is set in dconf-editor under path /org/gnome/desktop/interface/font-rgba-order - such as shown on this screenshot