Mixed Colour Fonts [Solved]

[Ironfighter]

I have noticed changes to my font appearance in file menus and spreadsheet fields. The fonts are now coloured brown an blue, and may contain the two different colours in a single letter. Everything seems to be working well but I find this a bit disconcerting. Any ideas about what might have caused this and possible fix would be appreciated.

[siamhie]

Post your QSI (Quick System Info) found in MX Tools.
Select "Copy for forum" and paste it as a new comment.

[Ironfighter]

Post your QSI (Quick System Info) found in MX Tools.
Select "Copy for forum" and paste it as a new comment.

My apologies - I forgot again
Here they are:-

Code: Select all

[CODE]Snapshot created on: 20250515_1416
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-37-amd64 [6.1.140-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto May 15  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20NFA00PAU v: ThinkPad E595 serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20NFA00PAU serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: R11ET40W (1.20 )
    date: 11/17/2020
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 38.8 Wh (100.0%) condition: 38.8/45.7 Wh (84.9%) volts: 11.9 min: 11.1
    model: Celxpert 5B10W138 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: not charging cycles: 85
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 7 3700U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen/Zen+
    note: check gen: 1 level: v3 note: check built: 2019 process: GF 12nm family: 0x17 (23)
    model-id: 0x18 (24) stepping: 1 microcode: 0x8108102
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 384 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x64 KiB L2: 2 MiB desc: 4x512 KiB L3: 4 MiB desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3036 high: 3205 min/max: 1400/2300 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 3205 2: 3180 3: 2575 4: 2575 5: 3188 6: 3188
    7: 3190 8: 3190 bogomips: 36730
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT vulnerable
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow mitigation: safe RET
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; STIBP: disabled; RSB filling;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
    vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad E595 driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 code: Vega process: GF 14nm
    built: 2017-20 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1
    empty: DP-1,DP-2 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15d8 class-ID: 0300 temp: 63.0 C
  Device-2: IMC Networks Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-2:3
    chip-ID: 13d3:5415 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1017x286mm (40.04x11.26")
    s-diag: 1056mm (41.59")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 pos: right model: Sony TV 30 serial: <filter> built: 2021
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 51 gamma: 1.2 size: 952x535mm (37.48x21.06") diag: 1092mm (43")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 mapped: eDP pos: primary,left model: BOE Display 0x06ff built: 2016
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 25.0.7-2~mx23ahs renderer: AMD Radeon Vega 10 Graphics (radeonsi raven
    ACO DRM 3.49 6.1.0-37-amd64) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad E595
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:15de class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad E595
    driver: snd_pci_acp3x v: kernel alternate: snd_rn_pci_acp3x, snd_pci_acp5x, snd_pci_acp6x pcie:
    gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad E595 driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-37-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad E595 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8822BE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi adapter vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad E595
    driver: rtw_8822be v: N/A modules: rtw88_8822be,wl pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: 2000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:b822 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8822BE Bluetooth 4.2 Adapter type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-1:2
    chip-ID: 0bda:b023 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2
    sub-v: 705c hci-v: 4.2 rev: ab6b
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 255:16 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio,
    telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 535.03 GiB used: 174.73 GiB (32.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SD64G size: 58.09 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLB512HBJQ-000L7 size: 476.94 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 5M2QEXF7 temp: 34.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 476.69 GiB size: 468.13 GiB (98.21%) used: 173.99 GiB (37.2%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 5 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 61.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 60.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 4200 fan-2: 4200
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 3198 libs: 1718 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    3: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm non-free-firmware non-free contrib main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/megasync.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/meganz-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mega.nz/linux/repo/Debian_12/ ./
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirror.datamossa.io/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://mirror.datamossa.io/mxlinux/mx/testrepo/ bookworm test
    3: deb http://mirror.datamossa.io/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/oneAPI.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.sources
    1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
  Processes: 290 Uptime: 3h 31m wakeups: 2 Memory: 29.25 GiB used: 5.46 GiB (18.7%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[/code]

[siamhie]

Which program is this happening in?

Is it multiple programs? (system wide)

[Stuart_M]

It looks like the "colorized" text characters are due to a setting in the Appearances > Fonts tab > "Sub-pixel order:" drop-down menu that is set to one of the four color options (RGB, BGR, Vertical RGB, Vertical BGR). I would suggest turning that off by selecting "None" in the drop-down menu so no color is applied to the characters being displayed in menu items, text in LibreOffice, text that appears on the Panel, and so forth. I always set mine to "None" because I too loathe colorized characters.

The below Screenshot shows exactly where this setting is. Note that MX-23.6 Xfce has it set to "RGB" by default.

MX-23_6_Appearance_Fonts_tab.png

Log out/in for it to take affect although that is not necessary if an application is relaunched or if the text is on something that is refreshed, e.g. the time in the Panel or a LibreOffice writer page, etc.; anywhere the text is redrawn.

Colorized characters occur with text menu items, in text editors e.g. LibreOffice, FeatherPad, etc., with white text on a black background such as with text in the Panel for time, and so forth. Colorized characters may not be easily seen. For that reason I took the below image from "Ironfighter's" Post #1 and zoomed in 2300% where the blue and brown pixels are clearly seen (the original image is on the lower-left, at 100%). This is done on a 1920x1080 screen.

OP's_original_image_at_2300%_zoom.png

The below Screenshot is taken from a downloaded (default) Live MX-23.6 Xfce on a 1920x1080 screen. The image compares the "Sub-pixel order" set to "RGB" which shows a colorized character as a result (on the left) and with it set to "None" which shows a character in only shades of black (on the right). The tiny image on the upper-left of each side is from LibreOffice using "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono" font at 14px, shown at 100%. The number 1 of that tiny image is zoomed to 3200% to more clearly show the colorized and non-colorized "1".

LibreOffice_Bitstream_Vera_Sans_Mono_14pt_RGB-None_comparison.png

[BV206]

Depending on your display it could be something else. A handy web site with LCD monitor test images is http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/.

[Ironfighter]

Which program is this happening in?

Is it multiple programs? (system wide)

Thank you for your responses, it was happening on all programmes but was most noticeable in Libre Office. @Stuart_M provided the solution.

[Ironfighter]

It looks like the "colorized" text characters are due to a setting in the Appearances > Fonts tab > "Sub-pixel order:" drop-down menu that is set to one of the four color options (RGB, BGR, Vertical RGB, Vertical BGR). I would suggest turning that off by selecting "None" in the drop-down menu so no color is applied to the characters being displayed in menu items, text in LibreOffice, text that appears on the Panel, and so forth. I always set mine to "None" because I too loathe colorized characters.

This was the solution - Thank you.

[Ironfighter]

Depending on your display it could be something else. A handy web site with LCD monitor test images is http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/.

Thank you for the link. I ran a few tests and it appears my 2nd screen is pretty good.