HeyMyian
commented
3 hours ago It just occured to me that the novelWriter UI on KDE neon probably also uses faux bold. I've never noticed because there is nothing italic, which is more easily distinguishable than bold, in the UI. Can verify that by activating "Emphasize partition and chapter labels", and selecting a large font, e.g. "48pt Noto Serif Regular". Faux bold simply doesn't get applied at all at larger font sizes.
This is for 2.6 Beta 1 but it probably applies to older novelWriter versions too. I tested the AppImage and deb on Ubuntu, and the AppImage on KDE neon. I've used the freshest versions of Ubuntu and KDE neon, both fresh installs in a VM.
Works as expected on Ubuntu. I'm guessing it's the same as you're seeing on Debian.
But on KDE neon, the build preview and the pdf build use faux italic and faux bold. I don't quite understand why: If I select "Serif" in the font family dialog, it will select a standard serif font as specified by the operating system (is my guess). This will put "Noto Serif Regular" into the MBS and this will render true italic and true bold. But if I explicitly select the font "Noto Serif Regular", faux italic and faux bold are used. Any other explicitly set font will also use faux italic and faux bold.
The fonts are installed correctly, as selecting e.g. "Noto Serif Italic" will render the whole build preview and pdf build in true italic, as expected.
I hope that this makes sense to you and this can be fixed in the novelWriter code.
(True italics in most fonts can be easily seen in a more nicely shaped letter
f. Faux bold either doubles-up the letters, which can be seen when zoomed in on the letteri, or it puts a less noticeable outline around the letters.)