Smooth Fonts in Netscape 7.x on Linux

By default, Netscape (and any non-XFT Mozilla build) does not smooth fonts if you are using Linux:

Screenshot of Netscape 7 with non-smooth fonts

But, you can use a hidden pref to enable font smoothing and get these results:

Screenshot of Netscape 7 with font smoothing

How to get font smoothing in Netscape? Just follow these steps:

Close all Netscape windows.
Make sure you have some TrueType fonts installed somewhere on your GNU/Linux system and note down the directories in which they are installed. On many distributions, TT fonts are installed in these directories:
- /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype
- /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF
but please note that the fonts can be installed in another location on your system and there can be more directories with *.ttf fonts.
Locate the directory where you installed Netscape (it's usually /usr/lib/netscape, and in this text we assume the default)
Open the /usr/lib/netscape/defaults/pref/unix.js in your favourite text editor and locate this line:
```
pref("font.FreeType2.enable", false);
```
Change this value from false to true
Now, find the line starting with:
```
//pref("font.directory.truetype.1,
```
Remove the two leading slashes from that line.
Edit the font.directory.truetype.1 setting to point to the first of your font directories, e.g.:
```
pref("font.directory.truetype.1", "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype");
```
Analogically, uncomment and edit the font.directory.truetype.2 setting and point it to the second font directory, e.g.:
```
pref("font.directory.truetype.2", "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF");
```
If you have more font directories, just create similar entries (font.directory.truetype.3, font.directory.truetype.4, and so on)
Save the file and run Netscape again. TrueType fonts should be now smooth.
If the smoothing seems to be too hard, modify the font.scale.tt_bitmap.dark_text.gain setting in unix.js. I usually set it to 0.03:
```
pref("font.scale.tt_bitmap.dark_text.gain", "0.03");
```

Please note that only TrueType fonts can be smoothed in Netscape 7. TrueType fonts include Verdana, Times, Georgia, Luxi, Vera, Trebuchet MS. All non-TrueType fonts will not be smoothed.