Subject: bug#67810: 29.1; fonts use synthetic bold on Linux / pgtk

From: Po Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2024 20:20:00 +0800

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

> If we do introduce such a variable, wouldn't it prevent Emacs from
> generating the missing variants?

On the contrary: if the generation of such variants by the font backend
is inhibited, Emacs will display bold text with overstriking, when these
variants are absent from the font itself.

I should clarify that "generation" refers to the automatic generation of
oblique or bold fonts undertaken by a handful of our font backends, not
the overstriking implemented in xfaces.c.

> And wouldn't avoiding to generate them do what the OP wanted,
> i.e. have a default face's font where bold looks like regular?

No, see above.  However, the matter at hand is that I can't understand
the deficiency OPs request is supposed to address.  Surely, if the
author of a package which inserts icons wishes that they not be bold,
the package should set the face by which they are displayed to one that
isn't?

Thanks.