X11 Exempt Monospace fonts from hinting in fonts.conf

Question

I am using the following ~/.fonts.conf to encourage font smoothing, particularly in GTK apps like firefox:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
   <const>hintfull</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
 <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
 <bool>true</bool>
 </edit>
 <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
 <bool>true</bool>
 </edit>
 <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
 <const>hintslight</const>
 </edit>
 </match> 
</fontconfig>

This works well for most proportional and monospaced fonts, but some, such as poor old Courier New, end up washed out.

Is there a way to disable hinting for selected fonts in ~/.fonts.conf?

Answer 1

I would try with the following:

 <match target="pattern" name="family" >
    <test name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Courier New</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
 </match>

Change the specific edit to what you need, e.g. hintstyle, etc.