OUTDATED! BETTER SOLUTION HERE

ENABLING SUB-PIXEL HINTING IN OPENSUSE 11.0

In version 11.0 of openSUSE sub-pixel hinting is still disabled by default for whatever reason. Instructions here are outdated as they suggest installation of an old version of freetype.
Following the instuctions below you will be able to enable it and deuglyfy your fonts. If you want to skip this crap you can download directly the rpm built by me. It is only for x86_64 architecture though.
Hope nobody sues my ass for this...

Prepare The RPM Build Environment

Set-up the directory tree:

mkdir -p ~/src/rpm
cd ~/src/rpm
mkdir BUILD RPMS SOURCES SPECS SRPMS
mkdir RPMS/i586 RPMS/noarch RPMS/x86_64

Instruct the rpm build environment to point to the root

create ~/.rpmmacros containing

# Path to top of build area
%_topdir /home/"your user name"/src/rpm

Download the source RPM and install it

wget http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.0/rpm/src/freetype2-2.3.5-62.2.src.rpm
rpm -ivh ~/freetype2-2.3.5-62.2.src.rpm

Edit the SPEC file to enable support for sub-pixel hinting

cd ~/src/rpm/SPECS
vim freetype2.spec

change the line

%define enable_subpixel_rendering 0%{?opensuse_bs}

into

%define enable_subpixel_rendering 1%{?opensuse_bs}

please note the comment %{?opensuse_bs} does it suggest you anything about the opinion of the maintainer about this default setting?

Build the source rpm end install the resulting rpm

build the spec file

rpmbuild -ba freetype2.spec

install the resulting rpm

cd ~/src/rpm/RPMS/x86_64/
sudo rpm -Uhv --force freetype2-2.3.5-62.2.x86_64.rpm

or if you have a 32bit installation

cd ~/src/rpm/RPMS/i586/
sudo rpm -Uhv --force freetype2-2.3.5-62.2.i586.rpm

Then restart your X11 (log out and than log in) and enable this feature according to the instructions of your preferred desktop environment as explained here

Note: credit to this page . All the steps were taken from there.