Fonts in browsers seem to be rendered differently than in the rest of Kubuntu

Question

A simple question really... I have Kubuntu 14.04 installed. The fonts in Google Chrome, Chromium, and Firefox look significantly different than in the rest of the system. Why? I do like how the rest of the fonts are being rendered. Can I get the fonts in my browsers look like the rest?

Here a screenshot that would explain it. On the left, it is a newer version of Chrome. And on the right an older one which I definitely prefer. The fonts are sleek and sharp:

Answer 1

First, go to the Kubuntu font settings,
see how different settings work for
antialiasing, subpixel rendering, and hinting.

That was the minimal set of important font options.

If you want to see the maximal set of font options, try infinality:

You need the ppa ppa:no1wantdthisname/ppa
For how to use it, and important notes to read before, see launchpad: Better font rendering ppa.

Install is with

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fontconfig-infinality

See /etc/profile.d/infinality-settings.sh for setup.

$ grep -Eo '^export INFINALITY_[^=]+=' /etc/profile.d/infinality-settings.sh | sort -u
export INFINALITY_FT_AUTOHINT_HORIZONTAL_STEM_DARKEN_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_AUTOHINT_INCREASE_GLYPH_HEIGHTS=
export INFINALITY_FT_AUTOHINT_SNAP_STEM_HEIGHT=
export INFINALITY_FT_AUTOHINT_VERTICAL_STEM_DARKEN_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_BOLD_EMBOLDEN_X_VALUE=
export INFINALITY_FT_BOLD_EMBOLDEN_Y_VALUE=
export INFINALITY_FT_BRIGHTNESS=
export INFINALITY_FT_CHROMEOS_STYLE_SHARPENING_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_CONTRAST=
export INFINALITY_FT_FILTER_PARAMS=
export INFINALITY_FT_FRINGE_FILTER_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_GAMMA_CORRECTION=
export INFINALITY_FT_GLOBAL_EMBOLDEN_X_VALUE=
export INFINALITY_FT_GLOBAL_EMBOLDEN_Y_VALUE=
export INFINALITY_FT_GRAYSCALE_FILTER_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_STEM_ALIGNMENT_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_STEM_FITTING_STRENGTH=
export INFINALITY_FT_STEM_SNAPPING_SLIDING_SCALE=
export INFINALITY_FT_USE_KNOWN_SETTINGS_ON_SELECTED_FONTS=
export INFINALITY_FT_USE_VARIOUS_TWEAKS=
export INFINALITY_FT_WINDOWS_STYLE_SHARPENING_STRENGTH=