Found on the Tombuntu bloghttp://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/10/15/tweak-your-font-rendering-for-better-appearance/
Tom describes ways of getting hinting to work by using the fonts.conf files – I wonder how this differs from my previous post about readability where I ran:
sudo ln -sf /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-autohint.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
Found from another blog (http://maketecheasier.com/how-to-achieve-nice-font-rendering-in-ubuntu-hardy/2008/09/19)
Will test when I get bored… 
