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There are a number of ways fonts can be added to X. Firstly, XFree86
has a font path which is just a list of several directories or font servers
where it searches for fonts. A font server is just a background process
that makes fonts available to XFree86. An advantage of font servers is
that they can send fonts to remote displays.
Recently, xfs ( the ``X font server'' ) has been patched to support TrueType
fonts, and run as a stand-alone program. The patched version ships with
RedHat and RedHat-based distributions, and is included in XFree86 4.0
and newer. xfs is actually just the standard font server that comes with
XFree86. It's source code is part of the XFree86 source tree. However,
distributions have recently been shipping a version that runs in stand-alone
mode. The stand-alone X font server, with the TrueType support patch (
the TrueType support takes place via a font server called xfsft ) is probably
the nicest font management solution currently available. Its advantages
include:
* Support for different types of fonts, including Type 1, TrueType
and bitmap.
* Makes fonts available to remote displays.
* Greatly simplifies editing the fontpath -- you can do it via the command
line utility chkfontpath, as opposed to having to edit configuration
files. This not only makes life easier for users, it makes packaging
more safer and more scriptable for packagers.
Because different distributions ship with different configurations, it
is not true that one size fits all. We can split users up into three groups:
* Your distribution ships with a stand-alone xfs and it has been patched
to support TrueType. This group includes Redhat users and users of derivatives
of Redhat such as Mandrake, and TurboLinux. Debian 3.0 will also include
the patched xfs, currently in testing. For this group, the wisest strategy
is to install both TrueType and Type 1 fonts through xfs
* Some distributions ship with a stand-alone xfs package, but no TrueType
support. Note that XFree86 supports TrueType as of version 4.0. This
includes Debian stable ("potato"). For these users, the best
thing to do is use xfs to install Type 1 fonts, and install TrueType
fonts via xfstt. Debian users can seek out the TrueType Fonts in Debian
mini-HOWTO for information about installing TrueType fonts in Debian.
* If you don't have xfs then you will need to install Type 1 fonts by
adding to their XFree86 font path and using xset. using xset. XFree86
3.x users should install TrueType fonts via xfstt, while XFree86 4.x
users can add them to the X font path. You should install TrueType fonts
via xfstt.
4.1. The font path
XFree86 finds your fonts by searching a font path, a list of directories
( or servers -- we'll explain this further later. ) containing fonts.
When an application requests a font, it searches through the directories
in your font path one at a time until the font is found. To make fonts
available requires you to set your font path. You can add a directory
to your font path with the command xset fp+ directory Once you have done
this, you need to ask the X server to re-scan for available fonts with
the command
xset fp rehash
Since you will want these commands to run automatically, you should put
them in your .xinitrc file ( or possibly your .Xclients or .xsession file
-- this depends on how you start X. It's convenient to make two of these
files symlinks to the other to avoid confusion ). Another way to have
the commands set automatically is edit XF86Config. For example, to add
/usr/share/fonts/myfonts to the font path when X is started, edit XF86Config
like this:
...
Section "Files"
...
FontPath /usr/share/fonts/myfonts
...
EndSection
...
The advantage of editing XF86Config is that the resulting changes are
system wide.
4.2. Installing Type 1 Fonts
4.2.1. Run Type1inst
The easiest way to make Type 1 fonts available to X is with the help
of the Type1inst utility. This is a perlscript that automatically creates
the fonts.dir and fonts.scale files that you need for X to use the fonts.
Simply CD to the directory, and run type1inst. cd directory type1inst
4.2.2. If You Have the xfs Package
Now you need to add the fonts to your font path. If you already have
the stand-alone Section 4.4 running, you do this by editing your xfs configuration
file. RedHat users can just use chkfontpath. the format is chkfontpath
--add directory
Your fonts will be available to X after you restart xfs, or tell it to
reload by sending a SIGHUP. You may need to run xset fp rehash as well.
Your fonts should now be available to X. Now you just run xset fp rehash
and X will be able to find the new fonts.
4.2.3. If You Don't Have The xfs Package
In this case, you need to add the directory containing your new fonts
to the font path, as described previously.
4.3. True Type Fonts
Adding TrueType fonts is a little more difficult, because you need to
have a font server that is capable of serving TrueType fonts. Two font
servers that do this are xfstt and xfs.
xfstt is a TrueType font server. While it's easy to configure, and quite
useful, it appear that xfs is becoming more popular. The main advantage
of xfs over xfstt is that it supports both Type 1 and TrueType fonts.
4.3.1. xfstt
To set up xfstt, just download it and install it. Once you install it,
you need to do the following:
1. install fonts into the appropriate directory ( read the documentation
that comes with the package ).
2. cd to that directory and run xfstt --sync. This causes it to look
for the fonts and create the fonts.dir file.
3. Now add unix/:7100 to your font path.
Your TrueType fonts should now display and be available to applications
such as GIMP and Netscape. You may want to configure it to start every
time your system starts up. Check to see if there's a startup file included
( if you are using RPM, you can use rpm -ql xfstt |grep init and look
for the file with a name something like this: /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfstt )
If you don't have an init script, just put two lines in /etc/rc.local
like this:
/usr/X11R6/bin/xfstt --sync
/usr/X11R6/bin/xfstt &
4.4. xfs
Some of the newer Linux distributions ship with the X font server xfs
configured to run as a stand alone program. Notably, Redhat and all the
redhat based distributions use this modularised xfs with TrueType compiled
in. Debian also ship xfs, but the version they ship in stable ("potato")
doesn't have built in true type support, though the one in testing ("woody")
does.
Running xfs as a stand alone server has several benefits, especially
if it is compiled with TrueType support. The main advantage is that since
the font server is no longer attached to the X server, it is possible
to serve fonts to remote displays. Also, it makes it much easier to modify
the font path.
4.4.1. The xfs Path
As a font server, xfs has it's own font path. One might wonder where
this fits into the picture. It works like this: you can place the xfs
font server in XFree86's font path, by adding unix/:port to the XFree86
font path. Once you do this, any font in the xfs font path automatically
becomes available to XFree86.
The xfs font path is determined by the xfs configuration file, which
is /etc/X11/fs/config on Redhat, and /etc/X11/xfs/config on Debian. Redhat
users do not need to explicitly edit this file, they can use the chkfontpath
utility. The syntax is simple:
chkfontpath --add directory
Users of other distributions can edit the configuration file as follows:
catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
...
/usr/share/fonts/my_new_fonts/,
...
/usr/share/fonts/some_other_directory
# in 12 points, decipoints
default-point-size = 120
...
The above would add /usr/share/fonts/my_new_fonts/ to the xfs font path.
Note that the last line of the list of directories doesn't have a comma
at the end. For these modifications to the font path to become effective,
xfs must be told to reload by running /etc/init.d/xfs reload or sending
it a SIGHUP with "kill -HUP [pid]" or "killall -HUP xfs".
Alternately you can just re-start xfs, though if you do that it would
be a good idea to re-start your X session too.
4.4.2. Installing a Font Into xfs
To prepare a font for xfs, you need to follow the following steps:
* If you don't have xfs installed, you need to install it.
* Put the new fonts in a directory.
* If you are installing Type 1 fonts, prepare the new directory for
the server by running type1inst in the directory.
* If you are installing TrueType fonts, ( remember, not all distributions
can do TrueType via xfs ! ), prepare the new directory for the server
by running ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale mkfontdir in the directory containing
your new fonts. If you created a new directory for the fonts you may
need to copy fonts.scale to fonts.dir or create a symbolic link. ttmkfdir
is part of the freetype package.
* Now you can add the new directory to your xfs search path. Users of
Redhat-like distributions can do this with the chkfontpath utility:
Other users can do this by editing their xfs configuration file.
* if xfs is already installed on your system, you should see which port
it is running on. You can do this as follows:
ps ax|grep xfs
* Then check your XFree86 font path. xset -q
* If your font path includes something like unix:/port_number were port_number
is the port which the server is running on, then you already have xfs
set up properly. Otherwise, you should add it to your XFree86 font path.
xset fp+ unix/:port_number xset fp rehash You can add it permanently
by editing your .xinitrc as explained previously. To add it system wide,
edit your XF86Config file ( probably either /etc/X11/XF86Config, /etc/XF86Config
or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config ), by adding a line FontPath "unix:/port_number"
in the Files section. Here's an example:
...
Section "Files"
...
FontPath "unix/:-1"
...
EndSection
...
* If xfs is already properly installed, then you can tell it to reload,
as described above, or restart it like this:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart
* After restarting xfs, it's a good idea to restart your X-session.
Font HowTo
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. The Location of This Document
1.2. Submitting corrections/errata
1.3. Last Updated
1.4. Copyright
1.5. Rationale
1.6. Credits and Acknowledgements
2. Fonts 101 -- A Quick Introduction to Fonts
2.1. Types of Fonts
2.2. Families of Typefaces
3. Fonts 102 -- Typography
3.1. Classifications of Typefaces
3.2. Ligatures, Small caps fonts and
expert fonts
3.3. Font Metrics and Shapes
4. Making Fonts Available To X
4.1. The font path
4.2. Installing Type 1 Fonts
4.3. True Type Fonts
4.4. xfs
5. Making Fonts Available To Ghostscript
5.1. Type 1
5.2. True Type
5.3. Using Ghostscript To Preview
Fonts
6. True Type to Type 1 Conversion
6.1. Why ?
6.2. How ?
7. WYSIWYG Publishing and Fonts
7.1. Introduction and Overview
7.2. Applixware
7.3. Star Office
7.4. Word Perfect
8. Netscape
9. TeX / LaTeX
9.1. A Quick Primer on LaTeX/TeX fonts
9.2. Adding Type 1 fonts
10. Getting Fonts For Linux
10.1. True Type
10.2. Type 1 Fonts and Metafont
11. Useful Font Software for Linux
12. Ethics and Licensing Issues Related to Type
13. References
13.1. Font Information
13.2. Postscript and Printing Information
14. Glossary
.
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