Installing Fonts on X

Resources:

• README.fonts - this is a very good—make that, essential—resource.
• man - X, Xft, fc-cache, fc-list

Notes on fonts [incomplete]:

• Bitmap fonts:
  • bdf are converted to pcf using bdftopcf.
  • snf is an obsolete font format.
• Scalable fonts:
  • Speedo - spd
  • FreeType:
    • TrueType - ttf, ttc
    • OpenType - otf, otc
    • Type 1 - pfa, pfb
    • CIDFont -

Introduction

X11 currently uses two font systems: the original core fonts system, which will be referred to as the legacy system in this document, and the Xft font system.

Installing Fonts on Linux

• X11 legacy method:
  • Place font file in font_directory.
  • mkfontscale [font_directory] - needed for scalable fonts only.
  • mkfontdir [font_directory] - needed for scalable and bitmap fonts.
  • xset fp+ font_directory - temporarily make fonts available to X11.
  • Edit XF86Config or xorg.conf to make fonts available to X permanently by adding something like the following to Section "Files":
    • FontPath "/ . . . / . . . /font_directory"
• Xft method:
  • Place font file in font_directory.
  • Don't mess with /etc/fonts/fonts.conf, instead, add font_directory to /etc/fonts/local.conf or ~/.fonts.conf if necessary. (You'll have to read a little in the README.fonts file to make local.conf a proper xml file.)
    • Example: <dir>/usr/local/share/fonts/font_directory</dir>
  • Run fc-cache to update an index of all the available fonts from the directories listed in the fonts.conf, local.conf, etc. files. It will also create a fonts.cache-1 file in the appropriate directories.
  • fc-cache is, usually, run automatically at boot time by the rc scripts on most distibutions. If not, fix the rc scripts to run fc-cache.
  • fc-list will list all available fonts.

Using Xft

• Xterm: xterm -fa "Courier"
• GTK+ 2.0 programs: export GDK_USE_XFT=1
• GTK+ 2.2 uses Xft by default.
• Firefox 1.0.7 uses Xft by default.
• Sylpheed seems to uses Xft by default.

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FreeType setup for hinting TrueType fonts:

The bytecode interpreter is usually not enabled in Linux releases because of patents owned by Apple Computer. After reading the information concerning these patents, you can make a decision as to whether you will enable the bytecode interpreter in FreeType. If you are so inclined start by downloading and installing the latest FreeType from source. Use it to update your existing libs. (I've successfully done this with FreeType 2.1.10 and FreeType 2.3.3 on Slackware 10.0 and 11.0.)

1. Untar the source and cd to the source directory.
2. Edit include/freetype/config/ftoption.h and make the following happen:
   • #define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER
3. ./configure --prefix=/usr
4. make
5. make install
6. /sbin/ldconfig

The source for FreeType contains more information in the form of README's. It is a good idea to read all the information that is available before installing any stuff on your machine.

After making the changes you will probably notice some improvement in the way fonts look in some of your applications. I've successfully done this to Slackware 10.0 and 10.2. The new libs will over-write the old ones and you're on your way.

RPM to do this? You don't need no stinking RPMs.