Debian Font Guide for Newbies and the Confused
While looking through the deb-user archives for some font-related info, I
discovered that there is still an insane amount of confusion regarding fonts
under XFree86. Googling, which new users tend to rely on, results in myriad yet
often contracting font guides.
The two biggies--The Font De-Uglification HowTo and the Font Howto--are outdated
and hopelessly outdated, respectively. They both contain a wealth of important
info, but, alas, that info is likely to send new users down a very dark tunnel
of inexorable agitation. I know, I was one of them.
Another problem with these guides is their breadth--they cover too wide a set of
topics, and they are not Debian specific. The closest--and still the
best--guide is Paul D. Smith's TrueType fonts guide, but that covers TT fonts only.
Ugly fonts bothered me immensely when I first made the switch from Windows to
GNU/Linux, and I know how frustrating trying to pull bits of (mostly outdated)
information from various howtos can be.
So, I plan to create a guide for a very specific group of people: those new to
both Linux and Debian--or those who simply want a consise, pithy guide to
getting pretty fonts in Debian.
This guide will cover *only* stand-alone workstations. As of Xfree 4.x, it is
absolutely unnecessary to run a font server if serving fonts isn't a requisite,
i.e. most users. It will also cover on Woody stable. There will be no
information on configuring fonts for specific applications (not yet, anyway),
but simply for X.
So, I'd like peoples' thoughts on this. Is it necessary? Should I change the
focus, etc. etc. Personally, I feel there needs to be a down-and-dirty guide to
fonts to complement the great general information on fonts in the aforementioned
guides; something to get new users going without them having to become experts
on fontography.
Let me know what you think.
Sincerely,
M. Kirchhoff
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