Re: TrueType fonts, Type1 fonts, X, and the FHS

[Julian Gilbey <jdg@polya.uklinux.net>]

Did anything ever come of this?

On Thu, Oct 18, 2001 at 10:23:01AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> Okay, I guess it's time things got straightened out with regards to
> scalable fonts in Debian.
> 
> As you are all probably aware, there is no current Debian Policy governing
> fonts other than fonts for X, and no Policy at all regarding TrueType
> fonts.
> 
> Policy is already frozen for woody, but that doesn't mean we can't work
> something out between ourselves, implement it now, and get a policy
> proposal written up for inclusion later.
> 
> There are a few guiding principles that I think should be adhered to
> when writing up a Debian Font Policy:
> 
> 1) Fonts should go in an FHS-compatible location.  This probably means
> /usr/share/fonts, which some packages already use.
> 2) /usr/share/fonts should probably be broken into subdirectories
> indicating the file format of the font.  E.g.:
>    /usr/share/fonts/truetype
>    /usr/share/fonts/type1
> Again, some packages already do this.
> 3) Per FHS, only static data should go into /usr/share.  This is not an
> appropriate place for fonts.dir files, because these can change.  See
> the Debian X Font policy.
> 4) A subdirectory of /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts should be created and used
> in the short run to make these fonts accessible to font rasterizers for
> the X Window System.  These directories should not contain fonts
> themselves, but should contain symlinks on a per-file basis to, e.g.,
> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/font.ttf
> 5) Again, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType should NOT be a symlink to
> /usr/share/fonts/truetype.
> 6) In the long run, /usr/X11R6/lib/fonts should become a symlink into
> /var/lib, because the fonts.* are updated on font package installation
> and removal.
> 
> As a practical matter, I propose:
> 
> 1) To add /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType to dexconf-generated
> XF86Config{,-4} files, to /etc/X11/fs/config, and to /etc/X11/XftConfig;
> 2) That maintainers of packages containing Type1, and TrueType fonts:
> 	A) install them to /usr/share/fonts/{truetype,type1,type3} as
> 	appropriate;
> 	B) provide fonts.scale files per existing Debian X Font Policy;
> 	C) symlink each individual font file (.pfa, .pfb, .afm, .ttf,
> 	etc.) from /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/{Type1,TrueType} to
> 	/usr/share/fonts/{truetype,type1};
> 	D) invoke update-fonts-{alias,scale,dir} as prescribed in
> 	existing Debian Policy.
> 
> For the time being, I propose that xfonts-scalable be grandfathered and
> permitted to install files directly into /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,
> though I may go ahead and change this before woody releases if testing
> demonstrates that I can do it without breaking anything.
> 
> Is there anything I'm missing?  Any comments on the above?
> 
> -- 
> G. Branden Robinson                |     Communism is just one step on the
> Debian GNU/Linux                   |     long road from capitalism to
> branden@debian.org                 |     capitalism.
> http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |     -- Russian saying