Re: Fonts: the Neverending Struggle
Op za 14-06-2003, om 02:33 schreef M. Kirchhoff:
> Hi All,
>
> I've spent the last two days scouring Google and the Debian-User archives in
> search of help with fonts under X (specifically, XFree86 4.2 and Fluxbox 0.1.7-3
> under Woody). In my search, I discovered that there is a lack of consistent,
> up-to-date information. For example, the XFree86 Font De-uglification How-To at
> TLDP (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/FDU/) proved to be the most useful, yet it
> is almost eight months outdated. Most of the other guides were even older.
> Even so, I read through most of them, but I'm now more confused than ever,
> particularly with regard to the various font servers. Just today, however, I
> discovered a post by Rob
> Weir(http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/debian-user-200301/msg00729.html),
> who notes the following:
>
> "
> > Before starting, I should state that I "think" I am running the Xserver
> > without an additional font server (ie neither xfs or xfs-xtt, not xfstt), as
> > I can't quite understand why I should need it . I presume that the
> > libfreetype module loaded by the x-server should suffice.[So if someone can
> > explain why ought to use pne of the above font servers I would be interested
> > to listen]
>
> AFAIK, this is correct. XFree86 4.0 introduced support for TrueType
> fonts, so a font server is useless for 99% of users. If you have a
> bunch of machines, it might be useful to share fonts amongst them, but
> aside from that, 'no'.
> "
>
> If it's true that font servers aren't really necessary, then what is the easiest
> way to get good looking fonts simply using the XFree86 config files?
>
> Another problem is simply the lack of decent fonts. Most of the guides refer
> users to the free Microsoft TrueType font pack; however, it seems that those
> links are all dead now that Microsoft no longer offers them. When I try to do
> "apt-get install msttcorefonts", I get an error message about them no longer
> being available (sorry I don't my debian box handy to grab the exact error
> message). Is there a font-site-to-end-all-font-sites out there somewhere?
>
> Font problems seem to be some of the most frustrating and difficult to deal with
> in regards to Debian and GNU/Linux in general, particularly for newbies like
> myself. I've heard that the latest versions of distros like RedHat and SuSe
> offer great font support and goodies like anti-aliasing right out of the box,
> which is great for recent converts from the Windows world, where good looking
> type is a no brainer. But for newbies like me who prefer Debian
> and--especially--who run older hardware and thus prefer more lightweight X
> managers like Fluxbox over full environments like Gnome or KDE, it's a real pain!
>
> Basically, I'm in search of how-tos or any other kind of help that fills the
> eight-month gap in font coverage in those older how-tos.
>
> Thanks to any and all help!!!
>
> Sincerely,
> M. Kirchhoff
I use the same windowmanager as you, Fluxbox and that is, IMHO already
part of the problem because it doesn't seem to have a font setup
program. KDE or Gnome provides one.
I find the adobe* line of fonts to be very good actually as
are the misc fonts.
In my XF86Config-4 file, i only specified the fontpaths and commented
out the fontservers because they are pretty useless for common users
as you say.
Section "Files"
#FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection
Then i saw that my fonts weren't the way i wanted them. Some native X
programs like Xterm can be manipulated by setting up an ~/.Xdefaults
file where you specify your fonts. That will already make some programs
use the fonts specified there.
Here's my .Xdefaults file:
*font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-13-120-75-75-c-70-iso8859-15
*VT100*font2: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-70-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15
*VT100*font3: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-100-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15
*VT100*font4: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15
*VT100*font5: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-140-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15
*VT100*font6: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-200-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15
xterm*visualBell: true
xterm*foreground: black
xterm*scrollBar: true
Other programs like Evolution (Gnome apps) require an additional file
where you specify what fonts to use. So i made a ~/.gtkrc file where i
specified something like this:
style "gtk-default-iso-8859-15" {
fontset = "-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--10-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-15,\
-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-15,*-r-*"
}
class "GtkWidget" style "gtk-default-iso-8859-15"
After these 3 changes, i cannot say that fonts bother me that much as
they used to do.
I agree that it could be made a bit more unified and it would be great
if you would only have to adjust 1 file and *every* X program would
take that in account.
Benedict
Reply to: