Re: fonts

[Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@stanfordalumni.org>]

On Tue, Dec 16, 2003 at 03:32:38PM -0500, H. S. wrote:
> Is someone familiar with font setup in X here, or shall I try somewhere 
> else?
> 
> I am in the process of cleaning up my fonts installation (in Debian 
> Sarge). Could someone suggest how do I actually check which fonts are 
> *not* installed properly? I guess this may be sound like a vague 
> question to some, but I am trying google and haven't found anything 
> relevant to this approach. Most talk about how to setup them up, not how 
> to debug the setup.
> 
> ->HS

If the fonts don't show up on a font list (xlsfonts, xfontsel) or
don't look right, they're not installed properly.  You probably knew
that, so I doubt it helps much.

I can tell you that the concepts of fonts being installed is much
trickier than your post implies.  There are all kinds of different
applications and purposes (e.g., looking up their names; getting their
dimensions; rendering on screen or printer) for which fonts can be
installed, and they may be OK for some but not others.  Just within X
there is the old core font mechanism, xft (versions 1 and 2, and you
may have both), and a variety of flavors of font servers.  Many apps
use independent or supplemental systems to manage fonts.  KDE and
GNOME add another layer on top.

Debian has defoma to try to help manage this mess, as well as some
other tools (fontsel? related to xft) that also bear on this.  You may
or may not have installed them; they are not essential.

Many people, myself included, are a bit baffled by it all, and I'm not
sure anyone understands it fully.

Good luck.