tlug: X and fonts

[Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>]

Neil Booth writes:
 
 > Anyway, I'm trying to learn so much I don't have time to worry about
 > fonts at present. Could someone give me a quick pointer how to improve
 > the fonts / where to get them / what config files to amend?

There are two issues here. One is what fonts are being displayed, the
other is *how* the X server displays them -- i.e., the fact that all
fonts are rasterized rather than being nicely anti-aliased. The first
problem is pretty easily taken care of; the second, as far as I know,
is just something you have to live with (nobody ever said Linux was
*perfect*).

You might want to get a TrueType font server. There are three
that I know of:

xfstt --
I've been using it for 8 or 9 months. If you get a recent version it's 
fairly stable. It may be available in RPM -- if not, you may have to
compile it yourself, but it's pretty painless as compile jobs go. The
README explains pretty much everything you have to know. The
disadvantage of this one is that it labels fonts in a very
non-standard way, so that some applications can't use them. Netscape
can, though. If you can't find an RPM for it, check
ftp://sunsite.sut.ac.jp/pub/archives/linux/X11/ for the source code.

xfsft (or is it xsfst?) --
Don't know anything about it.

X-TrueType Server --
This one looks cool. It's developed in Japan, and designed to handle
Japanese fonts. I'm strongly considering using it. Unfortunately, it
has to be integrated into the X server itself, which is of course a
BIG job. You can get RPMs of an X server w/ X-TrueType built in
... they're from the JRPM project ... I'm sure somebody on this list
can give you the URL ... but if you have a functioning X-Windows
setup, I'd be cautious about this.


* configuration:

The main files you need to deal with XF86Config, which is either in
/etc or /etc/X11 -- this sets your fontpath, which you might need to
change if you install new fonts -- and your window manager config file
-- this determines which of the available fonts are displayed on menus
etc. -- which is ... augh! RedHat gives you their special
configuration for the FVWM window manager, and last I checked their
documentation was pretty sketchy. I haven't used FVWM for a long time,
so I can't give you any specifics, but look for files called .fvwmrc
or fvwmrc or .fvwm2rc.m4 ... you *should* have them in your home
directory, but if not poke around in /etc/X11 (first) or maybe
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11 . If you don't have them in your home dir, I'd
suggest copying them over from /etc or wherever, then only editing
your copies ... that way if you seriously mess something up you can
easily go back to the system-wide defaults.

* oh, yeah, one more thing ... your display fonts are generally found
in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts ... and its subdirectories. Each
subdirectory has a 'fonts.dir' file in the form:

78	# number of fonts listed
<filename>	<font descriptor>
<filename>	<font descriptor>
....

This file needs to be updated if you install any new fonts. If you're
lucky, a font installation program will update it automatically and/or 
the font package will include the text you need to add. If you're not
lucky ... well, let's hope you're lucky.

This is probably more than you wanted to know. Oh, well. Maybe
somebody else has some simple, specific suggestions to get you
started. Hope this helps a little.

Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido
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