Fonts Re: [Techtalk] Micro$$$oft license fees...

[David Merrill]

On Wed, Mar 27, 2002 at 07:46:38PM -0600, Judith Elaine Bush wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2002 at 04:09:27PM -0500, Walt wrote:
> > 
> > Btw, while I'm thinking fonts... What tools/
> > utilities are there to manage fonts on linux?
> > On windows and Mac you can have only a
> > limited number (c. 400) accessible at any
> > given time. Does that restriction apply to
> > linux as well? Can I use my mac or pc fonts
> > on Linux?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Walt
> 
> 
> I'm rusty, but yes, you can use pc fonts on linux.

Oh yes. You can even use the Microsoft TrueType fonts. Debian has a
meta-package that will download and install them for you. It's called
msttcorefonts.

To use them, you have to have xfstt installed, the TrueType font
server. Once you install that and the fonts, edit your XF86Config-4
(for 4.x XFree86) and add a:

FontPath	"unix/:7101"		# TrueType font server

line in the "Files" section to have them work. We (the LDP) publish
the "TrueType Fonts on Debian" HOWTO, which covers installing the
server and using xlsfonts to test that they are working properly.

It's not real hard with the HOWTO, which is really excellent, but it
is not intuitive. Without the HOWTO I would have been completely
stuck.

XF86Config-4 is debconf-managed, and I've never figured out how to add
that line to the debconf stuff. That means every time XFree86 is
updated, debconf overwrites my change. Luckily, adding that single
line is not horribly difficult, but if you should figure out (or
know) how to alter debconf's data so it will *stick*, please pass the
word on to me! It's annoying to have my fonts fail and turn ugly, have
to close X, reconfigure, restart the servers, and so on.

Oh, another thing. When you add fonts, you have to run:

/etc/init.d/xfstt --force-reload

to get it to rescan for new TrueType fonts. It doesn't automatically
do it at startup because it can take awhile. But that's all in the
HOWTO.

> My vague memories are that there are different font servers, and that
> you can have more than one running, and that the order the font
> servers are specified in your X set-up files is the order in which the
> servers are queried.

Yep, but in this case they are serving on different ports, so the
order isn't terribly relevant. But I put the TT font server (xfstt)
first just in case. TrueType is a pretty good technology.

HTH,

-- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david at lupercalia.net
Lead Developer                             http://www.linuxdoc.org

She changes everything She touches, and
Everything She touches, changes.
		-- Kore Chant