590 lines
14 KiB
HTML
590 lines
14 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Introduction</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
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"><LINK
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REL="HOME"
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TITLE="XFree86 Font De-uglification HOWTO"
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HREF="index.html"><LINK
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REL="PREVIOUS"
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TITLE="XFree86 Font De-uglification HOWTO"
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HREF="index.html"><LINK
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REL="NEXT"
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TITLE="X Server Configuration"
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HREF="x-config.html"></HEAD
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><BODY
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BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
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><TR
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><TH
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>XFree86 Font De-uglification HOWTO</TH
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="left"
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>Prev</A
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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HREF="x-config.html"
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT1"
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><H1
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CLASS="SECT1"
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><A
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NAME="INTRO">1. Introduction</H1
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><P
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> An often heard complaint is the poor default fonts and font settings of X as
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implemented by many Linux distributions. Some programs use fixed width
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default fonts when a variable width font would be more appropriate. Other
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programs use fonts that are so small as to be practically unreadable. Many of
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the fonts that are bundled with XFree86 are not of the same quality as found
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on some other platforms. XFree86 does come with a halfway decent courier
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font, but its Times and Helvetica fonts are simple bitmap fonts that pixelize
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when scaled. This is changing for the better recently, but a default Linux
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desktop still often needs some tweaking to get the best fonts possible. </P
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><P
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> This HOWTO attempts to show how to adjust various font settings, install new
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fonts, and a few other things that should greatly improve the appearance and
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readability of fonts on the X Window Desktop. This is done by adjusting the
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<TT
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CLASS="LITERAL"
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>FontPath</TT
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> in the <TT
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CLASS="FILENAME"
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>XF86Config</TT
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> file, by
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adding switches to X server command line in <B
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CLASS="COMMAND"
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>startx</B
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> or
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<B
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CLASS="COMMAND"
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>xdm</B
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> (and variants), by adding new fonts, and by
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making sure TrueType fonts are installed and available. TrueType does
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indeed make a huge difference in many applications. </P
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><P
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> Comments, corrections, additions and critiques are always welcome. You can
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reach the author at <TT
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CLASS="EMAIL"
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><<A
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HREF="mailto:hal@foobox.net"
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>hal@foobox.net</A
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>></TT
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>. Contributions are also
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welcomed. Especially anyone who really stays current with KDE and/or GNOME
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issues! (So I guess nobody uses these since the silence is deafening?) </P
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><H2
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><A
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NAME="AEN40">1.1. Conventions Used in this Document</H2
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><P
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> <P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><P
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> <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"X"</SPAN
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> and <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"XFree86"</SPAN
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> are (incorrectly) used
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here interchangably. The overwhelming percentage of Linux users indeed
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use XFree86.org's X implementation, but there are other implentations
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as well. The information here probably does not apply to those others in
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most cases.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> Where examples of commands are used, a <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"#"</SPAN
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> character is used to
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denote where typically the command would be run as the root user. A
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<SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"$"</SPAN
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> is used where typically a non-root user would be executing
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the command.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> The examples use <TT
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CLASS="FILENAME"
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>/usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts</TT
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> as our
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TrueType font directory. There is no magic to this location, and could
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conceivably just as well be in any number of other locations. Some
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distros may have a default location for TrueType fonts, and you may
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want to use that instead.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> References to "xfs" are to the xfs as packaged by Red Hat (and some other
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distros) for versions 6.x and later. This differs significantly in some
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respects from the stock XFree86 xfs.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> References to "Netscape" are to the entire suite of programs from Netscape:
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Communicator, Navigator, Messenger, etc. And for all intents and purposes,
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font configuration in Mozilla is very similar (but generally looks
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better!).
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 'XF86Config' is the X configuration file. This has changed to
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'XF86Config-4' for XFree86 v4.x. For the most part, we'll just use
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'XF86Config' here.
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</P
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><P
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> Also, while some aspects of XFree86 4.x configuration are the same as
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3.3.x, there are some significant differences. We'll only highlight the
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differences. So unless noted otherwise, any comments or examples should
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apply to both 3.3.x and 4.x versions.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> File system layout varies somewhat from distribution to distribution. It
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is impossible to stay on top of every conceivable variation of who keeps
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which files where. So take the examples here with a grain of salt if the
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PATHs don't seem to match your system.
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</P
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></LI
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></UL
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></P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><H2
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><A
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NAME="AEN64">1.2. Change Log and What's New</H2
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><P
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> <P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><P
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> 2.04: October 30, 2002.
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Include info on TrueType <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"hinting"</SPAN
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>, and enabling in
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freetype sources (thanks Andreas Oesterhelt!). A few new useful links,
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and minor cleanups.
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</P
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><P
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> If this keeps up, this document will have to be renamed the
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<I
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CLASS="CITETITLE"
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>Font Beautification HOWTO</I
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> ;-).
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 2.03: October 17, 2002.
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Some brief notes on Red Hat 8.0 differences/newness, notably the changes
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that accompany Xft2. More on the distinction of core X fonts and Xft (and
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then Xft2).
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 2.01: October 03, 2002.
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Update links for obtaining the MS web fonts (TrueType fonts of choice).
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There are two <A
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HREF="http://sf.net"
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TARGET="_top"
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>Sourceforge</A
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> projects
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with these fonts available, including.
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<A
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HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/font-tool/"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://sourceforge.net/projects/font-tool/</A
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>.
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</P
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><P
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> Add section to <A
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HREF="apps.html#MOZILLA"
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>Mozilla</A
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> configuration to
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include info on Xft and anti-aliasing.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 2.00: September 12, 2002.
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Wow, MS has taken down their webfonts page :( Not good news. Installing
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TrueType is a key ingredient to better living through nice fonts.
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</P
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><P
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> Major re-organization by moving the font server section to the appendix,
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since any recent distro is already installing these, or they are
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not any longer needed.
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</P
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><P
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> Some clarifications on gdkxft and font anti-aliasing. Finally, add
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Aristotle Pagaltzis's perl script for converting <TT
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CLASS="FILENAME"
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>fonts.dir</TT
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>
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to <TT
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CLASS="FILENAME"
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>fonts.alias</TT
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>. Include interesting example
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of using anti-aliased TrueType fonts in <B
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CLASS="COMMAND"
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>xterm</B
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>.
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Note that GNOME 2 is out. Fix the usual assorted broken links.
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</P
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><P
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> Clarifications on <TT
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CLASS="LITERAL"
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>dpi</TT
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> settings, and add tip
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about unbalanced dpi causing major trouble with fonts.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 1.95: February 11, 2002. A few corrections. Removed the section on Fonts in
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KDE since this has to have changed, and I don't know anything about KDE
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(does anyone want to help here?). Added a brief section on gdkxft, which
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adds anti-aliasing support for GTK+ 1.2 applications.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 1.9: November 5, 2001. A few new links and some minor catch ups only.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 1.8: June 25, 2001: Included a new section on Anti-aliasing and Xft from
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Danny Tholen <TT
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CLASS="EMAIL"
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><<A
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HREF="mailto:obiwan@mailmij.org"
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>obiwan@mailmij.org</A
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>></TT
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>. Many thanks on this not so
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well documented subject. Also, Sebastiano Vigna's neat little package for
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downloading and installing MS webfonts: <A
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HREF="http://freshmeat.net/webFonts4Linux"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://freshmeat.net/webFonts4Linux</A
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>.
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A few other odds and ends.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 1.70: April 18, 2001:
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Added links for converting Mac TrueType Fonts (thanks to Karl A. Krueger),
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links to Unicode TrueType fonts (thanks to Tzafrir Cohen for suggestions
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and URLs), and added a section on anti-aliasing with X 4.0.2 (or greater).
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Also, included a reference to <A
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HREF="http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/cabextract.php3"
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TARGET="_top"
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>cabextract</A
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>, a
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utility that is now available for extracting Win32 Fonts (among other
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things) from a Window's <SPAN
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CLASS="QUOTE"
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>"cab"</SPAN
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> archive.
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</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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> 1.60: March 21, 2001:
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A few very minor changes. Most notable news is anti-aliasing support now
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in XFree 4.02 (referenced in the Notes section only). Chinese translation
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URL added.
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</P
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></LI
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></UL
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></P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><H2
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><A
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NAME="AEN104">1.3. New Versions</H2
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><P
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> The pre-release versions of this document can be found at
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<A
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HREF="http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu/index.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu/index.html</A
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>. </P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><H2
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><A
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NAME="LEGAL">1.4. Copyright</H2
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><P
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> Copyright <20> 1999 by Doug Holland, 2002 Hal Burgiss.</P
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><P
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||
> Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their
|
||
respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and distributed
|
||
in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this
|
||
copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is
|
||
allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any
|
||
such distributions.</P
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||
><P
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||
> All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating any
|
||
Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is,
|
||
you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose additional
|
||
restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be granted
|
||
under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator for more
|
||
information.</P
|
||
><P
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||
> In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as
|
||
many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the
|
||
HOWTO documents, and would very much like to be notified of any plans to
|
||
redistribute the HOWTOs, this one in particular! Web page authors are free
|
||
to link to this HOWTO without restriction, though the author would appreciate
|
||
an email informing him of this, just so he can boost his ego by knowing who
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||
else reads and links to this document. </P
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><P
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||
> Many of the terms mentioned in this document are trade names. Unless
|
||
otherwise stated, all trademarks are property of their respective owners.</P
|
||
></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><H2
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CLASS="SECT2"
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><A
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NAME="CREDITS">1.5. Credits</H2
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><P
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><P
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CLASS="LITERALLAYOUT"
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> Original author: Doug Holland.<br>
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Email: <A
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HREF="mailto:meldroc@frii.com"
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TARGET="_top"
|
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>meldroc@frii.com</A
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||
><br>
|
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WWW: <A
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HREF="http://www.frii.com/~meldroc/"
|
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TARGET="_top"
|
||
>http://www.frii.com/~meldroc/</A
|
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><br>
|
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</P
|
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></P
|
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><P
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><P
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CLASS="LITERALLAYOUT"
|
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> <br>
|
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Updated and maintained by Hal Burgiss.<br>
|
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Email: <A
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HREF="mailto:hal@foobox.net"
|
||
TARGET="_top"
|
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>hal@foobox.net</A
|
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><br>
|
||
WWW: <A
|
||
HREF="http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu"
|
||
TARGET="_top"
|
||
>http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu/</A
|
||
><br>
|
||
</P
|
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></P
|
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><P
|
||
>Special thanks go to:
|
||
|
||
<P
|
||
></P
|
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><UL
|
||
><LI
|
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><P
|
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> The developers of the <A
|
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HREF="http://www.xfree86.org"
|
||
TARGET="_top"
|
||
>XFree86 Project</A
|
||
>,
|
||
for all the hard work and time they have given. Also, Juliusz Chroboczek for
|
||
his work with xfsft, and XFree86 4.x to help bring TrueType to the
|
||
hungry masses. And Keith Packard for his anti-aliasing, and other work.
|
||
This is not to slight the many, many other XFree86 volunteers.
|
||
</P
|
||
></LI
|
||
><LI
|
||
><P
|
||
> Font wizard Kristin Aanestad, whose legwork and insight on much of the xfs,
|
||
TrueType, Netscape, and especially, the fonts.alias sections are much
|
||
appreciated. More from Kristin at <A
|
||
HREF="http://home.c2i.net/dark/linux.html"
|
||
TARGET="_top"
|
||
>Some Linux for Beginners</A
|
||
>
|
||
on a wide range of topics.
|
||
</P
|
||
></LI
|
||
><LI
|
||
><P
|
||
> Danny Tholen <TT
|
||
CLASS="EMAIL"
|
||
><<A
|
||
HREF="mailto:obiwan@mailmij.org"
|
||
>obiwan@mailmij.org</A
|
||
>></TT
|
||
> is responsible for the nice
|
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Xft section, and examples.
|
||
</P
|
||
></LI
|
||
><LI
|
||
><P
|
||
> The folks at <A
|
||
HREF="news:comp.os.linux.x"
|
||
TARGET="_top"
|
||
>comp.os.linux.x</A
|
||
> who
|
||
gave me a hand in figuring all of this out in the first place.
|
||
</P
|
||
></LI
|
||
><LI
|
||
><P
|
||
> The Linux community in general who made all of this possible
|
||
in the first place. Especially those who have offered suggestions and
|
||
comments that help to make this HOWTO a better resource. Keep those cards
|
||
and letters coming ;-)
|
||
</P
|
||
></LI
|
||
></UL
|
||
> </P
|
||
></DIV
|
||
><DIV
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||
CLASS="SECT2"
|
||
><H2
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||
CLASS="SECT2"
|
||
><A
|
||
NAME="AEN143">1.6. Translations</H2
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||
><P
|
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> Chinese: <A
|
||
HREF="http://www.linux.org.tw/CLDP/mini/FDU.html"
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||
TARGET="_top"
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>http://www.linux.org.tw/CLDP/mini/FDU.html</A
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> by Yu-Chia Chang. </P
|
||
></DIV
|
||
></DIV
|
||
><DIV
|
||
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
|
||
><HR
|
||
ALIGN="LEFT"
|
||
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
|
||
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
|
||
WIDTH="100%"
|
||
BORDER="0"
|
||
CELLPADDING="0"
|
||
CELLSPACING="0"
|
||
><TR
|
||
><TD
|
||
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
ALIGN="left"
|
||
VALIGN="top"
|
||
><A
|
||
HREF="index.html"
|
||
ACCESSKEY="P"
|
||
>Prev</A
|
||
></TD
|
||
><TD
|
||
WIDTH="34%"
|
||
ALIGN="center"
|
||
VALIGN="top"
|
||
><A
|
||
HREF="index.html"
|
||
ACCESSKEY="H"
|
||
>Home</A
|
||
></TD
|
||
><TD
|
||
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
ALIGN="right"
|
||
VALIGN="top"
|
||
><A
|
||
HREF="x-config.html"
|
||
ACCESSKEY="N"
|
||
>Next</A
|
||
></TD
|
||
></TR
|
||
><TR
|
||
><TD
|
||
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
ALIGN="left"
|
||
VALIGN="top"
|
||
>XFree86 Font De-uglification HOWTO</TD
|
||
><TD
|
||
WIDTH="34%"
|
||
ALIGN="center"
|
||
VALIGN="top"
|
||
> </TD
|
||
><TD
|
||
WIDTH="33%"
|
||
ALIGN="right"
|
||
VALIGN="top"
|
||
>X Server Configuration</TD
|
||
></TR
|
||
></TABLE
|
||
></DIV
|
||
></BODY
|
||
></HTML
|
||
> |