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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 46: Adding Fonts</TITLE>
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<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
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<H1><A NAME="answer">
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<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
LinuxCare,
<A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">http://www.linuxcare.com/</A>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Adding Fonts</H3>
<p><strong>From Swami Atmarupananda on Wed, 22 Sep 1999
</strong></p>
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Adding Fonts
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<P><STRONG>
I've got a long shelf of linux books, and none of them say anything
about how to add fonts. They all tell you in great detail what fonts
are on the system, but not how to add them. I'm using
<A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">S.u.S.E.</A> 6.1 (shortly
to upgrade to 6.2), but have used RedHat also (5.2 and 6.0).
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I understand that TrueType support is not yet built into the kernel (can
be used with limited success in Star Office 5.1), but perhaps soon will
be. But going with the present font support, how can one add fonts?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks.
<br>Swami Ananda
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I assume you're talking about adding display fonts to your X
system.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p><em>[ It's worth noting that in Linux terms, X is </em>not<em> the kernel.
The console driver isn't going to support TrueType, although
it can be convinced to use special raster fonts, and if I
recall correctly SuSE actually makes it quite easy to set
those (use YaST). -- Heather ]</em></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I've never added any X fonts to any of my Linux boxes. As
many of my long time readers know I mostly work with servers
and text. However, Heather, my lovely wife (and assistant
LG TAG editor) does use X quite a bit more.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
From what she says you should be able to just add your new
fonds (BDF or Type 1) into any of one the directories that's
listed in your XF86Config file's FontPath. Edit the config
file, look for the "files" section and you should see the
list of FontPath entries. Alternatively you can put your
new fonts in a new directory (<TT>/usr/local/X11/fonts</TT>, maybe)
and add that to your FontPath.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
After that you MUST RUN the '<tt>mkfontdir</tt>' command to generate
the <TT>.../fonts.dir</TT> files in each of these directories. Read
the '<tt>mkfontdir</tt>' man page for more details on that.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p><em>[ The mkfontdir is really important because the resulting text files
help tell X how to internally map between a font name you and I
might consider normal (for example, "fixed"), the file name
(<tt>6x13.pcf.gz</tt>),
and the much longer font designator created by X applications
(ex: "<tt>-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-15-*-75-75-c-90-iso8859-1</tt>").
It's certainly possible to create the entries yourself, by hand,
and I generally do, just to improve my understanding. The important
thing is to look at the files that should already be there. And of
course, it won't take effect until your font server gets restarted.
-- Heather ]</em></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Other subsystems have their own font handling.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
For example you can add fonts to the LaTeX (teTeX) system
using their '<tt>fontimport</tt>' script (read its man pages, the
teTeX.FAQ, and or browse Thomas Esser's web pages at:
<A HREF="http://tug.org/teTeX"
>http://tug.org/teTeX</A>). teTeX is a distribution of the
TeX/LaTeX typesetting system. LaTeX is a set of TeX macros,
style sheets and document class definitions and TeX is a
Donald Knuth's typesetting language: a programming language
for describing typeset pages (and typeset pages of technical
information, mathematical formulae in particular).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There is another text driven typesetting package on a
typical Linux system called '<tt>roff</tt>' (which is actually
'<tt>groff</tt>' the GNU '<tt>roff</tt>' suite).
'<tt>roff</tt>' is short for '<tt>runoff</tt>'
(apparently an old typesetting term). Your man pages are in
<tt>*roff</tt> format, and there are pakages like '<tt>tbl</tt>' (table
typesetter) and '<tt>pic</tt>' (picture typesetting language), and
'<tt>eqn</tt>' (for equations and formulae). You can add fonts to
the '<tt>groff</tt>' subsystem using commands like '<tt>afmtodit</tt>' and
'<tt>tfmtodit</tt>'.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Of course your printing subsystem might have many fonts of
its own. For example you might be using GhostScript (<tt>gs</tt>) to
render PostScript into your printer's native page
description language (PDL). GhostScript allows you to make
many printers emulate a PostScript printer. This allows you
to transparently use applications that only know how to
generate plain text or PostScript (many) without paying for
a PostScript printer.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Generally you print LaTeX files using '<tt>dvips</tt>' (<tt>.dvi</tt>, or
"DeVice Independent," is the intermediate or "object"
file output of TeX and LaTeX), or '<tt>grops</tt>' (the '<tt>groff</tt>' to
PostScript) tool to print TeX and/or <tt>*roff</tt> files. However,
there are many utilities (dviware) that can directly
drive many printers in their own native PDL.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As for TrueType support. You are correct. The current
releases of XFree86 don't include support for TrueType.
However, they do point out a number of alternative solutions
in their FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org"
>http://www.xfree86.org</A> (where most people
with questions about X under Linux should go instead of me!)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
They mention that they are planning to incorporate TrueType
support into the next major release (presumably that will be
4.0). Meanwhile individual programs can implement their own
TrueType or other independent font support as needed. It's a
shame for them to do that, as the windowing system should
provide it in one place rather than having each client do it
separately. However it can be done.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p><em>[ On my primary graphics workstation (betelgeuse, our VARstation II)
I run a copy of <tt>xfs</tt> (the X external font server) that
understands TrueType as well as the usual run of fonts. Running
font services externally means canopus, deneb, and if I was really
crazy antares, can all share all these TTFs that I took the effort
to set up. It was part of a binary package available for <tt>xfstt</tt>,
which I found when I read an LG article about some other app trying
to provide TrueType support.</em></p>
<p><em> Anyways, with this, I can use TTF's in the GIMP very easily. I now
have too many fonts to view them effectively in <tt>xfontsel</tt>,
but I don't care. It is frustrating that Netscape won't properly
scale TrueType fonts for me, but that appears to be Netscape's
problem, not mine.
-- Heather ]</em></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I gather that the GTK canvas has some support for PostScript
fonts (GTK is the GIMP Toolkit, a set of programming
libraries originally written for the GIMP, GNU Image
Manipulation Program, and used as the display technology for
<A HREF="http://www.gnome.org/">GNOME</A>). Perhaps they'll add
TrueType to that, and/or to DGS
(Display GhostScript, part of the GNUStep project) before
XFree86 4.x ships.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As you can see, fonts are a complex issue. However, you
probably were mainly interested in just displaying them, and
possibly adding printer support. I suspect you aren't using
LaTeX or '<tt>groff</tt>' typesetting.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The '<tt>gs</tt>' (GhostScript) installation often gets installed
with your distribution and just works without much further
thought. However, I don't know if you can find a <tt>.ttf</tt> to
<tt>.afm</tt> conversion tool. It would probably need that to
get printing to work.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Hello! Here's a link:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
The (preliminary) TrueType HOWTO
<DD><A HREF="http://www.moisty.org/linux/TrueType-HOWTO.html"
>http://www.moisty.org/linux/TrueType-HOWTO.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Look at questions 3.1 and 3.2!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Often I don't find the best FAQs in my web searches until
I've written most of my message for LG. That's because I
write "off the cuff" and do the research (usually
in '<tt>lynx</tt>', in another '<tt>screen</tt>' window as I type).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It looks like newer versions of GhostScript can be compiled
to support TrueType fonts. I guess that would have been
in your '<tt>gs</tt>' man pages if you had the new version.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I've copied Brion Vibber, the author of this (prelimary)
HOWTO to encourage him to submit that HOWTO to the
LDP as soon as possible. (Brion, don't worry if it's
done! It's info we want to see in the LDP tree NOW!).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I hope all of that helps.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 46 October 1999</H5>
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