Hi

My Openoffice 2 uses the Nimbus Sans L font for documents (not in menues) but it looks very bad and I think the reason is because it is actually the condensed variant that's being used, not the regular.

This happens on all my Debian installations (sarge and etch) and Ubuntu Breezy. I could use the font replacement table in OOo or install the msttcorefonts to address the "symptoms" but I'd like to cure this "disease". How do I make OOo use the correct Nimbus font?

thanks in advance
stimpy

Hmm... Are you sure that openoffice uses the Nimbus Sans L font? I thought it used Andale Sans UI. Anyway, if you don't like the default font, then what do you have against using the font replacement table? Maybe you should try using the font replacement table to replace Andale Sans UI with Bitstream Vera Sans, or some other font that you've already got installed?

I don't have that font installed. Is it part of the msttcorefonts package?

Nothing at all, except that I'm probably too curious and would like to know the reason for my computers' strange behaviour.

Anyway, thanks for your help, Dead Parrot.

stimpy

Neither have I, but replacing Andale Sans UI with some other font in openoffice's font replacement table seems to change the user interface font.

EDIT:
Oh, I just noticed I had misread you original post. You want to change the way Nimbus Sans L shows in documents. Well, maybe the problem is in the Nimbus Sans L font and not in openoffice?

Or maybe the font you want isn't available for openoffice? It should be, if you specify the font path to your desired font in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Debian's font manager (defoma) should make all your installed fonts available for programs if you've asked defoma to take care of your fonts in "dpkg-reconfigure libpango1.0-common".

You can also run "dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig", and "fc-cache -fv" to see where the font paths for your installed are located in the filesystem.

EDIT_2:
Or maybe the solution you want is simpler. In openoffice, go to "Format" --> "Character" -- > "Position" --> "Spacing" and tweak it until you like it. Then go to "File" --> "Templates" --> "Save" and save your template with some original name. Then go to "File" --> "Templates" --> "Organize", double-click "My Templates", right-click your saved template and make it default.

Thanks for the various suggestions. /etc/X11/xorg.conf looks OK. I tried dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig and fc-cache -fv and did some googling as well. It seems like I'm not the only poor guy on the planet having this problem, but I didn't find a solution. As far as I can tell this is an Openoffice bug because in other applications (e.g. The Gimp) I can use Nimbus Sans L in all variants, including condensed. In Openoffice, no matter what I select, it's always the condensed variant. On the openoffice forums I've read that OOo has its own approach to using fonts. But I don't even understand how linux uses them...

Well, I still think that the EDIT_2 part of my previous message answers your original question: How to make Nimbus Sans L look less condensed in openoffice?

You wrote that you want to use the Nimbus Sans L font in openoffice, so I suppose that you have already set it as your default font. If not, then go to "Tools" --> "Options" --> "OpenOffice.org Writer" --> "Basic Fonts" and set Nimbus Sans L to be your default font there.

Then you can go to "Format" --> "Character" -- > "Position" --> "Spacing" and tweak the font spacing. Then save the template and make it the default. And the next time you start openoffice, it should show Nimbus Sans L as the default font with the expanded font spacing that you defined for it.

I'm sorry to bother you again with this minor annoyance. I temporarily/permanently fixed the problem as Dead Parrot suggested by using the font replacement table, replacing 'Nimbus Sans L' with 'Bitstream Vera Sans'. However, I would still like to know the reason for this problem. And Dead Parrot, I think that you slightly misunderstood my question (entirely my fault), so please let me clarify a few things:

Not quite. The original question was 'How to make openoffice not use the condensed version of the Nimbus Sans L font when the regular version is selected'.

It has been the default font since the Ooo2 upgrade. I never did anything to the font settings. And I never installed any non-free font packages. So in theory, this should be a plain vanilla Debian Sarge system, except for the OOo2 backport.

This works in Writer but there's no problem in Writer since it uses Nimbus Roman, not Sans. Calc uses Nimbus Sans, but I can't find the equivalent option there...

You see, the problem is that Openoffice thinks I want to see the Nimbus Sans L Condensed font when the Nimbus Sans L font is selected.

OK, I got it at last. And you appear to be correct when you suggest that openoffice defaults to use the condensed version of Nimbus Sans L.

I added the /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/n019003l.pfb font (installed from the "gsfonts" package) via oopadmin and named it Nimbus Sans L Normal. Then I opened openoffice and the regular version of Nimbus Sans L was available with the name I had assigned to it.

(The condensed version would be n019043l.pfb.)

oopadmin2, of course! Thank you Dead Parrot. This is for you if you like

stimpy

Very tasty. Thanks.