Font problem

hyllplan · 05-16-2005, 08:21 AM

Hi,

I have some problem with my fonts
I use Debian Sarge 2.6.11, Xfree86 4.3.

E.g. Verdana (TrueType) appear to be very big? I know that you can start up X with a flag -dpi 75 or 100 (I have kind of big screen 1900x1200) what should I choose, how do I find out? I could change to 75dpi in firefox and that made it perfekt, so I guess that is what I have to change to make it better in X as well?

I start kde with startkde, where do I change the dpi at start?

It seems to be a jungle regarding fonts and servers, I have browsed around a bit and most of the time i just find old docs that are not applicable anymore, that confuses me even more

Anyone that know of a new manual/howto/tutorial that I could use for this?

I have understand that the Xfree86 4.3 now can act as a font server for true-type. I have just added

Code:

FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"

to XF86Config-4 that sould be enough right? These are the fonts that were installed when I installed the microsoft font package mstt* something. This fonts seems to be available to X as I saw a difference to the better when they were installed. But I have tried to add new fonts, and I cannot make the m available, how would I do that. How can I tell that they are available?

I have also tried to install the xfs-xtt pacakage, is there a manual for that one somewhere, how to add ttf files? I have copied all ttf files from my windows box and are now trying to make them available in linux.

Please clarify this for me.

HappyTux · 05-16-2005, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hyllplan
Hi,

I have some problem with my fonts
I use Debian Sarge 2.6.11, Xfree86 4.3.

E.g. Verdana (TrueType) appear to be very big? I know that you can start up X with a flag -dpi 75 or 100 (I have kind of big screen 1900x1200) what should I choose, how do I find out? I could change to 75dpi in firefox and that made it perfekt, so I guess that is what I have to change to make it better in X as well?

I start kde with startkde, where do I change the dpi at start?

You set the KDE and therefore X setting when it starts in the file /etc/kde3/kdm/Xservers in this line.

Code:

:0 local@tty1 /usr/X11R6/bin/X -dpi 135 -nolisten tcp

As you can see I use 135 because I run at 2046x1536 you may want to try 125 or somewhere around there and see what you come up with.

Quote:

It seems to be a jungle regarding fonts and servers, I have browsed around a bit and most of the time i just find old docs that are not applicable anymore, that confuses me even more Anyone that know of a new manual/howto/tutorial that I could use for this?

I have understand that the Xfree86 4.3 now can act as a font server for true-type. I have just added

Code:

FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"

to XF86Config-4 that sould be enough right? These are the fonts that were installed when I installed the microsoft font package mstt* something. This fonts seems to be available to X as I saw a difference to the better when they were installed. But I have tried to add new fonts, and I cannot make the m available, how would I do that. How can I tell that they are available?

I have also tried to install the xfs-xtt pacakage, is there a manual for that one somewhere, how to add ttf files? I have copied all ttf files from my windows box and are now trying to make them available in linux.

Please clarify this for me.

You should be able to just if you want to use them only in KDE then use the setup in the KDE Control Center -> System Administration -> Font Installer then add the fonts you have. If you want them to be system wide and have put them into the directory you mention then after having added them to the directory run fc-cache -f to force the rebuilding of the font cache so the system will know about them you will want to restart X as well. Once restarted the make sure to check in your /var/log/XFree86.0.log see if any fonts paths are not found if so you may as well remove the line in your config for it as it will just slow do X when it starts.

Code:

(**) FontPath set to "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc,[snip ...]"
(**) ModulePath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
(++) using VT number 7

hyllplan · 05-17-2005, 08:50 AM

Hi HappyTux,

Thanks for answering my questions

DPI:
1) I discovered that the the DisplaySize was set in XF86Config, forcing MY monitors to 116dpi, I removed those lines and everything looks great! Now I can see the following in the XFree86.0.log:
(--) RADEON(1): DPI set to (97, 98)
(==) RADEON(0): DPI set to (75, 75)
You see I run Xierama with my laptop and an exernal monitor. My laptop now runs at 75dpi and the other one at about 100dpi.

Anyway how come your monitor looks good at 135dpi when mine looks bad at 116dpi (I use 1900x1200)? You are supposed to increase the dpi at higher resolution, right?

TrueType:
2) When I put my new fonts in /home/username/.fonts they are available to X, I can see them in e.g. OpenOffice. Thanks for that!

BUT I STILL can´t load them system-wide? I do not know what I am doing wrong, here are some config:

dpkg -l | grep xfs
ii xfs 4.3.0.dfsg.1-1 X font server
ii xfs-xtt 1.4.1.xf430-5 X-TrueType font server
ii xfstt 1.6-3 X Font Server for TrueType fonts

Wich fontserver should I use of the above?
Do I have to run ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale and mkfontdir? Thats for some fontservers I read..
I want it as simple as possible, I just want to understand why I cant install any systemwide fonts

X86Config-4:
Section "Files"
FontPath "/home/johan/wXPFonts"
#FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "unix/:7101" # local font server, xfstt
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server, xfs
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
#FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
#Load "dri" # Ska denna vara aktiverad, vad är dri?
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "type1"
#Load "xtt" # Enough with freetype, not both enabled at the same time
Load "speedo"
Load "freetype"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

As you see I have tried a couple of ways to get the fonts loaded from XF86Config-4, but it seems impossible....