Mandrake 9.0 - ugly fonts
 

Hello,

I am a :newbie:

I use Mandrake 9.0 as my primary workstation for two weeks, and it's truly beautiful. I regret I haven't started earlier, although I had tried earlier versions some time ago.

The Fonts are the only problem at the moment that needs to be fixed.

I noticed many people encountered the same problem. Seemingly a good solution can be found here:

http://elektron.its.tudelft.nl/~rbos...freetype2.html

I am trying to fix it the way it is described in the above page, but so far I have not succeeded.

If you tried the same, please, let me know if it worked.

I will mess up for a while myself, and if it doesn't help I ask for your kind help here.

Best regards,
Linuxfond

What problems did you get when you ran the rpms? Were you logged in as yourself, did you use su or did you run it as root?

Did you get any error messages?

People are having problems implementing freetype2, yes. Expect it to be in KDE 3.1, which will be in Mandrake 9.1-- DO NOT use a beta of 9.1 now unless you want lots of bugs, 9.1 beta 1 is actually a frozen cooker image only for developer testing, plus installation test stuff to debug the newest installer for Mandrake that is being worked on. Avoid cooker also right now unless very knowledgeable -- you will find it is in extreme flux and that means lots of bugs are being swatted\squashed\fixed, which means you get to do daily updates and find new problems to look at every time you get a new daily cooker image. this is a PLANNED feature set of cooker, it is for swatting bugs before realease time, and anything beta or alpha should be avoided by normal users (I am not quite one of those, but not an active Linux Mandrake dev either yet-- contribute in a tiny way to printer ppd file defaults so far, and test some printer fine tuning scripts as they become available and let Till know wassup from what I can see and what I did and what worked or did not.)

Myself, I sidestepped this issue-- my Windows fonts are in Mandrake now, and they work. My same box also has a functional Windows in it, and there is no way someone else can use the Windows while I am using Mandrake. So, no licensing issues the way Microsoft wrote the license. The software that added additional fonts to Widnows and Win4Lin as well as Mandrake itself is also licensed and in the same box, so no issues there either.

I browse in Netscape 7.0.1, edit docs in Knode, Netscape composer, Abiword, Scribus 0.8, StarOffice and OpenOffice, and have no ugliness. I tell them to use TT(type 1) fonts from Windows imported legally into Mandrake 9.0. The only OTHER thing I had to do was to let the Mandrake do the AA and turn it off in the monitor's onscreen sontrols-- on mine, they called it moire, which is in part what AA is. My fonts were too fuzzy, the video driver had also AA'd them and the monitor was doing MORE of same and less was wanted.

Right now, this site is showing in Times New Roman and Courier New, even the editor.

Tell us what programs look ugly (and if only menus, let us know that too) and please describe how they look ugly (what is wrong exactly) and maybe we can help more in detail with that info. I myself moonlight as a desktop publisher, can take more detailed descriptions (like everything is too spindly like palm tree trunks) and figure out what was meant, and sometimes how to fix.

john.

freetype
 

Hi,

All fonts in KDE look clunky, blurred, squared etc - in all applications including desktop, menus etc.

After I have done what is written in http://elektron.its.tudelft.nl/~rbos...freetype2.html - the problems I had is that X server did not start at all (surely my fault).

I backed up my files onto other drive and reinstalled the Mandrake 9.0 because I don't know how to change XF86Config-4 from a command line when X is down.

Now I am back to working station.

I checked if the freetype was installed by issuing:

freetype-config --prefix
(to check whether it is installed, and where)

bash: freetype-config: command not found
was the reply.

I made a conclusion that freetype was not installed (am I probably wrong?)

I downloaded a freetype-2.1.3.tar.gz (from sourceforge)
copied it into root/tmp, gunzipped, un-tared, cd into freetype-2.1.3, and issued a command ./config --prefix:/usr/local/ .
Then - make, make install, and finally, freetype-config --prefix in order to see if its really installed. All was OK. This time freetype-config --prefix returned /usr/local.

Next I have to make the TTF available for the System.
I go to KDE Control Center, System, and in the System I am supposed to see Fonts. Here is the problem. FONTS ARE NOT THERE.

Does anyone knows what's the problem?

Thank you.
Linuxfond

Legally, freetype cannot provide the fonts themselves. Mandrake COMEs with freetype 1.3.1 and there are devel packs for 2.0.9 for it available for Mandrake 9.0. Freetype is a truetype1 font handler and perhaps has some editor functionality-- ALL my truetypes came with:

Cameleo
Netscape 7.0.1
Windows imports using Drakfont, of fonts I can legally use.

Adobe owns truetype patants and has copyrighted fonts that they distribute and you get licensed rights to same by buying collections or software that has collections (which you can then use with that software legally). So, to do it legally, you get font collections of truetype fonts by purchasing, copy them to HD, then import freom where you copied them with Drakfont.

Pelase do not try to reload freetype2, it needs things not yet available for Mandrake in finished and tested form, and comes without fonts-- it provides Linux with ways of using TrueType!'s but there is no way you will get such legally free except to have them already from things you have bought and thus have a license to use, or to have them come with software that can legally use them.

There is a new project out called Cameleo, it will provide some font creation functions, but font creation is lots of work. It DOEs ccome with a limited set of working Truetypes, but legally you pay for it because the developers of this software pay royalties to use what they have not themselves created.

Technically, what you see on the screen and what you see in print should be radically different, as it is the display fonts that linux devs cannot afford to pay royalties on-- the print fonts have been created to a large degree.

The linux display fonts were tuned for at least 800x600 resolution, not 640x480, and are not by default TrueTypes on screen. Freetype lets you display Truetypes on screen, but YOU get to provide the fonts yourself.

You can get a limnited amount of free fonts on the web, though the best are for sale and not for free, or come with software that costs money.
Please do not expect to get free top notch fonts for free, not going to happen. i ahve, on this box, windows 98 SE, WordPerfectOffice Pro 9 and 10, and own a copy of WordPerfect 8 for Linux that would be licensable if corel had not pulled support-- I bought all these. I bought a CorelDraw 8-- all came with fonts, and the license that came with them says I can use fonts so long as I comply with the software licensing-- I do. old software can be a good source of font files, but you will need to figure out how to get them from the isntall media onto your HD-- I run the software in Win4Lin when not using the fonts in Mandrake. Should anyone ask where the fonts came from, I have not only legal CDs that they came on, licensed and registered to me, but also have the software on the computer.

No license violation there, and another reason to multiboot. alternatively, many people sell perfectly legal font packs of TrueTypes or TT compatible fonts, and lots of software that was ported from Windows or Mac has fonts with it, though that software is usually not free when legally used. Adobe is one source, a very good one, for TrueTypes of excellent quality. Bitstream is another.

Kazaa or P2P nets are sources of illegal but low-cost software and that software comes with fonts, but I write and do web work and do powerpoint shows-- what I use has to be legal. So, since also do computer consulting in ways that conform to the law, I will not help you find fonts that are illegal to use beyond what I have said here-- but will simply tell you that Mandrake already has all the tools you need to use them.

Look for files of type .html in the freetype directories on your hard drive, and for the program called slocate, which is your friend and like to be called from root with this call first:

slocate -u

Once it gets done building a database of your entire data tree on your hard drive, you can tell it to:

slocate fonts (see if any files have .ttf type)

slocate freetype (then look for files listed of type .html and in folders of type man that have freetype in thier paths)

You need to read the details of freetype, it does not mean free font time, it means the what gives you the ability to USE truetype fonts in X.

John.

Dear John,

Thanks for your great explanation.
I understand the issue of TTF license etc, and I am not looking for the free TTFs. My licensed Win2000 has TTFs (my box does not have any illegal soft). I copied these fonts into Linux. Anyway, there are TTFs in Linux, and I know where they are.

A few stunning screen shots of KDE, Krusader and Mozilla, including explanations how to achieve such a crisp and clear fonts are given here:

http://theregister.co.uk/content/archive/27788.html

I have gone through the process smoothly till searching KDE Control Center, where I was expected to find Fonts.
The Fonts were not there, so I was unable to complete the configuration.

Regards,
l

OK, what you need to do is install in Mandrake Control Center, not in a per se KDE control center (KDE has one, it is a desktop, Mandrake's will work for most desktops including KDE).

In the Mandrake Control Center, click System on the left. now, in top row of icons the third from left end should be fonts. Click there. tell it to get Windows fonts. If that does nothing, then Linux is not finding the fonts you have on your computer, and someone is going to have to help both of us figure out how to get the fonts path for a root user changed to include the file you copied font files into. NOTE, this installer will tell the older FreeType that comes with Mandrake to manage these fonts, convert the standard TT1s into a file type freetype understands, and check them for integrity all in one fell swoop, and show you what it is doing with bar progress boxes. Mine I thought was broken, but there were some bitstreams it could not convert(and freetype may have a pure number limit as to what it can import), so about 1\2 of what I had came into Linux.

Essentially, that is the best import tool I can direct you to for now, the next Mandrake should have improved font handling also. HTH

John.

Thanks.
Indeed, you are right it must be in the Mandrake Control Center and not KDE. I found the fonts there, and tried to Install Windows fonts. Nothing happen. I go Advanced, click Add, and go to WINNT, Fonts, and select all TTFs. Click Add list. The process starts, but the appearance of the fonts doesn't change. I try to do it agian - same result or X hangs. When it hangs even XKill doesn't kill the app and I have nothing else to do as reset the machine. When I start drakfont from the shell, and can see something like (I don't remember exactly):

drakefont: starting to import windows fonts, note that if some bogus fonts found X can hang...
Importing Windows fonts....

and... here I need the xkill

by the way, when drakefont doesn't hang and try to import the fonts, and can see in the shell that they seem to be imported into [i don't remember the path here]/drakefont/tmp/tmp/

(Adjusting screen and monitor settings in Mandrake CC improved the look of the fonts but very little. Main problem remain).

My font thing, when I go to advanced, tells me to select a font directory-- idea-- select the directory you imported fonts into, and NOT WINNT unless you actually named your import directory WINNT. WINNT should be the Windows NT\2000\XP directory for parts of Windows. IF it uses an NTFS file type ruling for parsing fonts when it thinks they are from a directory of that type, adn they are in a Linux file tpye because that is what Mandrake would use to stick them where they go when copying them, then every file would look corrupt. If in fact it is parsing some files, then it should have updated only what it could use unless it came across a file with a ttf file type label thta was not in fact TTF and it hung reading what should have been the header of that file. So, the directiory is gonna have to be manually pruned, or have one ttf in it whihc changes for each run of the font thing until it locks-- then you will have found bad file. Try pruing donw so you can isolate the files concerned and remove the bad one from both 2000 and Linux. It will lock both when used, 2000 at least in part.


IF you can do an
slocate -u
as root, then search for fonts with
slocate fonts
, your updateed list will tell you what if anything was installed probably (anything in the tmp dir was not installed probably, and if soemthing with same name in header as something installed now shows up, you know what did in fact get installed and that it was a bad font or fonts(the files themselves) that locked the font installer.

John.

OK. I go to give it a try.
By the way, what's the difference between freely downloaded and purchased distributions?
dimitri

Well, the powerpack coems with some commercial stuff, the PowerSuite with server related things that are not in the PowerPack or standard edition. Also, the PowerPack and PowerSuite have better documentation included, the download edition's International CD has documentation also in the paid packages.

Basicly, the PowerPack is 7 CDs, the download edition has three possible CDs. The additional CDs cover commercial, source code on CD, some supplementary apps on CD that were cut out of the three CD set for space reasons (less demanded apps may just the ones you want yourself). The PowerPack comes with printed docs, some of them (what is on CD insofar as docs are concerned would print to a 2" thick notebook full of paper if one language was chosen and the pages printed 2-up single-sided-- I have one such in English, my native tongue).

Hm... I see. I hoped it was somehow easier to get it up and running - no issues with fonts, missing libs, modules, filters etc.
dimitri

No, it does come with StarOffice 6.0 and a version of Cameleo (PowerPack), and those do have some fonts with them. So in one sense, yes things are kinda easier. Mandrake has to pay royalites on this kind of thing, so what happens is that you pay for the commerical stuf that is bundled-- fonts tend to come mostly with commercial apps if very well done-- this is true with Linux as with Windows (which by itself has a core font set that is limited, it is with app sets like office that you get precanned sets of fonts, or by buying font sets or fonts individually or MAKING them). The base installer is same, the contents available are much more vast. the commercial apps have been tuned for or by Mandrake, since it is the package that rules destination and need\dep defaults, and the default package is RPM. The commercial apps in the distro you pay for are not tars-- they are RPMs for Mandrake, but the Mandrake core is no different either. With Mandrake, the issue is not mostly the installer, it is how well the packs are tuned to Mandrake's tweaked file structuring-- and the packs included are reasonably well tuned.

John.

Thank you John. I am very grateful to all your help, because, although, I like a lot of things in Linux, it will take some time till I know it better. Personally, what distro do you like the most and would recommend me to buy?
What I need every day from my computer:
1. creating documents in three languages - russian, english, japanese.
2. DTP (books, brochures, adds, flyers - on quite an advanced level).
3. Gimp
4. billing system
5. database (MySQL)
Thank you once again. Tomorrow I will try to setup the fonts as you advised.
Good night. d

Well, from a visual viewpoint and the use of DTP and presentation shows, adn running on a workstation-- I would say Mandrake. Others might say SuSE, or Slack, but for what I do and a large part of what you do I would say Mandrake fits very well.

Gimp works, even to scanning stuff from my Epson 1650 Photo scanner. The Epson Stylus C80 prints well at 1440x720, and although PIPSs utils are not working yet for me, the ink level indicators are. I have both running as USB right now, and PIPS says it prefers LP0 for the utils to work-- that is a project for another day for me, I am satisfied things work well.

I tend to use a blend of things-- StarOffice, OpenOffice, Scribus 0.8 for PDF generation, for DTP output with good quality. For billing, depends on your exact needs-- if you can use a spreadsheet template as a form base for an invoice, then you can use StarOffice or OpenOffice as it has a spreadsheet and you can print from that. I am not familiar enough with MySQL or PreSQL to know if there are report front ends that can output formed invoices from DB records-- I have not seen the equivalent of Crystal Reports for Linux yet.

One area that linuix is kind of weak on is _economical_ Accounting\Billing\CRM\TM software in an integrated and cohesive package. In Windows I would say either Peachtree Complete or Quickbooks Pro for basic business accounting plus form output of statements, though HAVE used WordPerfect templates to hook to a Paradox database. In Linux, I would look at Quasar, but it will not use Japanese AFAIK and I am not sure about Cyrillic either. For CRM(Customer Relations Mgmt\Time Mgmt and tracking), there is not much readymade that I personally like in Linux-- in Windows I favor ACT and GoldMine, and both run in Win4Lin on 98SE. Quasar and Evolution in one thing with a customizeable database interlinkage to MySQL or DBII would approach what I want and need.

Because of the language mix, you might end up going the StarOffice route, and use ODBC compatibility links to MySQL. If you know DTP, then you can do roll-your-own forms with logos, etc., and StarOffice 6.0 can use anything that is ODBC compatible as a source of data.

I wish you the best of luck.

John.