[SOLVED] Some installed fonts do not appear

jr_bob_dobbs · 04-24-2020, 12:32 AM

Some fonts installed in my system are visible by programs (gimp as our specific example) and some are not. I've had this problem in every distro (including Debian, Gentoo, Slackware, LFS) for over ten years. It seems to me an easy and obvious newb question, which is why I'm posting this here, but I've never solved it in all of this time.

My googling, now, as over ten years ago, simply says to use fc-cache. Well, if one uses a program in every permutation without results for ten years, one eventually realizes that the program, fc-cache in this case, is utterly useless.

Let's get specific: a run of fc-cache as root:

Code:

root@moonshadow:~ # fc-cache -f -v
/usr/share/fonts/OTF: caching, new cache contents: 58 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/TTF: caching, new cache contents: 169 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/Type1: caching, new cache contents: 64 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/Speedo: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/misc: caching, new cache contents: 125 fonts, 0 dirs
/root/.local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
/root/.fonts: skipping, no such directory
/var/cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/root/.cache/fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
/root/.fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
fc-cache: succeeded

But then to reveal the problem, a run of ls on the fonts directory...

Code:

root@moonshadow:~ # ls /usr/share/fonts
100dpi/  OTF/     TTF/    cantarell/  encodings/          misc/  util/
75dpi/   Speedo/  Type1/  cyrillic/   kanjistrokeorders/  plex/
root@moonshadow:~ #

Note the directories that fc-cache did not see, including plex and cantarell. What's with that?

I can run fc-cache in the plex directory and it will appear to run without error ... and still the fonts are not visible in gimp.

So now, finally, my newbie-level question... how the hell do I get all the fonts to be recognized?

shruggy · 04-24-2020, 01:06 AM

The directories that fc-cache scans for fonts are defined in font configuration files. E.g.

Code:

$ xmlstarlet pyx /etc/fonts/fonts.conf|sed -n 's/^)dir$/&\n-\\n/;/^(dir$/,/^)dir/p'|xmlstarlet depyx
<dir>/usr/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1</dir>
<dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/TTF</dir>
<dir>/usr/local/share/fonts</dir>
<dir prefix="xdg">fonts</dir>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>

____
See xmlstarlet(1)

jr_bob_dobbs · 05-03-2020, 12:25 PM

While I don't have a xmlstarlet program, your post did lead me to which files & man pages to read so that I was able to create a small & simple configuration file in the proper directory so that the fonts were finally recognized, thank you.

ondoho · 05-06-2020, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jr_bob_dobbs

While I don't have a xmlstarlet program, your post did lead me to which files & man pages to read so that I was able to create a small & simple configuration file in the proper directory so that the fonts were finally recognized, thank you.

Please share your solution.
Others will benefit.
Thank you.

jr_bob_dobbs · 05-24-2020, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Please share your solution.
Others will benefit.
Thank you.

All right.

Warning, for all I know, the directories and file names could be different per distro. I did this on Slackware.

Make a xml file called 08_xxy_more_font_dirs.conf (or whatever name you feel like using, the two leading numeric digits and the .conf I beleive are the only things that need to be adhered to) and put it in the /etc/fonts/conf.avail directory.

I wanted to add two fonts: Cantarell and Plex, which had already been installed. Contents of this file, six lines to follow:

Code:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
   <dir>/usr/share/fonts/cantarell</dir>
   <dir>/usr/share/fonts/plex</dir>
</fontconfig>

Then, in the /etc/fonts/conf.d directory, make a sym-link to that just-made file:

Code:

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d
ln -s ../conf.avail/08_xxy_more_font_dirs.conf

The syntax of ln can get very weird. In the above, I only specify where the symlink should link, not the actual name of the sym link. ln takes the name from the link and makes the actual sym link file in the current directory, which is why I cd'd there before running the ln command.

Run "fc-cache -f -v" and the output *should* show that the new
directories are being recognized and indexed.

Again, per-distro this may vary.