New HOWTO: XFree86 Font Deuglification Mini HOWTO Section 6: Odds and Ends Linux HOWTOs
Friday, March 23, 2001 02:07:09 PM
6. Odds and Ends
6.1. Notes
* Unfortunately there is no unified font handling system for Linux. You
will have to configure each individual program so you can use TrueType,
Type 1 or fonts that pique your fancy. And each program may well have its
own way of doing this so you will have to RTFM.
* Most GUI apps should be able to use TrueType, and Type 1 fonts too.
Wordperfect for Linux, however, cannot use TrueType. (See the links
section below for more on Wordperfect.) Text editors, terminal programs
and the like need fixed width fonts, and do not play well with TrueType
or other scalable fonts.
* Though not discussed here, Type 1 fonts provide many of the same benefits
as TrueType. You likely have many of these installed already.
Unfortunately however, Type 1 are not a web standard like TrueType. But
they are suitable for many other purposes. They are where it's at for
printing. See [http://www.ghostscript.com/] ghostscriptfor more on this.
* Anti-aliasing is only supported by XFree86 4.02. This is something hot
out of the oven. See [http://www.xfree86.org/~keithp/render] http://
www.xfree86.org/~keithp/render for details. This is a very recent
development, and great news!
* While it is possible to specify a default point size for the xfs font
server, very few applications will actually use this value.
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6.2. Links
* The Video Timings HOWTO, the ins and outs of getting the most from your
monitor.
* [http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO.html] Font HOWTO Many good tips
for installing fonts and for applications such as StarOffice, Applixware,
Wordperfect, Ghostscript, TeX/LaTeX.
* [http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/] xfsft Homepage,
TrueType font support for X. This is the origin of the "freetype" font
module for XFree86 4.x, and Redhat's xfs. Good site, and good links to
other information related to fonts and TrueType.
* [http://home.c2i.net/dark/linux.html] Some Linux for Beginners. Great
font site, and other Linux topics. Covers many of the topics discussed
here in more detail.
* [http://X-TT.dsl.gr.jp/] X-TrueType Homepage, and yet another TrueType
Font server, especially good for Japanese, Chinese and Korean character
sets.
* Tips on font size problems from [http://help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/
19960513-54.html] Netscape.
* Wordperfect for Linux -- Fonts and Printers by Rod Smith, the author of
Using Corel Wordperfect 8 for Linux from Que. Excellent information on
Wordperfect and where TrueType fits in.
* [http://www.xfree86.org] XFree86 Project, the guys and gals who do an
incredible amount of work to give us a killer GUI environment. Some info
on fonts in [http://www.xfree86.org/4.0/fonts.html] XFree86 4.x.
* Microsoft Web Fonts direct from the Lion's den -- and they are free! If
you don't have access to a win32 system to unpack these, then get the
ones labeled for Win3.1. These can be unpacked in Linux (see above).
* [http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/contrib/noarch/noarch/
webfonts-1-3.noarch.html] Web Fonts RPM package, contains a few of the MS
web browser fonts.
* HP FontSmart TrueType Fontsfrom Hewlett Packard -- Garamond, Bodoni, Dark
Courier, Euro Sign and Ozzie Black. Can be unzipped in Linux with the
unzip utility.
* Freeware Connection -- Free Fonts Sites lots of links to lots of sites.
* Bitstream's Geometric Slabserif TrueType Font.
* I also maintain a help and troubleshooting page on Redhat's xfs. There is
also an RPM there with the MS TrueType fonts, and working fonts.scale and
fonts.dir in the package.
