XFree86 Font Deuglification Mini HOWTO
Doug Holland, meldroc@frii.com <mailto:meldroc@frii.com>
v1.0, 23 November 1999
How to fix ugly and unreadable X Window fonts.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Change Log
2. The XF86Config File
2.1 Setting The FontPath
3. X Server Command Line Options
4. TrueType Fonts (One of the few things Windows is good for)
4.1 xfstt
4.1.1 Installation
4.1.2 Adjusting the default font size
4.2 xfs
4.2.1 Installation
5. KDE
5.1 Applying KDE fonts & colors to non-KDE apps
6. Adjusting fonts in specific applications
6.1 Netscape Navigator/Communicator
6.2 WordPerfect
6.3 StarOffice
7. Credits
8. Legalities
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
One of the most annoying sets of problems I have had to deal with is
the abysmal default fonts and font settings of X (I'm talking
specifically about XFree86, other versions of X may be better.) Many
programs use fixed width default fonts when a variable width font
would be more appropriate. Other programs use fonts that are
ridiculously tiny and unreadable. The fonts that are bundled with
XFree86 are barely adequate for the job. It does come with a halfway
decent courier font, but its Times and Helvetica fonts are simple
bitmap fonts that pixelize when they are scaled. Yuck!
This HOWTO attempts to show how to adjust various font settings,
install new fonts, and do other things that will greatly improve the
appearance and readability of fonts on the X Window Desktop. This is
done by adjusting the FontPath in the XF86Config file, by adding
switches to X server command line in startx or xdm, by adding new
fonts, by installing the TrueType font server xfstt, and by using a
feature in the K Desktop Environment 1.1 that automagically adjusts
font settings in many applications, including non-KDE apps to set
their fonts and colors to match KDE's style settings.
Comments, corrections, additions and critiques are always welcome.
You can reach me at meldroc@frii.com <mailto:meldroc@frii.com>.
1.1. Change Log
0.1: Feb. 21, 1999: First release.
0.11: Feb. 27, 1999: Added copyright info to protect my butt.
0.12: Jun. 10, 1999: Added A Plea for Help.
0.20: Sep. 14, 1999: Added section on xfs for Redhatters. Many
thanks to Hal Burgiss for his contribution.
1.0: Nov. 23, 1999: Converted document to SGML, for submission to
the Linux Documentation Project. Removed Plea for Help.
2. The XF86Config File
The first place to look when seeking to cure font problems is the
XF86Config file. (/usr/X11/lib/X11/XF86Config or /etc/X11/XF86Config
are the usual locations.) If you haven't guessed already, the most
important part of this file relating to fonts is the FontPath. Before
we get into that, this would be a good time to check the other parts
of your X configuration. Bad monitor settings can be even more of a
headache than bad fonts, so make sure your refresh rate is as high as
your monitor can handle (85 Hz is great, 75 Hz is OK, 60 Hz is
painful.)
2.1. Setting The FontPath
Use your favorite text editor and edit XF86Config. Near the top of
the file, you should see something like this:
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
The FontPath tells X where to find the fonts it uses to render text on
your display. Order is important -- when an X application asks X to
render some text, the X server usually has some leeway to choose the
font that is used. The X server then goes through the FontPath and
grabs the first font it sees that matches the X client's criteria, and
then renders.
The default FontPath typically puts 75dpi fonts before the 100dpi
fonts. If you have a high resolution display, this means very tiny
fonts. The first tweak you'll use is to switch the 75dpi & 100dpi
FontPath lines.
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
Next, specify that you prefer to use unscaled bitmap fonts. If you've
ever used Netscape or any other program that displays titles using big
fonts, you'll notice that those fonts are pixelized. This is very
ugly and needs to be fixed. So add :unscaled to the ends of the misc,
100dpi & 75dpi fonts. You can even use both unscaled and scaled fonts
if you want, just put the unscaled FontPath lines first to tell X you
prefer unscaled fonts if possible.
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
After making these changes, restart X. Doesn't the desktop look
better already?
3. X Server Command Line Options
The next thing you need to do is adjust the command line options for
the X server. You'll want to use the -dpi switch which specifies the
display resolution in dots per inch. As a lot of systems use high
resolution displays these days, chances are they'll be working at 100
dpi.
If you start X from the console command prompt, type
startx -dpi 100.
If you use xdm for graphical logins, you'll want to edit your
/usr/X11/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers file, which will have the command line
for the Xserver in it. Mine has the line
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X -dpi 100 -gamma 1.6
More information is in the X and Xserver man pages.
4. TrueType Fonts (One of the few things Windows is good for)
Because the boys at Redmond are very concerned with the appearance of
their software (as opposed to the internal workings ;) they built
TrueType font support into Windows. Windows 95 and nearly every other
variety of Windows comes with Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New,
which are roughly equivalant to Helvetica, Times and Courier.
TrueType fonts are scalable, so they look good in large sizes, and
they are well hinted, so they are readable at small sizes. Many
windows applications come with dozens of TrueType fonts. Don't
microwave your Windows CD yet, you'll want to get the fonts first.
4.1. xfstt
Unfortunately, XFree86 does not come with built in TrueType support,
so you'll have to add it yourself. The easiest way of doing this is
with xfstt, a free TrueType font server.
4.1.1. Installation
xfstt is very easy to install. First, you'll want to download the
tarball from the web. The most current version is at
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/Xfstt-0.9.10.tgz
<http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/Xfstt-0.9.10.tgz>
Once you have the tarball, untar it.
tar -zxvf Xfstt-0.9.10.tgz
Then build it and install it. Read the INSTALL file for quick
instructions, but it's a no brainer. make; make install is all you
have to do. Once that's done, copy the TrueType fonts you've managed
to get from various sources to /usr/ttfonts, and you're ready to go.
Start xfstt by typing
xfstt --sync # updates xfstt's font database
xfstt & # runs xfstt in the background.
Then type
xset +fp unix/:7100 # tells X about xfstt.
or add
FontPath "unix/:7100"
to your XF86Config to tell X about the font service.
4.1.2. Adjusting the default font size
If your TrueType fonts appear to be very tiny, the following commands
help.
Add the -dpi switch to your X server command line (see section 3 to do
this.)
Use the --res switch to tell xfstt to increase the default resolution.
Use the following command line.
xfstt --res 120
4.2. xfs
xfs is an alternative font server that is now being included with
RedHat based distributions. xfs is based on the FreeType Font library
and provides similar functionality to xfstt. xfs is able to serve both
TrueType and Type 1 fonts, as well as legacy X fonts.
4.2.1. Installation
First step is to add TrueType Fonts to your linux filesystem. Su to
root, and make a directory to hold the fonts:
mkdir /usr/share/fonts/ttfonts
Then, add fonts to this directory, either by copying them from your
Windows system:
cp /mnt/win/path_to_fonts/*ttf /usr/share/fonts/ttfonts/
or by downloading those available directly from Microsoft
<http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm>.
These fonts are in self-extracting zip archives. You can still install
them though in linux
unzip <TTFONT.EXE>
Note that the font file names must be lower case. One quick and easy
way to convert them is to copy them to a DOS (FAT16) filesystem and
then copy them back. DOS doesn't do upper case. For a more linuxian
way, go to the directory containing the fonts and type this:
ls *TTF | while read f
do
[ -f "$f" ] && mv -f "$f" "`echo \"$f\" | tr A-Z a-z`"
done
You'll get the ">" prompt as you type each line, hit return at the end
of each line above. Note the punctuation -- those "backquotes" are
important! Once the TrueType fonts are properly installed, as root:
ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale
mkfontdir
Rerun these commands anytime the contents of your font directory
changes. Next, edit the xfs font config file, /etc/X11/fs/config, to
add your TrueType fonts to the server's font list:
catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo,
/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/ttfonts,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi
Alternately, you can use the 'chkfontpath --add <font>' command to add
fonts. While you're at it, you may want to change the default point
size too.
default-point-size = 140
This gives me 14 point, instead of the default 12. Some X apps use
this, some won't. Next, make sure the FontPath line in
/etc/X11/XF86Config is:
FontPath "unix/:-1"
Note that "unix/:7100" may also do the trick, but did not work with
the initial release. Comment out any existing FontPath with '#' since
you no longer need it. The xfs package itself should be installed
already with the other XFree packages. To make sure it runs as one of
the default services either use 'ntsysv' or
chkconfig --add xfs
Now xfs will start every time you boot. Now restart X to force the
new FontPath and start/restart xfs
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart
You should now have a functioning font server. You can check which
fonts are being served:
xlsfonts | less
or check them out further with xfontsel, and even better, gfontsel!
5. KDE
KDE is one of the best things that have happened to Linux and X in a
long time. It provides a consistent user interface that goes a long
way towards making Linux accessable to the average non-geek. More
information about KDE can be found at http://www.kde.org/
<http://www.kde.org/>. So why am I singing it's praises here? This
is because KDE 1.1 has a new feature that will make the fonts & colors
in your programs, including non-KDE applications consistent with KDE's
current style.
5.1. Applying KDE fonts & colors to non-KDE apps
This is very easy. Simply start up the KDE Control Center, go to
Desktop, and go to Style inside Desktop. In there, there will be a
toggle switch labled "Apply fonts and colors to non-KDE apps". Turn
it on, click OK, and your done! The next time you start up many X
applications, they will use the same colors and fonts that your KDE
applications do. Some people may like this feature better than
others, but if you don't like it you can always turn it off.
6. Adjusting fonts in specific applications
6.1. Netscape Navigator/Communicator
Netscape Communicator is particularly susceptible to font problems.
If you're using the default FontPath, your fonts will be very tiny and
very ugly. The first thing you'll want to do is fix your XF86Config
FontPath (see section 2.) Using 100dpi fonts improves readability
immensly. You'll also want check your font settings under
Edit/Preferences, under Appearance/Fonts. To get rid of bitmap font
pixelization, turn off the option "Allow Scaling" on the font
selection.
If you have xfstt or xfs, Netscape is perfectly capable of using
TrueType fonts. However, it doesn't handle xfstt's quirkiness very
gracefully. In Edit/Preferences, you can specify TrueType fonts as
the variable and fixed width fonts, however Netscape will not remember
the size you've picked after you closed it. If you haven't used the
-dpi switch when starting the X server or used the --res switch in
xfstt, you'll get very tiny fonts. Once I applied these two fixes,
TrueType fonts work great.
6.2. WordPerfect
Coming soon.
6.3. StarOffice
Coming soon.
7. Credits
Created by Doug Holland
Email: meldroc@frii.com <mailto:meldroc@frii.com>
WWW: http://www.frii.com/~meldroc/ <http://www.frii.com/~meldroc/>
Additional contributions by:
Hal Burgiss <mailto:hburgess@bellsouth.net>
Thanks go to:
The folks at comp.os.linux.x <news:comp.os.linux.x> who gave me a
hand in figuring all of this out in the first place.
The Linux community in general who made all of this possible in the
first place.
Microsoft and Apple: for providing the fonts that adorn my desktop.
8. Legalities
Copyright 1999 by Doug Holland.
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