UnixFaqTrueTypeFonts

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Current revision as of 13:18, 27 November 2010

UnixFAQ: True Type Fonts AbiWord 1.0.x

Contents

True Type Fonts on Linux

The following page applies to 1.0.x. For 2.0 and 1.99.x (betas and release candidates), see UnixFaqFontsInAbiWord2dot0

1.0.x supports TrueType fonts in Linux. This is slightly complicated.

Prerequisites

Your system must already have a properly configured TrueType font server. Instructions for setting this up are available in the LDP Font HOWTO, in particular the section Making Fonts Available to X.

Please also refer to the CustomizingFontsForUnix page.

Automatically Installing Core Fonts

Simply run the webFonts.sh script from http://gongolo.usr.dsi.unimi.it/~vigna/webFonts4Linux/ and you should be set. At least it worked for me on Red Hat Linux 7.2 without problems. The remainder of these instructions assume the fonts get installed in /usr/share/fonts/MSCoreFonts

Manually Installing Core Fonts

If you dont want to run the script, you can install the fonts manually. See http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/FDU/truetype.html Install the fonts in /usr/share/fonts/MSCoreFonts.

Generating .afm and .u2g Files

needs .afm and .u2g files for each font file to do accurate printing and glyph name translation. Generate these with the ttftool that comes with :

# cd /usr/share/fonts/[[MSCoreFonts|MSCoreFonts]]
# for f in `ls *.ttf`; do /usr/share/[[AbiSuite|AbiSuite]]/bin/ttftool -f $f \ <br /> -u `echo $f | sed ''s/ttf$/u2g/;''` -a `echo $f | sed \ <br /> ''s/ttf$/afm/;''`;done

_Note: Second line of code broken into multiple lines to allow proper wrapping of entire page in TWiki (the problem may be unique to konqueror). If you cut and paste the code, recombine into one line as appropriate. -- Main.RandyKramer - 16 Aug 2003_

Getting to Detect the Fonts

Be aware that fonts will only appear in if they exist in or are symlinked to the fonts directory: /usr/share/AbiSuite/fonts

Certain font names are critical to the operation of , notably "Times New Roman". If you want to use Microsofts core fonts in and the core fonts are already properly installed in a separate directory, such as /usr/share/fonts/MSCoreFonts, do the following (logged in as root):

# cd /usr/share/[[AbiSuite|AbiSuite]]
# mv fonts fonts.orig
# mkdir fonts
# ln -s /usr/share/fonts/[[MSCoreFonts|MSCoreFonts]]/* fonts

If the fonts are already properly installed it doesnt appear necessary to update the fonts.dir and fonts.scale files (i.e. they can be left as symlinks).

Finally, make sure the font directory is *not* listed in the X or font server config files - instead the /usr/share/fonts/MSCoreFonts path should be listed. With older X versions, look for _FontPath_ entries in /etc/X11/XF86Config or similar. With later versions of X or when using a font server, look for the _catalogue_ list in /etc/X11/fs/config file. Then restart X and/or the font server.

should now detect the Microsoft core fonts.