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Here are some pages that describe how fonts work, and how to set up nice fonts on your system. Note: the FreeType library (for displaying TrueType fonts) has recently started using FontConfig for configuration rather than ~XftConfig, which is now obsolete. BitstreamVera is a free TrueType font specifically developed for FreeSoftware by [GNOME] and Bitstream (a company that makes fonts). They look much nicer than the default Luxi fonts (especially sans-serif) that Red Hat use, so you can replace them with a simple substitution, either system wide in <tt>/etc/fonts/local.conf</tt> or <tt>~~/.fonts.conf</tt> for your user alone. ([Google], find this page on <tt>how to change the default KDE font</tt> please!) <verbatim> <alias> <family>sans-serif</family> <prefer> <family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family> <family>Luxi Sans</family> <family>Albany AMT</family> <family>Verdana</family> <family>Nimbus Sans L</family> <family>Arial</family> <family>Helvetica</family> </prefer> </alias> </verbatim> Change the ordering to suit! !!! Enable or disable hinting Put the following into your <tt>/etc/fonts/local.conf</tt> or <tt>~~/.fonts.conf</tt> to enable or disable automatic hinting. If you set it to false, fonts don't scale very well (it often defaults off for patent reasons). Set it to true and the fonts look smoother. <verbatim> <?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <match target="font"> <edit name="autohint" mode="assign"> <bool>true</bool> </edit> </match> </fontconfig> </verbatim> Thanks to [GNOME Hacks | http://gnome-hacks.jodrell.net/hacks.html?id=67].pe !!! [KDE] fonts With [Debian] (possibly others) fonts can work fine on [GNOME] but not [KDE]. Install the xfstt package ([X] font server for TrueType) and it will then use TrueType fonts. !!! Install Microsoft TrueType core fonts (Debian/Ubuntu) *sudo aptitude install msttcorefonts !!! Miscellaneous Technical Notes: In the <tt>fonts.dir</tt> file, you can point different encodings (charsets) to the same physical file, __BUT ONLY FOR SCALABLE FONTS__. I spent quite a while trying to determine why my characters were wrong when I tried to do this for a bitmap font (eg a 75dpi one). It is the scalable font backends that do the magic here, not X itself. !!! See also * Using AntiAliasedFonts in graphical applications. Laptop users might also be interested in SubPixelAntiAliasing. * See UnicodeNotes for hints about font support for unicode applications. * OpenOfficeNotes about installing new fonts under [OpenOffice.org] * MacromediaFlash on fonts for flash. This also has general purpose fonts notes * [Font HOWTO | http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO/] gives lots of background and overview about the different kinds of fonts ([Type1], TrueType), faces (<tt>serif</tt>, <tt>sans-serif</tt>), and basically everything you ever wanted to know. * [TrueType Fonts with XFree86 4.x mini-HOWTO | http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/TT-XFree86.html] describes setting up your [XServer] to use true type fonts, such as those used by MicrosoftWindows. * [TrueType Fonts in Debian mini-HOWTO | http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/TT-Debian.html] describes true type fonts for [Debian] users, including viewing on screen via applications such as X, groff(1) and tex, as well as printing via GhostScript. * The [XFree86 Font De-uglification HOWTO | http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu/] is probably the most up-to-date/relevant infomation for setting up fonts under recent ([XFree86] 4) distributions. * [Introduction to Fonts in Linux | http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/10/08/1916222] - overview of font systems ---- [CategoryXFree86Notes]
5 pages link to
FontNotes
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AntiAliasedFonts
TrueType
LinuxOnTheDesktop
KDENotes
BitstreamVera