1.1. Conventions Used in this Document

• "X" and "XFree86" are (incorrectly) used here interchangably. The overwhelming percentage of Linux users indeed use XFree86.org's X implementation, but there are other implentations as well. The information here probably does not apply to those others in most cases.

• Where examples of commands are used, a "#" character is used to denote where typically the command would be run as the root user. A "$" is used where typically a non-root user would be executing the command.

• The examples use /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts as our TrueType font directory. There is no magic to this location, and could conceivably just as well be in any number of other locations. Some distros may have a default location for TrueType fonts, and you may want to use that instead.

• References to "xfs" are to the xfs as packaged by Red Hat (and some other distros) for versions 6.x and later. This differs significantly in some respects from the stock XFree86 xfs.

• References to "Netscape" are to the entire suite of programs from Netscape: Communicator, Navigator, Messenger, etc. And for all intents and purposes, font configuration in Mozilla is very similar (but generally looks better!).

• 'XF86Config' is the X configuration file. This has changed to 'XF86Config-4' for XFree86 v4.x. For the most part, we'll just use 'XF86Config' here.

  Also, while some aspects of XFree86 4.x configuration are the same as 3.3.x, there are some significant differences. We'll only highlight the differences. So unless noted otherwise, any comments or examples should apply to both 3.3.x and 4.x versions.

• File system layout varies somewhat from distribution to distribution. It is impossible to stay on top of every conceivable variation of who keeps which files where. So take the examples here with a grain of salt if the PATHs don't seem to match your system.

1.2. Change Log and What's New

• 2.04: October 30, 2002. Include info on TrueType "hinting", and enabling in freetype sources (thanks Andreas Oesterhelt!). A few new useful links, and minor cleanups.

  If this keeps up, this document will have to be renamed the Font Beautification HOWTO ;-).

• 2.03: October 17, 2002. Some brief notes on Red Hat 8.0 differences/newness, notably the changes that accompany Xft2. More on the distinction of core X fonts and Xft (and then Xft2).

• 2.01: October 03, 2002. Update links for obtaining the MS web fonts (TrueType fonts of choice). There are two Sourceforge projects with these fonts available, including. http://sourceforge.net/projects/font-tool/.

  Add section to Mozilla configuration to include info on Xft and anti-aliasing.

• 2.00: September 12, 2002. Wow, MS has taken down their webfonts page :( Not good news. Installing TrueType is a key ingredient to better living through nice fonts.

  Major re-organization by moving the font server section to the appendix, since any recent distro is already installing these, or they are not any longer needed.

  Some clarifications on gdkxft and font anti-aliasing. Finally, add Aristotle Pagaltzis's perl script for converting fonts.dir to fonts.alias. Include interesting example of using anti-aliased TrueType fonts in xterm. Note that GNOME 2 is out. Fix the usual assorted broken links.

  Clarifications on dpi settings, and add tip about unbalanced dpi causing major trouble with fonts.

• 1.95: February 11, 2002. A few corrections. Removed the section on Fonts in KDE since this has to have changed, and I don't know anything about KDE (does anyone want to help here?). Added a brief section on gdkxft, which adds anti-aliasing support for GTK+ 1.2 applications.

• 1.9: November 5, 2001. A few new links and some minor catch ups only.

• 1.8: June 25, 2001: Included a new section on Anti-aliasing and Xft from Danny Tholen <obiwan@mailmij.org>. Many thanks on this not so well documented subject. Also, Sebastiano Vigna's neat little package for downloading and installing MS webfonts: http://freshmeat.net/webFonts4Linux. A few other odds and ends.

• 1.70: April 18, 2001: Added links for converting Mac TrueType Fonts (thanks to Karl A. Krueger), links to Unicode TrueType fonts (thanks to Tzafrir Cohen for suggestions and URLs), and added a section on anti-aliasing with X 4.0.2 (or greater). Also, included a reference to cabextract, a utility that is now available for extracting Win32 Fonts (among other things) from a Window's "cab" archive.

• 1.60: March 21, 2001: A few very minor changes. Most notable news is anti-aliasing support now in XFree 4.02 (referenced in the Notes section only). Chinese translation URL added.

1.3. New Versions

The pre-release versions of this document can be found at http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu/index.html.

1.4. Copyright

Copyright © 1999 by Doug Holland, 2002 Hal Burgiss.

Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any such distributions.

All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating any Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator for more information.

In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the HOWTO documents, and would very much like to be notified of any plans to redistribute the HOWTOs, this one in particular! Web page authors are free to link to this HOWTO without restriction, though the author would appreciate an email informing him of this, just so he can boost his ego by knowing who else reads and links to this document.

Many of the terms mentioned in this document are trade names. Unless otherwise stated, all trademarks are property of their respective owners.

1.5. Credits

  Original author: Doug Holland.
  Email: meldroc@frii.com
  WWW: http://www.frii.com/~meldroc/
 

 
 Updated and maintained by Hal Burgiss.
  Email: hal@foobox.net
  WWW: http://feenix.burgiss.net/ldp/fdu/
 

Special thanks go to:

• The developers of the XFree86 Project, for all the hard work and time they have given. Also, Juliusz Chroboczek for his work with xfsft, and XFree86 4.x to help bring TrueType to the hungry masses. And Keith Packard for his anti-aliasing, and other work. This is not to slight the many, many other XFree86 volunteers.

• Font wizard Kristin Aanestad, whose legwork and insight on much of the xfs, TrueType, Netscape, and especially, the fonts.alias sections are much appreciated. More from Kristin at Some Linux for Beginners on a wide range of topics.

• Danny Tholen <obiwan@mailmij.org> is responsible for the nice Xft section, and examples.

• The folks at 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. Especially those who have offered suggestions and comments that help to make this HOWTO a better resource. Keep those cards and letters coming ;-)

1.6. Translations

Chinese: http://www.linux.org.tw/CLDP/mini/FDU.html by Yu-Chia Chang.

2.1. Setting The FontPath

The first place to look for curing font problems is the XF86Config file. /usr/X11/lib/X11/XF86Config or /etc/X11/XF86Config are the common locations. (This may be XF86Config-4 for XFree86 4.x.) 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.)

Use your favorite text editor and edit XF86Config. Near the top of the file in the "Files" section, you should see something vaguely like this:

This much should be the same, or at least similar, for both XFree86 3.x and 4.x. 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 displays it. (Note that Red Hat's xfs for versions 6.x and later has a different way of setting the FontPath. See the Section A.2 below for more on xfs.)

If the 100dpi fonts are not listed, they probably did not get installed for whatever reason, so you may want install them now. Default installations may put 75dpi fonts before the 100dpi fonts. If you have a high resolution display (1024x768 or higher), this means very tiny fonts. If this is the case, the first tweak you'll use is to switch the 75dpi and 100dpi FontPath lines:

2.2. X Server Command Line Options

The next thing you might need to do is adjust the command line options for the X server. It is important that the dpi resolution be accurate. Run this command:

   $ xdpyinfo | grep resolution resolution: 111x111 dots per inch
 

If this does not look to match what your monitor can do, or if it is unbalanced (e.g 98x95), you will need 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, or better. While an unbalanced setting reportedly can really play havoc with some fonts.

If you start X from the console command prompt, type:

$ startx -- -dpi 100 -depth 16 # v4.x syntax

Or these options can be stored in ~/.xserverrc. See the startx and xinit man pages for more on this.

If you use xdm (or friends such as gdm) for graphical logins, you'll want to edit your /usr/X11/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers file (or possibly /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers) 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

You want to specify a value that is compatible with your monitor's output.

More information is in the X, Xserver, xdm, xinit, and startx man pages.

3.1. Making TrueType Fonts Available

Let's start with the fonts first. Any TrueType font included with the various MS Windows incarnations should work. Don't forget word processors and other apps that may include their own fonts. MacOS fonts will only work if converted to a usable format. (See the links section for converter packages.) There are also some 'free' TrueType fonts available for download if you have already nuked that CD (see links section).

Many distributions are now bundling tools for automating the process of including quality TrueType fonts. SuSE, Debian, and Mandrake do (Red Hat 7.x does not at this time). See what packages you might have for this as this will be the most painless way to go. Essentially, these tools help migrate fonts from a Windows installation, or download those available from Microsoft [note 08/15/02 MS has recently removed these fonts!] , and then handle the installation and configuration all in one neat utility. If you do have such a utility, the below information may not be necessary!

In order to use TrueType, the fonts will have to be always accessible to X. This means they will have to be on a filesystem that is always mounted. This can conceivably be a Windows partition on a dual boot system. Alternately, the fonts can be copied to Linux. First su to root:

 # su -
 # mkdir -p /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
   

Now, change to the new font directory:

  # cd  /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
   

Then, add the fonts to this directory, either by copying them from your Windows system:

 # cp /mnt/<path_to_fonts>/*ttf  .
   

or by downloading those available directly from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm. Note 08/17/02: Microsoft has recently discontinued this page. At this time, the following pages (may!) still have these fonts available (or google search for them):

These can be unarchived under Linux with cabextract, which can be found http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/cabextract.php3. This would now seem to be the best way to go at this time.

A slick solution to this from Sebastiano Vigna is his http://freshmeat.net/webFonts4Linux, which automates the downloading, extracting and installation of the Microsoft fonts all in one neat package. A utility designed primarily for Red Hat can be found: http://sourceforge.net/projects/font-tool/, which includes all the core MS web fonts, plus relevant system configuration. There is a tarball, as well as RPMs (both require cabextract).

You can also get an RPM of WebFonts that contains some of the MS Web fonts from ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/contrib/noarch/noarch/webfonts-1-3.noarch.rpm. This has enough basic fonts to keep Mozilla and other web browsers happy. Something similar for Debian is http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/msttcorefonts.html. This does not include the actual fonts, but facilitates the installation.

If doing it yourself, you will also have to include the new TrueType directory(s) in the X server's fontpath. So with your text editor of choice add the line(s) as appropriate:

This configuration is for "core X font" support. For additional configuration relating to the new Xft rendering engine, see the sections below on XFT and anti-aliasing.

3.2. TrueType Hinting

"Hinting" is a TrueType specific feature, that is generally considered to be a useful technique that improves the appearance of TrueType fonts. Unfortunately, there are some licensing and patent issues involved with this, and it is disabled by default in the freetype sources! And also quite likely that if you are using vendor supplied binaries, it is disabled there as well.

To enable this feature, the sources need to be rebuilt. Look for include/freetype/config/ftoption.h in the freetype source tree, and then search for:

#undef TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER

And very simply, make this small change:

#define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER

Red Hat users can rebuild the src.rpm by toggling one setting at the top, and accomplish the same thing:

%define without_bytecode_interpreter 1

And change to:

%define without_bytecode_interpreter 0

Other vendors may have a similar, easy-to-use mechanism.

Then rebuild and install the finished binaries. Be sure to restart X as well since the freetype code is already loaded into memory by X.

Note that "hinting", "anti-aliasing", and "sub-pixel rendering" are separate concepts (see the section on Xft below for more). Again, this is not a cure-all for "ugly" fonts, but one more piece in the puzzle of font "beautification".

3.3. Configuration

This section pertains to installing and configuring TrueType fonts for any "freetype" based font renderer. This would include the freetype font module from XFree86-4.x, Red Hat's xfs, and the xfsft font server. Again, if you have used a distro supplied tool for migrating TrueType fonts, it is likely this has been done for you already. The steps described below would only be necessary for manual font installation.

There is still more work to be done before we can actually use any TrueType fonts. First, all font files must have lower case names. Secondly, they shouldn't have embedded spaces. And then, we will need to create a couple of configuration files to make things go.

Su to root, and change to the directory where the TrueType fonts are.

 # su -
 # cd /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
   

If you don't have ttmkfdir installed, check your distribution's repository, or it can be downloaded from: http://www.joerg-pommnitz.de/TrueType/ttmkfdir.tar.gz. This is necessary!

As of Red Hat 7.1, the above commands are run from the xfs init script. So restarting xfs (/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart) will accomplish the same thing for Red Hat users. Other distros may have similar shortcuts.

You should now have fonts.dir and fonts.scale files in your TrueType font directory. ttmkfdir is in the Freetype RPM for Red Hat users, and must be run before mkfontdir. With Debian based distros, there is a similar utility called mkttfdir, and is in the fttools Deb package. Though this apparently does not generate as many encodings as ttmkfdir. These commands may not always report errors, so verify that they were created and are not empty files:

 $ ls -l fonts.*
  -rw-r--r--  1 root   root    11657 Aug 17 10:31 fonts.dir
  -rw-r--r--  1 root   root    11657 Aug 17 10:31 fonts.scale
   

If you encounter any problems, try ttmkfdir with the - m switch. This will discard bad characters from the font file. Specify a number such as 50 or l00 (ttmkfdir -m 50). The files themselves are text files. Have a look:

 
 $ less  fonts.dir
  114
  webdings.ttf  -microsoft-Webdings-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-microsoft-symbol
  verdanaz.ttf  -microsoft-Verdana-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-ascii-0
  verdanaz.ttf  -microsoft-Verdana-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-fcd8859-15
  verdanaz.ttf  -microsoft-Verdana-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-15
  verdanaz.ttf  -microsoft-Verdana-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-9
  verdanaz.ttf  -microsoft-Verdana-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
 [...]
   

If ttmkfdir is persistently giving problems by not generating a proper output file, there may be one or more "bad" fonts (ie fonts it can't handle). In that case, just start with a few common ones, like Arial and Verdana. If this works, then add a few at a time.

Now be sure the new fonts are included in the FontPath. And either restart X (Ctrl-Alt-BS), or the font server (if using one). You could also try refreshing the FontPath:

 # xset fp rehash
   

Red Hat 6.x/7.x users can update the FontPath and xfs:

 # chkfontpath --add /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart
   

You should now be in business. You can check which fonts are available to X:

$ xlsfonts | less

or check them out further with xfontsel, or gfontsel. If they are visible to xlsfonts, then they are available to X and vice versa. If they are not there, try restarting X with Ctrl-Alt-BS.

This gets you as far as X knows about your new fonts. Individual applications will need to be configured to use them. GNOME and KDE will require additional steps as well (see the respective docs). You will also want to configure Xft (see below), if using XFree86 v4.x or later.

3.4. Font Servers

Historically, font servers were used to serve fonts over a network. Font resources could then reside on one host, and clients could access them as needed. But, the developers have enhanced these to include features such as the ability to render TrueType fonts. XFree86 4.x does have built in support for TrueType (see Section 4), making a font server not a necessity, though some distros default to using a font server for other reasons now.

XFree86 3.x does not come with built in TrueType support, so you'll have to add it yourself if you are using a 3.x version. This will mean installing a supplemental font server that does support TrueType. And, of course, installing the fonts themselves (see above). See the Appendix for font server installation, and related tips.

Any recent distro will have one or more font servers included, and the important configuration should be done by the installation program.

3.5. The fonts.alias File

fonts.alias is yet another font configuration file that can be used to tweak how fonts are handled. Like fonts.scale and fonts.dir, fonts.alias must be in the same directory as the fonts you are aliasing. It is not mandatory however, but does solve certain potential problems. Here is an example from the first line of/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/fonts.alias on a Red Hat system:

 fixed    -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1
   

This file can be created manually with a text editor, or conceivably with some fancy sed or awk scripting. There is an excellent discussion of this file, and other font related topics at Kristin Aanestad's site at http://home.c2i.net/dark/linux.html. There is also a link to a python script which can reportedly automatically generate a fonts.alias file at this same site. A perl version of this script is re-printed in the Appendix. Thanks to Kristin whose work and insight was the inspiration for this section!

Another potential use of fonts.alias would be to map one font to something quite different. Say you don't have TrueType fonts, and didn't want to install Microsoft's. You could alias nice, scalable Type 1 fonts to a TrueType. That way when the system (or some web page) wants a TrueType, you'd get something of comparable quality instead of bitmap that doesn't scale well.

Note that with XFree86 4.0.2 and greater, there are new font handling mechanisms available via the Xft extensions. Font aliasing is done in Xft's own configuration file: XftConfig. This is the preferred method where anti-aliasing, and the other new rendering features are desired. See the Anti-aliasing Section for more on this and de-mystification. This is only true where the application (i.e. the toolkit, e.g QT) itself supports the new extensions! At this time, not all do (yet).

4.1. Xft and Core Fonts

As mentioned, the new font handling improvements are the result of the development work behind Xft. Xft is an on-going effort to improve and modernize X's font handling. The end result will be radically different from the traditional X font handling (known as "core X fonts").

What we have now is essentially two different systems: one that has been around since the dawn of time (or even before :), and one that is radically new and still evolving! I emphasize this, since the "still evolving" part is likely to cause some confusion until the dust settles.

The initial release of Xft v1.0 with XFree86 4.0.2 is controlled by its configuration file, XftConfig. This changes with later versions, where the font configuration is handled by the fontconfig library, with its main configuration typically located /etc/fonts/fonts.conf. Of course, additional development has brought other improvements as well. For more on the Xft and Fontconfig, see the Fontconfig home page, http://fontconfig.org/.

What we, as end users, will notice and appreciate most, is the anti-aliasing support and other rendering enhancements we get from Xft. Though this is not the only benefit.

4.2. Anti-aliasing

Anti-aliasing is a technique for producing even smoother, crisper looking fonts by subtly softening the sharp, jagged edges. This has long been a feature of Apple and Microsoft font rendering, and is now making it's way into X via the X Rendering Extension specification. The new extensions provide other benefits as well. Distributions that support anti-aliasing with their stable/official versions are now being released.

That is the good news. The bad news is that not all drivers support anti-aliasing yet. This is a moving target, so you will have to dig around to find whether your chipset is supported or not. The recently released 4.2 should have near universal support. More not-so-good news is that not all applications are actually taking advantage of this yet. We will have to wait for the various toolkits (TK, Xaw, etc) to catch up. KDE is an exception, and has had strong AA support via the QT toolkit. The recently released GNOME-2, has AA support now too.

Anti-aliasing is not a cure-all, but is another piece of the font puzzle. Some point sizes may look better if not anti-aliased, and some systems just may not handle the various rendering enhancements as well as others.

If you are reading this long after the publication date (October 2002), hopefully most of these shortcomings will have been overcome. All hardware will eventually be supported, mainstream distros will have shipped releases that include the new extensions, and they will be enabled by default. Many apps will look better since they will be "AA" aware, and we won't have to jump through any configuration hoops just to make it work. In the meantime, read on ...

4.3. Red Hat 7.x and 8.x Differences

5.1. Netscape

Note that Netscape 4.x should be considered obsolete these days. There are much better choices including Mozilla, Galeon and Konqueror. This section is being maintained for historical reasons; for those users who may have to use older Netscapes for one reason or another; and because it may have relevance to other applications.

Let's face it, Netscape is an important application in Linux. We all use it, and we all need it, so let's look at it specifically for a minute. An out of the box Netscape installation is prone to the font problems we've discussed -- large fonts that get pixelized, splotchy looking fonts, fonts so small they are unreadable. In short, ugly. Maybe this is why you are here?

Hopefully, at this point you have followed the above suggestions. These steps can help greatly. TrueType font availability is almost a necessity. Many web pages specify font families -- like Arial -- that are not typically available to Linux users. This is bad design, but having some of the basic TrueType fonts available will help greatly in overcoming the short-sightedness of some designers. Microsoft -- can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

Assuming you have TrueType working, from the Netscape menu select Edit -> Preferences -> Fonts. Open the Variable Width Font droplist on the right side of the window. Your TrueTypes should be there along with other fonts. Choose which ever one suits your fancy as the default. Check the Allow Scaling checkbox too. If the available point sizes are 0 and 12, you can go down and, and enter your desired point size in the box to the right and click on the OK button. The down-side to this is that Netscape will not remember these settings, and you will have to do this each time you start Netscape. Unless -- you have fonts.alias set up already. Then this will solve these problems. See Section 3.5 for more on fonts.alias.

You might consider experimenting with some ~/.Xdefaults (or perhaps it's~/.Xresources on your system) settings too:

5.2. Mozilla

Mozilla configuration should be roughly the same in many respects, but it does not use the Xresources type X configuration. You might find, however, that Mozilla does a much better job of handling fonts, and pages will look better overall. Highly recommended! The only caveat is, it seems to need a fairly fast system. It may be pretty sluggish on older hardware.

Also, some user preferences can be stored in "user.js" and "unix.js". Not to be confused with "prefs.js". user.js will likely have to be created by hand. Put it in whatever .mozilla sub-directory you find prefs.js in (this is not a consistent location, but typically ends like *.slt). Attempt to set a minimum font size:

// Don't ever show me a font smaller than this: some samples. user_pref("font.min-size.variable.", 12); user_pref("font.min-size.variable.x-western", 12); user_pref("font.min-size.fixed.x-western", 12);

Other customizations can be made in userChrome.css and userContent.css. Again, both should be placed in the same directory as prefs.js. These files control much of the "UI" (the skin outside the browser window).

More info is available from the Mozilla developers: http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html.

It is also possbible to have anti-aliasing of fonts with Mozilla now. This might be a bit of work to get going at this time (Aug 2002), but it is possible. See the next section.

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. Desktop Environments like GNOME and KDE may provide much of this functionality however for apps that are under their control.

• 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 proportional fonts.

• Though not discussed here, Type 1 fonts provide many of the same benefits as TrueType and are historically better supported in the Unix world, especially for printing. XFree86 still seems to render TrueType somewhat better than Type 1. 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 ghostscript for more on this.

• While it is possible to specify a default point size for the xfs font server, very few applications will actually use this value.

• Abiword comes with a suite of fonts, called 'Abisuite'. Apparently, some of these fonts have the same names as some of the well known MS TrueType fonts: Arial, etc. And apparently, these are not as good quality. And because of the way X searches for fonts, it may find these first and use these, even if the 'real' ones are installed and may be the preferred choice. The solution is to either make sure your preferred fonts come first in the FontPath or maybe to uninstall 'Abisuite' if it's not needed.

• The new Xft rendering extensions of XFree86 4.x will mostly supplant similar features as provided by xfs, and older XFree86 extensions. For instance, font aliasing should be done in XftConfig if the new extensions are being used. This would only be true where the application is built against a toolkit (like QT or GTK) that supports the new extensions. This is still not universally supported.

6.2. Links

• XFree86 Project, the guys and gals who do an incredible amount of work to give us a killer GUI environment. An overview of XFree86 fonts: XFree86 4.x. And an explanation of Xft: http://www.keithp.com/~keithp/render/Xft.tutorial.

• The Fontconfig home page is http://fontconfig.org, for all the latest news on Xft and fontconfig (the future of X font handling).

• The Video Timings HOWTO, the ins and outs of getting the most from your monitor. (Applicable only to XFree86 v.3.x for the most part.)

• Font HOWTO Many good tips for installing fonts and for applications such as StarOffice, Applixware, Wordperfect, Ghostscript, TeX/LaTeX.

• A TrueType HOWTO, good tips for printing, and a few application specific tips.

• xfsft Homepage, TrueType font support for X. This is the origin of the "freetype" font module for XFree86 4.x, and Red Hat's xfs. Good site, and good links to other information related to fonts and TrueType.

• Some Linux for Beginners. Great font site, and other Linux topics. Covers many of the topics discussed here in more detail. Some font and other tips for Mozilla: http://home.c2i.net/dark/My_Mozilla_FAQ.html.

• Two guides specifically for Debian from Paul D. Smith: http://www.paulandlesley.org/linux/xfree4_tt.html and for 3.3.x: http://www.paulandlesley.org/linux/debian_tt.html.

• X-TrueType Homepage, and yet another TrueType Font server, especially good for Japanese, Chinese and Korean character sets. [Note: link is bad 08/18/02.]

• Tips on font size problems from 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://sourceforge.net/projects/font-tool/, contains the core MS TrueTyep fonts suitable for web browsing. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/msttcorefonts.html is a similar package for Debian.

• Sebastiano Vigna's http://gongolo.usr.dsi.unimi.it/~vigna/webFonts4Linux/ automates the downloading, extracting and installation of the Microsoft fonts all in one neat package.

• Freeware Connection -- Free Fonts Sites lots of links to lots of sites.

• Bitstream's Geometric Slabserif TrueType Font.

• Two converters for converting a Mac Font "suitcase" to a *nix compatible font: http://www.macinsearch.com/infomac2/font/util/tt-converter-15.html and http://www.netmagic.net/~evan/shareware/#TTFontConvert

• The Unicode HOWTO: http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Unicode-HOWTO.html

• Two sources of 'free' TrueType fonts with large Unicode support are Bitstream Cyberbit, which covers Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, combining diacritical marks, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and more, and is available from ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/extras/fonts/windows/Cyberbit.ZIP. And Lucida Sans Unicode, which is included in IBM's JDK 1.3.0beta for Linux, and covers Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, combining diacritical marks. This can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.maths.tcd.ie/Linux/opt/IBMJava2-13/jre/lib/fonts/ as LucidaSansRegular.ttf and LucidaSansOblique.ttf. Thanks to Tzafrir Cohen for these references. He also has a nice page on Hebrew fonts and related topics at http://www.iglu.org.il/faq/?file=133.