Fonts and FreeBSD: A Tutorial
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# 5 Using type 1 fonts with X11

X11 can use either the `.pfa` or the `.pfb` format fonts. The X11 fonts are located in various subdirectories under `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts`. Each font file is cross referenced to its X11 name by the contents of the `fonts.dir` file in each directory.

There is already a directory named `Type1`. The most straight forward way to add a new font is to put it into this directory. A better way is to keep all new fonts in a separate directory and use a symbolic link to the additional font. This allows one to more easily keep track of ones fonts without confusing them with the fonts that were originally provided. For example:

    Create a directory to contain the font files
    % mkdir -p /usr/local/share/fonts/type1
    % cd /usr/local/share/fonts/type1

    Place the .pfa, .pfb and .afm files here
    One might want to keep readme files, and other documentation
    for the fonts here also
    % cp /cdrom/fonts/atm/showboat/showboat.pfb .
    % cp /cdrom/fonts/atm/showboat/showboat.afm .

    Maintain an index to cross reference the fonts
    % echo showboat - InfoMagic CICA, Dec 1994, /fonts/atm/showboat >>INDEX

Now, to use a new font with X11, one must make the font file available and update the font name files. The X11 font names look like:

    -bitstream-charter-medium-r-normal-xxx-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
         |        |      |    |   |     |  | | | | | |    \    \
         |        |      |    |   |     \  \ \ \ \ \ \     +----+- character set
         |        |      |    |   \      \  \ \ \ \ \ +- average width
         |        |      |    |    \      \  \ \ \ \ +- spacing
         |        |      |    \ \      \  \ \ \ +- vertical res.
         |        |      |     \     \  \  \ \ +- horizontal res.
         |        |      |      \     \  \  \ +- points
         |        |      |       \     \      \  +- pixels
         |        |      |        \     \      \
      foundry  family  weight   slant  width  additional style

A new name needs to be created for each new font. If you have some information from the documentation that accompanied the font, then it could serve as the basis for creating the name. If there is no information, then you can get some idea by using strings(1) on the font file. For example:

    % strings showboat.pfb | more
    %!FontType1-1.0: Showboat 001.001
    %%CreationDate: 1/15/91 5:16:03 PM
    %%VMusage: 1024 45747
    % Generated by Fontographer 3.1
    % Showboat
     1991 by David Rakowski.  Alle Rechte Vorbehalten.
    FontDirectory/Showboat known{/Showboat findfont dup/UniqueID known{dup
    /UniqueID get 4962377 eq exch/FontType get 1 eq and}{pop false}ifelse
    {save true}{false}ifelse}{false}ifelse
    12 dict begin
    /FontInfo 9 dict dup begin
     /version (001.001) readonly def
     /FullName (Showboat) readonly def
     /FamilyName (Showboat) readonly def
     /Weight (Medium) readonly def
     /ItalicAngle 0 def
     /isFixedPitch false def
     /UnderlinePosition -106 def
     /UnderlineThickness 16 def
     /Notice (Showboat
     1991 by David Rakowski.  Alle Rechte Vorbehalten.) readonly def
    end readonly def
    /FontName /Showboat def
    --stdin--

Using this information, a possible name might be:

    -type1-Showboat-medium-r-normal-decorative-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1

The components of our name are:

Foundry

  Lets just name all the new fonts `type1`.

Family

  The name of the font.

Weight

  Normal, bold, medium, semibold, etc. From the strings(1) output above, it appears that this font has a weight of medium.

Slant

  roman, italic, oblique, etc. Since the ItalicAngle is zero, roman will be used.

Width

  Normal, wide, condensed, extended, etc. Until it can be examined, the assumption will be normal.

Additional style

  Usually omitted, but this will indicate that the font contains decorative capital letters.

Spacing

  proportional or monospaced. Proportional is used since isFixedPitch is false.

All of these names are arbitrary, but one should strive to be compatible with the existing conventions. A font is referenced by name with possible wild cards by an X11 program, so the name chosen should make some sense. One might begin by simply using

    ...-normal-r-normal-...-p-...

as the name, and then use xfontsel(1) to examine it and adjust the name based on the appearance of the font.

So, to complete our example:

    Make the font accessible to X11
    % cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
    % ln -s /usr/local/share/fonts/type1/showboat.pfb .

    Edit fonts.dir and fonts.scale, adding the line describing the font
    and incrementing the number of fonts which is found on the first line.
    % ex fonts.dir
    :1p
    25
    :1c
    26
    .
    :$a
    showboat.pfb -type1-showboat-medium-r-normal-decorative-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
    .
    :wq

    fonts.scale seems to be identical to fonts.dir...
    % cp fonts.dir fonts.scale

    Tell X11 that things have changed
    % xset fp rehash

    Examine the new font
    % xfontsel -pattern -type1-*

References: xfontsel(1), xset(1), The X Windows System in a Nutshell, O'Reilly & Associates.

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