96.4 Install Fonts: No Font Server

{#sec:xfonts}

Let’s assume you are not using a font server.

A good guide to setting up fonts in X is available from http://egads.ertius.org/~rob/font_guide.txt. The following provides a summary!

We assume you are using xserver-xfree86 version 4.1 or later.

First install x-ttcidfont-conf and defoma (retired 2012).

Then add the following to the top of the Files section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, so that TrueType fonts are available.

  FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"
  FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"

After installing any new TrueType fonts while in X be sure to run

  $ xset fp rehash

to ensure the new ones get noticed.

The order of fonts in the Files section has an impact on what fonts are used by Xorg. Be sure to give Type1 fonts (often rendered poorly in Xorg) a low priority by placing the following line at the end of the list of FontPaths:

 FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"

Another trick is to avoid Xorg rescaling fonts by giving a higher priority to the unscaled fonts, by placing the following two lines relatively higher in the lits of FontPaths:

  FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath        "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"


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