Font Installation on Unix and Other Systems
Solution(s):
Windows and Macintosh systems have one central directory
where all applications access their fonts. Unfortunately, in Linux and
Unix, each application implements fonts differently: the X Window system
has its way, word processors want it a different way, printing systems
want it another way, and so on.
Several font installation examples are documented
below with links provided by IDAutomation's clients. If they are not
helpful, contact the operating system or application vendor for installation
procedures.
IDAutomation’s TrueType and PostScript fonts are created
to the standards set for TrueType and PostScript fonts, and can be treated
as any other font for the purpose of getting the vendor’s assistance.
IDAutomation can only support the font tools, the symbology and the
fonts themselves as stated in the
statement
of support – IDAutomation is unable to assist with the installation
of the fonts on Unix or Linux systems. Assistance for installing fonts
on a Unix platform can be obtained from the consulting company mentioned
in the
tutorial about installing fonts in Unix for Oracle Reports or consider
IDAutomation’s Java Barcode
Packages, which work on any operating system with a Java Virtual
Machine.
Sun Solaris Xsun supports TrueType fonts. Use the
Font Administrator GUI, /usr/dt/bin/sdtfontadm,
to add them to the server's list of fonts.
Currently, Linux does not provide native support for
TrueType fonts, but it is possible to install and use TrueType fonts
with xfstt, a free TrueType font server. More information on xfstt is
available at the following links:
Font Installation:
Enter the following commands in sequence from a terminal
window (Assuming the ttf file has been downloaded to "/usr/local/fonts/ttf"
directory)
cd /usr/local/fonts/ttf
ttmkfdir > fonts.scale
mkfontdir
This will create two files, "fonts.scale" and "fonts.dir",
containing a list with full font names for each true type font. Finally,
add this directory to XWindow's font search path. Redhat users can make
use of "chkfontpath" tool to add search path.
chkfontpath -a /usr/local/fonts/ttf
If the "chkfontpath" utility is not available, then
manually edit the "/etc/X11/xfs/config" file (or "/etc/X11/fs/config").
Find the line "catalog = ". Add the directory to the end of list,
separated by commas.
Sometimes, the font server needs to be restarted for
the changes to take place.
This information was from one of IDAutomation's previous customers.
With most PostScript installations, PostScript interpretation is
done in the printer. All that is needed is to get the proper PostScript
commands onto the stack in the printer. For instance: When a PostScript
program has been created to print a document, prepend the .pfa font
to the file, then when the PostScript program is ready for use, add
the following line in the program: /FontName findfont 12 scalefont setfont.
This will load the font named "FontName" from the font dictionary, set
it to a scale of 12 and set it to the active font; this will work with
any OS. If the flat text document were sent to LPT1 on a windows machine
by typing or copying, not by the printer driver, the same thing would
be achieved. For additional information, refer to the
installation
of PostScript fonts on Unix using X11 example.
The ASCII version of IDAutomation fonts does not always
work with X-Server on Sun Solaris with Oracle Reports. This is what
one customer did to get the fonts working.
Please note that
the following steps were used to install the sample version of the IDAutomation
Interleaved 2 of 5 fonts, sADVI25f, on a Solaris machine. In order
to get the ASCII version font to work properly in another environment,
please substitute the font name to be loaded for IDAutomationC128M.
Customer's Solution:
"I told you that the binary version
*.pfb worked on my X-Server but I need this font for Oracle Reports.
Oracle Reports can only handle the ASCII version, so the problem was
not solved with the binary version. But I found a solution":
(0) Make the ASCII-file work:
******************************
I found a website that explains how to generate ASCII out from a binary
font file. For Sun Solaris this is the groff-package, which you can
download from www.sunfreeware.com.
After you have downloaded this package copy this file to /usr/local/.
Then do the following:
1. gzip -d groff-1.17.2-sol8-sparc-local.gz
2. pkgadd -d groff-1.17.2-sol8-sparc-local
This two steps install the needed files. With these files comes an executable
called pfbtops which lies in /usr/local/bin after the successful installation.
To make an ASCII version of the pfb file do the following:
pfbtops IDAutomationC128M.pfb
> IDAutomationC128M.pfa
The result is a ASCII version of the font which I can use with my X-Server.
This file looks completely different in a text editor than the original
but it works, and the version in the header is now 1.0.
(1) Installation on Sun Solaris:
*********************************
1. cp IDAutomationC128M.pfa
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline/
2. cp IDAutomationC128M.afm
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm/IDAutomationC128M.afm
//The following two steps are only needed when you have transferred
it
from a Windows Client
3. dos2Unix /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline/IDAutomationC128M.pfa
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline/IDAutomationC128M.pfa
4. dos2Unix /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm/IDAutomationC128M.afm
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm/IDAutomationC128M.afm
5. cd /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
6. ln -s ./outline/IDAutomationC128M.pfa
IDAutomationC128M.pfa
7. Modify fonts.dir and fonts.scale and add the following line:
IDAutomationC128M.pfa -adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
8. Modify fonts-alias and add the following line:
IDAutomationC128M.pfa "-adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1"
(2) How to test the correct font installation on Solaris:
**********************************************************
1. set the Display-Variable to the correct X-Server
2. "xset q". This command shows you the fontpath of your current X-Server.
This is an executable which you can find under
/usr/openwin/bin. This command produces an output similar to the following:
--
# xset q
Keyboard Control:
auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000000
auto repeating keys: 0000000000000000
0000000000000000
0000000000000000
0000000000000000
bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
acceleration: 2/1 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
timeout: 600 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x21 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 255
Font Path (as one single line):
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/,
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/,
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/
Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled
DPMS (Energy Star):
Server does not have the DPMS Extension
FBPM (Frame Buffer Power Management):
Server does not have the FBPM Extension
--
3. "xlsfonts -l | grep <fontname>". This command shows if the X-Server
can talk to the font. This command can produce the following output
after the installation of
IDAutomationC128M:
--
# xlsfonts -l | grep 25f
--> 32 255 some 0 22 94 0
-adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
--> 32 255 some 0 22 94 0
IDAutomationC128M
--
4. "xfd -fn -adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1".
This command spans a window on your X-Server-Desktop which contains
all the characters from the corresponding font. If there is something
wrong with the specified font then this command will produce an output
similar to:
"xfd: no font to display". When all is correct a window will appear
with all the characters."
This is all of the information IDAutomation has concerning the font
installation on Sun Solaris.
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