2.1. X.org Font Subsystems

At the present time, X.org and XFree86 use two font subsystems, each with different characteristics:

1. The original (15+ year old) subsystem is referred to as the "core X font subsystem". Fonts rendered by this subsystem are not anti-aliased, are handled by the X server, and have names like:

   -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1

2. The newer font subsystem is known as "fontconfig", and allows applications direct access to the font files. Fontconfig is often used along with the Xft library, which allows applications to render fontconfig fonts to the screen with antialiasing. Fontconfig uses more human-friendly names like:

   Luxi Sans-10

Over time, fontconfig/Xft will replace the core X font subsystem. At the present time, applications using the Qt 3 or GTK 2 toolkits (which would include KDE and GNOME applications) use the fontconfig and Xft font subsystem; most everything else uses the core X fonts.

In the future, Linux distributions may support only fontconfig/Xft in place of the XFS font server as the default local font access method.

An exception to the font subsystem usage outlined above is OpenOffice.org (which uses its own font rendering technology).

3.1. Get a Better FreeType RPM

FreeType compiled with BCI presented much better screen font rendering results.

Get RPMs for your distribution here:

• Fedora 6 RPMs.

• Fedora 5 RPMs by Cody DeHaan.

• CentoOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4, and Fedora 3 and 4 RPMs.

• Mandrake RPMs through the Penguin Liberation Front website. The package name is libfreetype6.

• Debian Sarge users have the BCI enabled FreeType from the "testing" and "unstable" package repositories. Next stable Debian version will include it as their default. The Debian package name is libfreetype6.

If you use one of these distributions, but on a platform that binary RPMs are not being provided, you can easily compile your own (even if you don't have any software compilation skills) following the instructions on Appendix B.

WE WILL ACCEPT CONTRIBUTIONS of distribution specific FreeType repackaging, so if you can contact us, we appreciate.

If you are interested in repackaging your own FreeType, see how we repackage the Fedora Core and Red Hat RPMs with BCI on the Appendix A as a reference.

3.2. Configure Your Desktop

General Guidelines

The main idea is to use good hinted fonts all around. As a general rule, we'll use Tahoma 8pt for desktop widgets, LucidaTypewriter 8pt for monospace text, and Verdana 8pt, 9pt or 10pt for fluent text reading or web surfing. These are the default font sizes on a Microsoft Windows desktop, and they look good on a 1024x768 screen. If you have a better screen resolution (1280x1024, 1600x1200) our suggestion is to stick with these fonts but increase their sizes.

We choose these fonts, specially Microsoft's Tahoma and Verdana, because they look perfect at small sizes (8pt, due to their excellent hinting), providing a more efficient screen utilization. They'll make your desktop look beautiful, professional, clean and comfortable. These fonts were designed for this purpose.

For window titles or text that will appear in bigger sizes, you may choose whatever you want because bigger sizes hinting are not so relevant.

4.1. Bitstream Vera Fonts

Bitstream donated to the open world their Vera set of fonts, which are good quality and include a sans, sans serif and monospace fonts. This fonts are not very well hinted but can be used for desktop widgets, programming, fluent text reading and web surfing. Here is a screen shot:

At these sizes, these fonts look great, specially with anti-aliasing. But unfortunately their bad hinting can be noted at small sizes.

Bitstream Vera fonts are included by default in all modern Linux distributions.

4.2. DejaVu Fonts

The DejaVu fonts are modifications of the Bitstream Vera fonts designed to extend this original for greater coverage of Unicode. It is being included by default in all modern Linux distributions, and everywhere you were thinking to use Bitstream Vera, DejaVu is another option with a more complete Unicode set.

4.3. Webcore Fonts

The official distribution of these fonts for Linux include tarballs and RPMs for several distributions.

Also known as the Microsoft fonts, these are the best fonts available to be used on the screen. Very well hinted for small sizes makes them perfect for desktop widgets, fluent text, etc.

They are Verdana, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Arial, Trebuchet, Comic Sans, Impact and others. Here is a screen shot of them:

As we said before, Tahoma and Verdana were designed for the screen, but they are getting overused for many other purpose.

Our objective here is to provide links where you can get good quality RPMs, debs, etc for your distribution. These packages are provided by independent contributors, so if you have the skills to build them for your distribution, please contact us and send the URL for your packages. WE WILL ACCEPT CONTRIBUTIONS.

Packages for distributions:

• Red Hat and Fedora RPMs. This is the orignal package, and it is reported to work in many other distributions.

• Mandrake signed RPMs by Borgnet (Scott Grayban).

• Debian Sarge (currently stable) and Etch (soon to be stable) both contain a package called msttcorefonts which contains the MS core fonts. Most Debian users running a GUI will probably install it.

• Please send us more, such as Slackware and Debian packages.

After installing this font package you'll also note a better rendering of web pages, because professional web designers use to use them for their pages.

Some people say these fonts are free only for persons who have a Microsoft Windows license.

5.1. Linux to Windows and vice-versa

If you need to exchange documents with Windows users, you should use Windows fonts. This is the general rule. So you should install the Webcore Fonts package and take care to use only Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, etc, on your docs.

The combination of these fonts with the cross-platform, high quality OpenOffice.org suite, gives you a truly productive teamwork tool.

5.2. Linux to Linux

The fonts available on modern Linux distributions, to produce good quality documents are the following:

Using these fonts you'll be able to safely exchange and print documents between different modern Linux distributions.

There are other fonts available on your Linux system, but we did not list them here because they are low-quality (obsolete) bitmap fonts, to be used on the screen, and not for documents.

5.3. Any to Any with OpenOffice.org and Bitstream Vera Fonts

The title says it all. OpenOffice.org's all platform packages include the Bitstream Vera package. So if you'll take care to use only these fonts, your documents will open nicely in any other OpenOffice.org installation.

As a side note, OpenOffice.org excels in portability. In any platform, OOo looks and works the same, and it takes special care with your documents layout. It is simply a great tool.

5.4. A Very Small Guide of Style

To make your documents have a professional look, you should choose the correct font for the document purpose. Our current culture standardized that serif fonts (Times, etc) are the right choice for books and magazines. Now sans-serif fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana) are gaining space and some may feel these fonts provide a more modern look, because of their lack of serifs. We have seen them being used in printed articles and commercial proposals.

For web pages, Arial and Helvetica or specially Verdana, are definitively the right choice.

For further more deep information, please refer to Section 7, by Donovan Rebbechi on typography, about cultural and social facts that influenced font designing evolution, and what are being produced today by designers.

6.1. Step 1: Prepare Your Environment to Build The Package

To build RPMs, you need a special structure of directories and some configurations on your environment. You should do everything as a regular user, in all steps. In fact, we recommend that you do not do this as root.

To create this directories, do this:

bash$ cd ~
bash$ mkdir -p src/rpm
bash$ cd src/rpm
bash$ cp -r /usr/src/redhat/* .
bash$ ls
BUILD/  RPMS/  SOURCES/  SPECS/  SRPMS/
bash$ 
			

(the "~" is an alias to the current user's home directory name, and the command line knows it should interpret it this way)

Of course this is on a Red Hat system, but the important point is to have the following directories under src/rpm:

• BUILD/

• RPMS/noarch/

• SRPMS/

Then, you'll have to create the .rpmmacros file in you home directory, with this single line content:

%_topdir        YOUR_HOME_DIR_HERE/src/rpm
			

And you should substitute YOUR_HOME_DIR_HERE with the absolute name of your $HOME directory. So as an example, my .rpmmacros file contains this line:

%_topdir        /home/aviram/src/rpm
			

6.2. Step 2: Prepare the Fonts Files to Package

Now you must think about a name for your font collection. To make things easy in this documentation, we'll use the name myfonts from now on. Then you must create a directory named ~/src/myfonts/myfonts (yes, myfonts two times) and put all your .ttf files right under it. So you'll have something like:

bash$ cd ~/src
bash$ find myfonts/myfonts/

myfonts/myfonts/
myfonts/myfonts/font1.ttf
myfonts/myfonts/font2.ttf
myfonts/myfonts/font3.ttf
...

			

6.3. Step 3: Create a .spec File With This Template

To build an RPM package you'll have to create a .spec file that provides instructions to the package builder on how to organize the files, package description, author, copyright, etc. We provide a template here that you can use to start your work. The template looks like this:

Name: myfonts     
Summary: Collection of My Funny Fonts   
Version: 1.1   
Release: 1
License: GPL    
Group: User Interface/X
Source: %{name}.tar.gz
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/build-root-%{name}
BuildArch: noarch
Requires: freetype
Packager: Avi Alkalay <avi unix sh>    
Prefix: /usr/share/fonts
Url: http://myfonts.com/     

%description    
These are the fonts used in our marketing campaign, designed by our marketing agency specially for us.
The package includes the following fonts: Font 1, Font 2, Font 3, Font 4.


%prep

%setup -q -n %{name}

%build

%install
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}
cp -r %{name}/ $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{prefix}


%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT


%files
%defattr(-,root,root,0755)
%{prefix}/%{name}


%post
{
	if test -x /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.fonts ; then
		# This is a SUSE system. Use proprietary SuSE tools...
		if test "$YAST_IS_RUNNING" != "instsys" ; then
			if test -x /sbin/SuSEconfig -a -f /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.fonts ; then
				/sbin/SuSEconfig --module fonts
			else
				echo -e "\nERROR: SuSEconfig or requested SuSEconfig module not present!\n" ; exit 1
			fi
		fi

		if test -x /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.pango ; then
			if test "$YAST_IS_RUNNING" != "instsys" ; then 
				if test -x /sbin/SuSEconfig -a -f /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.pango ; then
					/sbin/SuSEconfig --module pango
				else
					echo -e "\nERROR: SuSEconfig or requested SuSEconfig module not present!\n" ; exit 1
				fi
			fi
		fi
	else
		# Use regular open standards methods...
		ttmkfdir -d %{prefix}/%{name} \
			-o %{prefix}/%{name}/fonts.scale
		umask 133
		/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir %{prefix}/%{name}
		/usr/sbin/chkfontpath -q -a %{prefix}/%{name}
		[ -x /usr/bin/fc-cache ] && /usr/bin/fc-cache
	fi
} &> /dev/null || :


%preun
{
	if [ "$1" = "0" ]; then
		cd %{prefix}/%{name}
		rm -f fonts.dir fonts.scale fonts.cache*
	fi
} &> /dev/null || :

%postun

{
	if test -x /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.fonts ; then
		# This is a SUSE system. Use proprietary SuSE tools...
		if test "$YAST_IS_RUNNING" != "instsys" ; then
			if test -x /sbin/SuSEconfig -a -f /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.fonts ; then
				/sbin/SuSEconfig --module fonts
			else
				echo -e "\nERROR: SuSEconfig or requested SuSEconfig module not present!\n" ; exit 1
			fi
		fi

		if test -x /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.pango ; then
			if test "$YAST_IS_RUNNING" != "instsys" ; then 
				if test -x /sbin/SuSEconfig -a -f /sbin/conf.d/SuSEconfig.pango ; then
					/sbin/SuSEconfig --module pango
				else
					echo -e "\nERROR: SuSEconfig or requested SuSEconfig module not present!\n" ; exit 1
				fi
			fi
		fi
	else
		# Use regular open standards methods...
		if [ "$1" = "0" ]; then
			/usr/sbin/chkfontpath -q -r %{prefix}/%{name}
		fi
		[ -x /usr/bin/fc-cache ] && /usr/bin/fc-cache
	fi
} &> /dev/null || :








%changelog    
* Sun Apr 15 2007 Avi Alkalay <avi unix sh> 1.1
- Added support to SUSE on installation scriptlets
* Thu Dec 14 2002 Avi Alkalay <avi unix sh> 1.0
- Tested
- Ready for deployment
* Thu Dec 10 2002 Avi Alkalay <avi unix sh> 0.9
- First version of the template

					

This file must be named as the name of the package - myfonts.spec in our example. And you must put it under the main directory of the package. So in the end we'll have something like this:

bash$ cd ~/src
bash$ find myfonts
myfonts/
myfonts/myfonts.spec
myfonts/myfonts/
myfonts/myfonts/font1.ttf
myfonts/myfonts/font2.ttf
myfonts/myfonts/font3.ttf
...

			

6.4. Step 4: Build It

We are almost ready to go. Next steps:

bash$ cd ~/src
bash$ tar -czvf myfonts.tar.gz myfonts
bash$ rpmbuild -ta myfonts.tar.gz
			

Done (after seeing a lot of messages about the building process). So we basically created a .tar.gz containing all our font files and myfonts.spec, and then we used rpmbuild on it, that will look for myfonts.spec inside the archive and follow its instructions.

You'll find the generated RPM under ~/src/rpm/RPMS/noarch/ directory, and this is the file you'll deploy and install. Under ~/src/rpm/SRPMS/ you'll find the source RPM file, which you should backup if you need to regenerate the deployable RPM again in the future. When you'll need it, you should do:

bash$ rpmbuild --rebuild myfonts-1.0-1.src.rpm
			

And the RPM file will be generated again.

For more information and advanced RPM packaging, read the Maximum RPM book, available in many formats in the rpm.org site.

7.1. Families of Typefaces

Typically, typefaces come in groups of a few variants. For example, most fonts come with a bold, italic, and bold-italic variant. Some fonts may also have small caps, and demibold variants. A group of fonts consisting of a font and its variants is called a family of typefaces. For example, the Garamond family consists of Garamond, Garamond-italic, Garamond-bold, Garamond bold-italic, Garamond demi-bold, and Garamond demi-bold-italic. The Adobe expert Garamond font also makes available Garamond small caps, and Garamond titling capitals.

7.2. Classifications of Typefaces

7.3. Ligatures, Small caps fonts and expert fonts

7.4. Font Metrics and Shapes

Font metrics define the spacing between variable width fonts. The metrics include information about the size of the font, and kerning information, which assigns kerning pairs -- pairs of characters that should be given different spacing. For example, the letters ``To'' would usually belong in a kerning pair, because correctly spaced (or kerned), the o should partly sit under the T. Typesetting programs such as LaTeX need to know information about kerning so that they can make decisions about where to break lines and pages. The same applies to WYSIWYG publishing programs.

The other important component of a font is the outline, or shape. The components of the fonts shape (a stroke, an accent, etc) are called glyphs.

8.1. Bitmap Fonts

A bitmap is a matrix of dots. Bitmap fonts are represented in precisely this way -- as matrices of dots. Because of this, they are device dependent -- they are only useful at a particular resolution. A 75 DPI screen bitmap font is still 75 DPI on your 1200 DPI printer.

There are two types of bitmap fonts -- bitmap printer fonts, such as the pk fonts generated by dvips, and bitmap screen fonts, used by X and the console. The bitmap screen fonts typically have a bdf or pcf extension. Bitmap screen fonts are most useful for terminal windows, consoles and text editors, where the lack of scalability and the fact that they are unprintable is not an issue.

8.2. TrueType Fonts

TrueType fonts were developed by Apple. They made the format available to Microsoft, and successfully challenged Adobe's grip on the font market. True type fonts store the metric and shape information in a single file (usually one with a ttf extension). Recently, font servers have been developed that make TrueType available to X. And PostScript and ghostscript have supported TrueType fonts for some time. Because of this, TrueType fonts are becoming more popular on linux.

8.3. Type 1 Fonts

The Type 1 font standard was devised by Adobe, and Type 1 fonts are supported by Adobe's PostScript standard. Because of this, they are also well supported under linux. They are supported by X and ghostscript. Postscript fonts have traditionally been the choice of font for anything on UNIX that involves printing.

Typically, a UNIX Type 1 font is distributed as an afm (adobe font metric) file, and an outline file, which is usually a pfb (printer font binary) or pfa (printer font ascii) file. The outline file contains all the glyphs, while the metric file contains the metrics.

Type 1 fonts for other platforms may be distributed in different formats. For example, PostScript fonts for windows often use a different format (pfm) for the metric file.

8.4. Type3 Fonts

These fonts are distributed in a similar manner to Type 1 files -- in groups of afm font metrics, and pfa files. While they are supported by the PostScript standard, they are not supported by X, and hence have limited use.

8.5. Type 42 Fonts

Type42 fonts are actually just TrueType fonts with headers that enable them to be rendered by a PostScript interpreter. Most applications, such as ghostscript and SAMBA handle these fonts transparently. However, if you have a PostScript printer, it may be necessary to explicitly create Type42 font files.

8.6. Type 1 vs TrueType -- a comparison

Despite the historical feuding between the proponents to Type 1 and TrueType fonts, both have a lot in common. Both are scalable outline fonts. Type 1 fonts use cubic as opposed to quadratic curves for the glyphs. This is in theory at least a slight advantage since they include all the curves available to TrueType fonts. In practice, it makes very little difference.

TrueType fonts have the apparent advantage that their support for hinting is better (Type 1 fonts do have hinting functionality, but it is not as extensive as that of TrueType fonts). However, this is only an issue on low resolution devices, such as screens (the improved hinting makes no discernable difference on a 600dpi printer, even at small point sizes.) The other point that makes this apparent advantage somewhat questionable is the fact that well hinted TrueType fonts are rare. This is because software packages that support hinting functionality are out of the budget of most small time designers. Only a few major foundries, such as Monotype make well hinted fonts available.

In conclusion, the main differences between TrueType and Type 1 fonts are in availability and application support. The widespread availability of TrueType fonts for Windows has resulted in webpages designed with the assumption that certain TrueType fonts are available. Also, many users have large numbers of TrueType fonts because they ship with the users Windows applications. However, on Linux, most applications support Type 1 fonts but do not have the same level of support for TrueType. Moreover, most major font foundries still ship most of their fonts in Type 1 format. For example, Adobe ships very few TrueType fonts. My recommendation to users is to use whatever works for your application, and try to avoid converting from one format to another where possible (because the format conversion is not without loss).

9.1. True Type

9.2. Type 1 Fonts and Metafont

12.1. Font Information

• Luc Devroye's homepage contains enough information about fonts and other things to sink a ship. This guy designed a bunch of free fonts, and his homepage has a lot of interesting links, information and commentary.

• Scribus is an Open Source desktop publishing project. The project web site provides a list of high quality fonts.

• Jim Land's homepage contains a lot of links to sites on PostScript and fonts.

• The comp.fonts FAQ is the definitive font FAQ.

• The (preliminary) True Type HOWTO -- an incomplete HOWTO dated June 1998. Included in this list for completeness.

12.2. Postscript and Printing Information

• Adobe's Postscript page is the definitive site on the PostScript standard.

• Ghostscript's home page has a lot of information, and all the latest printer drivers.

• Jim Land's homepage contains a lot of links to sites on PostScript and fonts.

• Christopher Browne's Printing FAQ