FC2 TrueType Problems

[pyrrhus8500]

I just installed FC2 and have been working on getting my system up and running, but I've been having problems with my windows truetype fonts.

I did the following to install the fonts:

cp /win/c/windows/Fonts/*.ttf /usr/local/fonts/ttf
cd /usr/local/fonts/ttf
mkfontscale
mkfontdir

then I edited /etc/X11/fs/config and added the path

restarted xfs and X

All of this works and the fonts show up in my browser, but I get this error from xfs:

Warning: FreeTypeRasteriseGlyph() returns an error,
^Iso the backend tries to set a white space.

sometimes I get this error:
FreeType: couldn't find encoding 'ascii-0' for '/usr/local/fonts/ttf/tahoma.ttf'
but problems persist even if I remove this font.


The problem is that anti-aliasing is not being done and the fonts are horrible. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas?

[cgriffin]

Did you check the release notes? i think the instructions are in there. AFAIK, RH went to fontconfig/xft back with RH 8.0 I think so I don't think you need to do what you're trying to do (i.e. with fontconfig all you need to do is drop fonts in your ~/.fonts/ directory I believe), but in any event i recall seeing the instructions in the release notes. I think you can also reach the fontconfig font directory in nautilus at fonts:///

HTH

[pyrrhus8500]

thanks

the release notes have a good description of how new font configuration works. I'm surprised that the old way worked in FC1, but I guess things have changed.

For anyone wondering, the solution is to copy the fonts into /usr/share/fonts/<dir name>

then run fc-cache <dir name> and you're all set

[cgriffin]

Slight modification to your last post: I don't think it is /usr/share/fonts/<dir name>. I think it is just /usr/share/fonts/.

Here is the precise instructions from the release notes:

"Adding new fonts to the fontconfig font subsystem is more straightforward; the new font file only needs to be copied into the /usr/share/fonts/ directory (individual users can modify their personal font configuration by copying the font file into the ~/.fonts/ directory).

After the new font has been copied, use fc-cache to update the font information cache:

fc-cache <directory>

(Where <directory> would be either the /usr/share/fonts/ or ~/.fonts/ directories.)

Individual users may also install fonts graphically, by browsing fonts:/// in Nautilus, and dragging the new font files there."

[melgrim]

I've copied *.ttf to /usr/share/fonts/
did: fc-cache /usr/share/fonts/
restarted and nothing happened...
I still can't use the fonts

Can anyone help me?

[taylor65]

I found that adding fonts to your .fonts directory works, but make sure that the font files aren't compressed (plus I had to reboot to make them active - I don't know what process to restart to get the fonts to work without a reboot). I wasn't able to get the fonts working when adding them to /usr/share/fonts. Also, the fonts:/// in Nautilus doesn't work, which might be caused by the fact that Fedora has all menu adding/changing turned off (which is really, really, annoying).

[crackers]

melgrim - you didn't quite follow all the instructions. There are a couple of steps you missed. You can just go back and do them without having to "start over."

melgrim and taylor65 - you don't need to restart the computer to get these things working. Just log out as your regular user, then press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE - this "reboots" the X server and ensures the fonts are available.

Remember, folks, this ain't Windows - the UI is not tied directly to the OS: it's just another running program. You can kill the UI without bringing down the whole system.

[Finalzone]

If you run KDE as desktop, go to Control Center-> System Admninstration -> Font Installer. Log as root and install your favoirte fonts for all users. You can install fonts for a specific users.

[Thetargos]

It could be done from GUI if someone made the font installer go trhough PAM checks to ask for a root password, then install the fonts to the systemwide directories, and rebuild the cache, close the program and enjoy!

[jonniebigodes]

ok....here's the thing...i have a pc where fedora core 2 is installed only, i don't have windows installed.
so i was hoping you could tell me where to find the ttf fonts, in order for me to install them.....
thanks in advance....

[Thetargos]

Usually you install fonts under either /home/$USER/.fonts or /usr/share/fonts/{truetype, ttf, etc} You only need to copy the .ttf files there and upon session restart all your applications will see the fonts (you can also find the fonts without the restart, but some apps require that the session is restarted).

[jonniebigodes]

ok...i've got /usr/share/fonts/ so what i'm asking now is do i have to create the folder truetype for instance?

[Thetargos]

Yes, you can do that...

There are other paths for fonts (more tied together to the X server, under /usr/X11R6), so vitually just creating a directory like ttf or truetype and placing your fonts there, is more than enough.

For older XF86 machines, you would have had to reload and restart the font server (xfs), however IIRC that is no longer necessary with Xorg. However, since FC2 uses Xorg 6.7 (virtually a clone of XF86 4.3) you may require to do so:

su
password:
/sbin/service xfs reload
/sbin/service xfs restart

Still an X restart may be required, so you could simply press ctrl+alt+backspace at the GDM (graphical login) prompt or from your session.