Improving TTF's with Slack 11

If you want to use M$ TTF's with Slack 11 a few things have changed.

First thing I did was recompile libfreetype and enable the Bytecode
Interpretor.

Then I added the truetype fonts through KDE control panel font
installer.

I checked the paths in /etc/X11/xorg.conf moving the TTF directory to
the beginning.

I adjusted /etc/X11/fs/config likewise.

I went to and got this needed package...

[url]http://freshmeat.net/projects/ttmkfdir/[/url]

As Slack didn't have ttmkfdir. Don't bother to compile the package - Just
use the file ttmkfdir.linuxbin.glibc2, rename it

ttmkfdir

And move to /usr/local/bin

Then I cd'd to that TT font directory and issued...

cd /usr/local/fonts/ttf # For example

ttmkfdir > fonts.scale
mkfontdir

Then in X issue...

xset fp rehash

Now reboot (or exit X and restart xfs). This is necessary for xfs to
rebuild the file...

/usr/X11R6/lib/fonts/TTF/fonts.cache-1

Start X and in a terminal see if the fonts you added are available to X.
For example if you added Verdana issue...

xlsfonts |grep -i verdana ... or
xlsfonts |grep -i ttf

Now you should be good to go. For an overview see...

[url]http://www.linux.org.mt/node/51#N10057[/url]

And go to Section 2.2

Try enabling antialiasing in

kcontrol > Appearance and Themes > Fonts > Use Anti-aliasing for fonts

I also configured it to ignore small fonts 1-10 pt's

My TT fonts look so much better now. They were skinny and a bit grainy.
Now they are very crisp and clear.

There are a number of ways to do this but this one works for me. I
noticed that the new freetype package to out the Bytecode option. I have
the version saved (freetype-2.1.9.tar.bz2) and can make it available via
FTP. I've been battling the TT issues for years and have a section on my
web site (yes I know it needs updating and is ugly) for older X
versions. I plan to add this updated approach in the next few days for
reference.

This applies to enhancing M$ TTF support. if you don't have any issues
with that then simply ignore what I put forth.

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Ron Gibson <n@o.way> wrote:[color=blue]
>[url]http://freshmeat.net/projects/ttmkfdir/[/url]
>
>As Slack didn't have ttmkfdir.[/color]

But there is mkfontscale.

Ron Gibson wrote:[color=blue]
> If you want to use M$ TTF's with Slack 11 a few things have changed.[/color]

I have also installed M$ TTF's with Slacware a little differently to
you. I also have recompiled freetype to enable the bytecode interpreter.

I prefer non antialiased font. I is sharper and in my opinion more
pleasant to read (although I know many people will disagree to me). This
is the default setting for Microsoft up to XP (but not for Vista). With
the bytecode interpreter M$ TTF can be nicely rendered non antialised. I
have thus configured my ~/.fonts.conf to disable antialiasing for M$
fonts. I attach my .font.conf for anyone interested (I have also made it
immutable: chattr +i .font.conf to prevent KDE from modifying it).

To configure the paths Slackware has mkfontdir and mkfontscale instead
of ttmkfontdir. I have have added the path to the M$ fonts in
/etc/fonts/fonts.conf but I have *not* put the path in
/etc/X11/xorg.conf. In this way the fonts can be seen to applications
using the freetype library but not to applications using the legacy
corefonts. The reason is that in the latter case the X server render
these fonts very badly (in a very bad non antialiased way). I thing it
is better for these apps to simply find some pixels fonts that will be
render much better.

Olive

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:34:24 +0000, Petri Kaukasoina wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>>[url]http://freshmeat.net/projects/ttmkfdir/[/url][/color][/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
>>As Slack didn't have ttmkfdir.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> But there is mkfontscale.[/color]

Ack - Missed that one. Thanx. I have a page devoted to this topic. I'll
add this note when I update the page.

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On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:49:36 +0200, Olive wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> If you want to use M$ TTF's with Slack 11 a few things have changed.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> I have also installed M$ TTF's with Slackware a little differently to[/color]
you.[color=blue]
> I also have recompiled freetype to enable the bytecode interpreter.[/color]
[color=blue]
> I prefer non antialiased font. I is sharper and in my opinion more
> pleasant to read (although I know many people will disagree to me).[/color]

I've found that those decisions vary a little bit with every distro or
version of X. So far a recompile of libfreetype always helps and adding
the fonts properly must be done of course. Making sure that X sees the
fonts is also fundamental. After the results of tweaking anti-aliasing
and other minor items have varied for me. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I
don't.
[color=blue]
> To configure the paths Slackware has mkfontdir and mkfontscale instead
> of ttmkfontdir. I have have added the path to the M$ fonts in
> /etc/fonts/fonts.conf but I have *not* put the path in
> /etc/X11/xorg.conf.[/color]
[color=blue]
> In this way the fonts can be seen to applications using the freetype
> library but not to applications using the legacy corefonts. The reason is
> that in the latter case the X server render these fonts very badly (in a
> very bad non antialiased way). I thing it is better for these apps to
> simply find some pixels fonts that will be render much better.[/color]

Yep another area that trial and error matter. Sometimes I use another
font server, xfstt, to serve just the true type fonts. Sometimes I use
both xfs and xfstt. Sometines the TT FontPath in xorg.conf is added
and sometimes not. Like I said I found the results vary as to which final
tweaks should be done, I've found.

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