Linux fontology

[worker201]

I am having a hard time reading some of the fonts on my FC3 machine, especially in Firefox when writing in forums. So I would like to maybe find some replacements. Problem is, I have never needed to search for Linux fonts before. Helvetica and Times are not included in the x.org release. So I'm using something called Luxi. It makes reading words like "likelihood" dang near impossible.

So, where can I find Linux-ready fonts? And how do I install them?

Specifically, I am using FC3, but perhaps a more generalized answer would be more helpful to others.

[Void Main]

Can you point me to a forum with a specific example? I will take a look and see if I have the same problem and if I do then I will try and come up with a solution and if I don't have the problem then we'll have to figure out what is different between yours and my system. I have not noticed a font problem anywhere yet and have been pleased with the fonts to this point. I do use Mozilla and not Firefox though but I haven't seen any font problems with Firefox the few times I used it.

Press ALT+F2 and type in "fonts:///" and press ENTER. I think all you have to do is drag new fonts into that window. I have all the MS fonts installed but I had installed them in FC2 and upgraded to FC3 and it kept all my fonts. Just grab all the ttf files and copy/paste/drag them into that window.

[worker201]

Here's an example of a forum that I have trouble reading:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/forums/

So, I'm thinking the problem is with the default display fonts in Firefox. And I can't find anything that looks good.

[Void Main]

Here's an example of a forum that I have trouble reading:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/forums/

So, I'm thinking the problem is with the default display fonts in Firefox. And I can't find anything that looks good.

Really? Could you take a screen shot of this? I gotta think there must be something wrong. I never used Firefox before FC3 because I couldn't get the fonts right but when I upgraded to FC3 the fonts looked just as good in Firefox as they do in Mozilla (very good IMO). Here is a screenshot of the fonts configuration in my firefox (defaults):

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/i/firefox_default.png

and here is a screenshot of this page:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/i/firefox_voidmain.png

Do the fonts in those shots look as bad as you are seeing? The fonts in the image are what I intend them to look like (nothing special).

And there are no special fonts for Linux. You can use the same TTF fonts that you use in Windows (if you use Windows) or other OS. Just drag them from your "/c/windows/fonts/*ttf" to your fonts:/// window.

[worker201]

My default fonts were the same as yours. Since a restart, things are looking much better. But they could still be spaced a little more appropriately.

Western
Proportional: Serif
Serif: Luxi Serif
Sans Serif: Luxi Sans
Monospace: Courier

http://www.triple-bypass.net/download/Screenshot.jpg

[Void Main]

Looks like you have X set to a fairly low resolution, what are you running? Also, a neat trick I use when the fonts look a little to small to be legible is to temporarily increase the size by pressing <CTRL>+ a few times and then shrink back down with a <CTRL>- a few times. By the way, I run 1600x1200 at 24 bit, but that actually makes the fonts look smaller (just the way I like them). :)

[worker201]

I use 1024x768, and gimp computed my screen resolution at 75x72.

Well, I have found a temporary solution to this problem, that seems to work okay for me. Thanks to a nice sourceforge page, I was able to install the Microsoft core fonts, such as Arial, Times New Roman, Impact, Comic Sans, etc. for Linux. Once I learn a little bit more about Linux fonts, I will replace them with something better.

I believe this is legal, since I have already agreed to the Microsoft license, and the fonts were already on this machine.

If anyone wants to try this out (and doesn't mind using MS fonts):
http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/

[Void Main]

I thought I mentioned earlier in this thread on how to add your MS fonts. Also a TTF (True Type Font) is a TTF no matter what OS you use it on, the format is the same. On a side note, those fonts won't do you any good unless you override the font specification of the web pages (any web site that uses MS specific fonts should be shot, although I specify Comic Sans in my guestbook). :)

[worker201]

I seem to remember from my Slackware days (XFree86) that you have to build the fonts.dir and fonts.scale files every time you add a font. How does FC3 deal with that nowdays? Does it use some sort of utility to do it? I noticed that any font changes don't take effect until you restart X.

[Void Main]

I seem to remember from my Slackware days (XFree86) that you have to build the fonts.dir and fonts.scale files every time you add a font. How does FC3 deal with that nowdays? Does it use some sort of utility to do it? I noticed that any font changes don't take effect until you restart X.

No, for the third time now go back and look at my message about pressing ALT+F2 and typing "fonts:///". :) You don't have to do it like the old days anymore. In fact I had even written a tip on how to do it on the older distros:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat/fe ... etype.html

But that tip no longer applies so don't follow it. :)

[worker201]

Okay, if you drag a .ttf file into the fonts pane, it will install it. However, you won't be able to see it in there. You won't be able to use the font either. The only way to fix this is to restart Nautilus. This can be done by restarting or logging out and back in. Unless you use KDE, then it might be a bit tougher .Then the font shows up in the fonts:/// list.

Oddly enough, this is very similar to font installation in OSX. Except for the restart/logout part.

[Void Main]

Sorry, I left the part about logging off and back on out but you figured it out (it's hard to get a few free minutes at work to get a detailed reply in). Actually looking over my font tip for FC1 I see I did mention about the "fonts:///" thing:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat/fe ... etype.html

and pointed to a previous thread on the subject:

viewtopic.php?p=6679#6679

I just did a fresh install of Fedora today on a dual 1.4Ghz Compaq. I thought I would add the truetype fonts and low and behold my RH8 tip indeed did not seem to work. I did end up getting it to work, at least in Gnome (didn't try anywhere else). All I had to do was open Nautilus (click your home folder icon on your desktop) and type "fonts:" in the location bar. Then I opened another copy of Nautilus and browsed to my TTF font dir and selected all the fonts with my mouse and dragged them over to the other Nautilus window. It appeared to not do anything at all, the fonts didn't immediately show up in Nautilus "fonts:". I restarted X and logged back in and opened Nautilus "fonts:" again and all the TTF fonts I added were there, and they now worked in Mozilla. I don't know if anyone else has tried this. I believe this has to be done on a "per user" basis. I didn't have to do this on any of my other Fedora installs because apparently all of the settings from the previous installation continued to work.

but it wasn't on my earlier font tips from RH 8 and 9:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat/re ... etype.html

I guess I haven't added fonts since I had FC1 installed so I forgot about it. All my fonts stayed put through the upgrades to FC2 and now FC3 so I didn't have to add any more.