[CLUE-Tech] Missing Gimp Fonts?

[Matt Gushee]

On Fri, May 23, 2003 at 06:20:44AM -0600, Joe Linux wrote:
> I'm using Mandrake 9.1 and Gimp is missing many fancy fonts that it used 
> to have in previous distributions.  I thought these fonts were missing 
> from my machine, but I see they are there and working in K-Write.  Does 
> anyone know how to get Gimp to see the complete set of fonts that are 
> actually installed on my machine?

Not exactly, but I may be able to help narrow it down a bit.

What I suspect is going on is that the fonts are installed in a location
known only to KWrite (e.g. in the KWrite directory). To confirm this,
use 'xlsfonts'. It's a command-line application, and it reports all the
fonts that are currently available in your X session. E.g.:

  $ xlsfonts |less
  $ xlsfonts |grep -i helvetica |less

If the names of your 'missing' fonts appear, then the problem is with
the GIMP. In that case I have no idea what to do. In my experience, the
GIMP has always been able to use any X fonts I had, with the exception
of certain weird non-Western font formats.

If those names *don't* appear, then my suspicion is correct, and the
fonts are installed in a KWrite-specific location. In that case you need
to make them accessible to all your X applications. I imagine Mandrake
probably provides some kinda graphical font manager, but since I don't
use Mandrake I'll tell you the traditional, manual method--which may
prove useful anyway, someday:

  1) Place the font files in a convenient directory. That could be:
     a. the main X font directory, something like 
        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts
     b. wherever they are now
     c. a 'third-party font' directory that you create

    My preference would be (c). I have a /usr/local/share/fonts
    directory for all non-Linux-distribution, non-application fonts.

  2) Look in the directory where the fonts are installed. Is there a
     file called 'fonts.dir'? If not, you need to run

     $ mkfontdir

     in that directory. If the fonts are scalable--and I'm guessing
     they're TrueType, so that means they're scalable, as are PostScript
     Type 1 fonts--there is also supposed to be a 'fonts.scale' file,
     which is just like 'fonts.dir' except that it lists only scalable
     fonts. But actually I'm not sure what difference it makes; I think
     maybe some older applications needed 'fonts.scale' in order to
     distinguish which fonts were scalable, but I usually go with just a
     'fonts.dir' and it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

  3) Add the directory to your FontPath. Again, there may well be some
     Mandrake utility to do this, but here's the old manual way (you
     need to be root to do this).
     
     a. Find your X configuration file (/etc/X11/XF86Config or the
        like). Make a backup copy of it.
     b. Open the file in a text editor.
     c. Find the lines that say "FontPath". Does one of them look like
        this?

          FontPath   "unix/:7100" 

        NO -->  add a new line just like the others, with the name of
                your new directory, e.g.:

                  FontPath    "/usr/local/joes/cool/fonts"

                You're done. Save the file, and the fonts should be 
                available whenever you restart the X session.

        YES --> you are using the XFS font server. Although you can
                still add a font path in XF86Config as above, the
                preferred method is to add it to the XFS configuration.
                Go to step d.
     d. Find the XFS configuration file (maybe /etc/X11/fs/config). Make
        a backup copy of it.
     e. Open the file in a text editor.
     f. Find the line saying 'catalogue = ', and add your new directory
        to the (comma-separated) list. Save the file.
     g. *Close your X session.*
     h. Restart XFS. E.g.:

        # /etc/init.d/xfs restart

     i. Restart X. Your new fonts should be available.

Hope this helps!
                
--
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)