As a followup to my earlier post about true type fonts in Linux, Bitstream has released the fonts. I downloaded them and had to read up on xfs, chkfontpath and xfontsel. The permissions were the problem. Once I made them globally readable, whammo, I had slick fonts for all my apps. (via /.)
The instructions to add the fonts on Red Hat 7.3 are included in the reference manual. Here’s a quick summary, assuming you want the fonts in /usr/share/fonts/bitstream.
mkdir /usr/share/fonts/bitstream
tar xzf ttf-bitstream-vera-1.10.tar.gz
mv ttf-bitstream-vera-1.10 /usr/share/fonts/bitstream
chmod 755 /usr/share/fonts/bitstream
chmod -R 444 /usr/share/fonts/bitstream/*
cd /usr/share/fonts/bitstream
ttmkfdir -d . -o fonts.scale
mkfontdir
chkfontpath –add /usr/share/fonts/bitstream
(Stop your X server, or just log out)
service restart xfs
(Start your X server, or log back in)
chkfontpath –list (You should see /usr/share/fonts/bitstream in the list of directories)
I don’t follow your instructions, though I’m using 7.2. For one thing, I know of no ‘-D’ option to tar. Why do you chmod to 755 and then re-chmod it to 444. Also, chkfontpath won’t add the font because there’s no ‘fonts.dir’ file.
» Comment by Cameron on April 19, 2003 @ 11:51 amSorry about that. It’s what I get for going by memory instead of retesting the instructions.
I meant -C, not -D for tar.
» Comment by dan on April 20, 2003 @ 12:11 amI meant to chmod the contents of the directory to 444, not the directory itself.
I should have had mkfontdir before the chkfontpath command.
Or, if you run Debian unstable, you can:
And, while you’re at it:
This plus the TrueType rendering in Mozilla makes for a much more pleasant web browsing experience in Linux. Again, for debian users:
That’ll turn on antialiased fonts for both mozilla and galeon, and probably any other browser that shares the mozilla browsing component.
» Comment by Levi on April 23, 2003 @ 11:35 amI love lovely fonts, and this is quite possibly the best web site i have ever been on!
» Comment by Laura on February 10, 2004 @ 4:12 amThis is more a question than a comment.
» Comment by abujo on March 21, 2004 @ 7:20 amI am a linux illiterate, and I have installed REDHAT 9, How do I install Fonts do I follow the instructions by dan on April 20, 2003 @ 12:11 AM for REDHAT 7.3 or have things changed.
Abujo: On Red Hat 9 true type fonts are already installed and available for applications.
» Comment by dan on March 21, 2004 @ 5:15 pmGreat Site! Thanks a bunch - I do a fair amount of web design and this is one of the best + cleanest layouts I’ve seen - way to go man.
» Comment by Deane on July 10, 2004 @ 7:34 am