Fontconfig - Nov 2005 - Problems with configuring fontconfig

Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com> writes:
> Fontconfig 2.2 will probably not bother to include such directories
> by default as many (most?) users won''t want to see bitmap fonts in
> any circumstances.
I think this is a little optimistic -- for many applications
(particularly terminal windows and on small displays), bitmap fonts
still look significantly better than FreeType-rendered outline
fonts. Perhaps it might be worth considering putting some rules in the
default config to use the bitmap versions of Helvetica, Courier
etc. when non-antialiased rendering is requested?

Also, XFree86 doesn''t currently ship any outline fonts with decent
Unicode coverage, so it''s useful to have the fixed and ClearlyU fonts
available to fontconfig-using applications.

-- 
Adam Sampson <azz@us-lot.org>                  
<http://azz.us-lot.org/>

Rodrigo Senra wrote:
 | 
 | > ------
 | > No fonts found;...
 | 

 Keith Packard wrote:
 |
 | This is most likely caused by broken files holding cached information 
 | about the available fonts.  You should be able to fix this by running (as 
 | root):
 | 
 | # fc-cache -f
 | 
 | and then as yourself:
 | 
 | $ fc-cache -f
 | 
 
 Thank you Keith.
 But running fc-cache is taking 100% CPU and simply never stops in
 my PIII-1Ghz. I quit after 10 minutes. Did I quit too soon ?

 In fact, I manage to make fonts work by editing manually /etc/fonts/font.conf,
 where I added the absolute path to directories containing  font files.
 I thought I could specify a base path, and fontconfig would recurse down
 that path seeking the effective files.

 Since my fontconfig.tex file is incomplete (from fcpackage.2_1),
 what should be the expected behaviour ? Should I compile Xrender and
 Xft1 ? If so, what would be the suggested procedure.

 TIA,
 Rod Senra

-- 
 Rodrigo Senra       <rsenra@acm.org>

 GPr Sistemas http://www.gpr.com.br
 PUC-Campinas http://docentes.puc-campinas.edu.br/ceatec/rodrigo
 IC - Unicamp http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~921234

Around 0 o''clock on Apr 2, Rodrigo Dias Arruda Senra wrote:
> Thank you Keith.
> But running fc-cache is taking 100% CPU and simply never stops in
> my PIII-1Ghz. I quit after 10 minutes. Did I quit too soon ?
You may have a broken version of FreeType that is confused by compressed 
.pcf files.  Fontconfig 2.2 will probably not bother to include such 
directories by default as many (most?) users won''t want to see bitmap 
fonts in any circumstances.

-keith

Around 14 o''clock on Apr 2, Adam Sampson wrote:
> > Fontconfig 2.2 will probably not bother to include such directories
> > by default as many (most?) users won''t want to see bitmap
fonts in
> > any circumstances.
> 
> I think this is a little optimistic
The problem is that fontconfig doesn''t yet have a way to remove fonts
for
specific users, so while I expect lots of people to add back in suitable 
bitmap fonts, the default will need to avoid them as others don''t want 
them.

I''m hoping to figure out a good way to remove fonts in the next release
of
fontconfig.

-keith

Keith Packard wrote:
>Around 15 o''clock on Apr 1, Rodrigo Dias Arruda Senra wrote:
>
>  
>
>>------
>>No fonts found; this probably means that the fontconfig
>>library is not correctly configured. You may need to
>>edit the fonts.conf configuration file. More information
>>about fontconfig can be found in the fontconfig(3) manual
>>page and on http://fontconfig.org
>>-------
>>    
>>
>
>This is most likely caused by broken files holding cached information 
>about the available fonts.  You should be able to fix this by running (as 
>root):
>
># fc-cache -f
>
>and then as yourself:
>
>$ fc-cache -f
>
>-keith
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Fontconfig mailing list
>Fontconfig@fontconfig.org
>http://mail.fontconfig.org/mailman/listinfo/fontconfig
>
>.
>
>  
>
I have found that by removing the fonts.cache-1 file from all 
directories ( e.g. /usr/share/fonts )
except /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/{TTF, Type1}, and then running fc-cache 
on the directories
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/{TTF, Type1}  can resolve this problem.

Regards,

Keith Packard wrote:
 | ># fc-cache -f
 | >
 | >and then as yourself:
 | >
 | >$ fc-cache -f
 | >
 | >-keith
 | >
 
 The extreme long time I reported before was due to
 Type1 directories. I got it right now:

fc-cache -v -f   /usr/share/fonts/
fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts/": caching, 0 fonts, 5 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts//default": caching, 0 fonts, 2 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts//default/Type1": caching, 35 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts//default/ghostscript": Segmentation fault

 Despite the segfault in ghostscript, I got things up & running.  

 Greg Jones wrote:
 | I have found that by removing the fonts.cache-1 file from all 
 | directories ( e.g. /usr/share/fonts )
 | except /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/{TTF, Type1}, and then running fc-cache 
 | on the directories
 | /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/{TTF, Type1}  can resolve this problem.

 Thank you  too Greg.

 best regards
 Rod Senra

-- 
 Rodrigo Senra       <rsenra@acm.org>

 GPr Sistemas http://www.gpr.com.br
 PUC-Campinas http://docentes.puc-campinas.edu.br/ceatec/rodrigo
 IC - Unicamp http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~921234

Around 15 o''clock on Apr 1, Rodrigo Dias Arruda Senra wrote:
> ------
> No fonts found; this probably means that the fontconfig
> library is not correctly configured. You may need to
> edit the fonts.conf configuration file. More information
> about fontconfig can be found in the fontconfig(3) manual
> page and on http://fontconfig.org
> -------
This is most likely caused by broken files holding cached information 
about the available fonts.  You should be able to fix this by running (as 
root):

# fc-cache -f

and then as yourself:

$ fc-cache -f

-keith

Hi,

 I have posted previously today (but as non-list member),
 sorry for any duplication.
 
 I would appreciate some assistance. I''m trying to get gimp-1.3.11
 up and running., and therefor I need fontconfig properly setup.
 
 When trying to run gimp-1.3 or any other app that uses fonts
 I get :

------
No fonts found; this probably means that the fontconfig
library is not correctly configured. You may need to
edit the fonts.conf configuration file. More information
about fontconfig can be found in the fontconfig(3) manual
page and on http://fontconfig.org
-------

 I have installed fcpackage.2_1 from sources doing:
 In fontconfig sudir: ./configure; make; make install (as root)
 In Xft sudir: ./configure; make; make install (as root)

 I did nothing with Xft1 and Xrender sub dirs!!! Should I ?
 If so, please instructions are most welcome.

 That went smooth and the file /etc/fonts/font.conf was
 created. I added some paths to it like below: 

<!-- Font directory list configured on Tue Apr  1 12:15:16 BRT 2003 -->

        <dir>/usr/share/fonts</dir>
        <dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
        <dir>/usr/local/share/xine/fonts</dir>
        <dir>/usr/local/grass5/fonts</dir>

 Those directories exist and have fonts.

 ls /usr/share/fonts

9x15.pcf.gz  console8x16.pcf.gz  default/   fonts-type1-baltic.font  ttf/
afms/        console8x8.pcf.gz   fonts.dir  override/                type1/

 ls /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts

100dpi/  75dpi/  cyrillic/  encodings/  mdk/  misc/  Speedo/  TTF/  Type1/  ukr/

...and so on.

 What am I missing ? It seems to be some problem with my fonts.conf.
 Any instructions ?  Any help is welcome.
 regards,
 Senra
 
-- 
 Rodrigo Senra       <rsenra@acm.org>

 GPr Sistemas http://www.gpr.com.br
 PUC-Campinas http://docentes.puc-campinas.edu.br/ceatec/rodrigo
 IC - Unicamp http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~921234