[Fontconfig] gnome-terminal and font selection -- again

John A. Boyd Jr. jaboydjr at netwalk.com
Mon Feb 9 19:29:20 EST 2004


By the way, Brian, with the patches, the font you're looking for
selects as "Fixed Semi-Condensed 10" (as opposed to "Fixed 10", with
"Regular" width), e.g., in gnome-terminal's font selection dialog
(for 2.4.x), assuming you've built appropriate fc-cache entries for
the PCF/BDF font files.  Those of you with an interest in the issue
can look at this dialog, and at other places where fonts are selected,
and see why Keith's additional 'width' attribute is not enough by
itself.  In this specific case, 'width' is not a generally available
selection attribute unless it (also) becomes part of the 'Style' or
'Family' string(s).  Keith's change is good; it's just not enough
of a change.

The following are the (prefix) patterns for the fonts that
conflict for me, with the prior result that 6x13 (which is usually
aliased as "fixed") was not selectable:

"6x13.pcf.gz" 0 
"Fixed:style=SemiCondensed:slant=0:weight=100:width=87:pixelsize=13
"7x13.pcf.gz" 0 
"Fixed:style=Regular:slant=0:weight=100:width=100:pixelsize=13

The former is thus unambiguously selectable as "Fixed Semi-Condensed
10", and the latter as "Fixed 10" (or Fixed Regular 10).  I.e., they
show up as two different styles in font selection dialogs:
"Semi-Condensed" and "Regular".

(Note that the patches deal with the embedded "-", so that, e.g.,
"Semi-Condensed" == "SemiCondensed", etc.)

-John

Brian J. Murrell wrote:
> My appologies if you see this more than once.  I tried a couple of times
> to post via Gmane but that does not seem to be making for some reason.
> 
> I know this topic seems to get covered in various places with various
> different hacks (i.e. deleting "fixed" fonts until the one you want is
> the
> only left with enough priority that it gets used), but I want to try to
> solve it properly on my system without hacking up my fonts.conf file
> like
> I have to everytime I install a new fontconfig package.
> 
> With the help of xfd, I have determined that the font(config
> specfication)
> I want to use in gnome-terminal is:
> 
> Fixed:style=Regular:slant=0:weight=100:width=87:pixelsize=13:spacing=100
> 
> but this is a bitmap font and not scalable, so trying to get a more
> simple
> specification like "Fixed" to select it is impossible.
> 
> So what configuration changes can I make to get access to this
> specific font (such that it will be selectable in gnome-terminal) in
> preference to what is in normal circumstances "better" Fixed fonts?
> 
> I have tried something like:
> 
> <fontconfig>
>     <match target="pattern">
> 	<test qual="any" name="family">
> 	    <string>Fixed</string>
> 	</test>
> 	<edit name="family" mode="assign">
> 	    <string>Fixed:style=Regular:slant=0:weight=100:width=87:pixelsize=13:spacing=100:foundry=Misc</string>
> 	</edit>
>     </match>
> </fontconfig>
> 
> in my ~/.fonts.conf but it does not seem to do what I want.  I don't
> really want to override fontconfig's idea of the best "Fixed" font
> anyhow.
> I would prefer to create a new specification with something like:
> 
> <fontconfig>
>     <match target="pattern">
> 	<test qual="any" name="family">
> 	    <string>MyFixedFont</string>
> 	</test>
> 	<edit name="family" mode="assign">
> 	    <string>Fixed:style=Regular:slant=0:weight=100:width=87:pixelsize=13:spacing=100:foundry=Misc</string>
> 	</edit>
>     </match>
> </fontconfig>
> 
> So that gnome-terminal would show an additional font in its list named
> "MyFixedFont".  But the above syntax does not seem to do that either.
> 
> How can I achieve the results I am looking for?
> 
> Thanx,
> b.
> 





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