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General instructions for installing fonts in X-windows
Assuming that you have created a new directory, e.g.,
~/grfonts and put the fonts file in it as you downloaded it
from HR-Net you must follow these steps in order to install the new
fonts in your X-window system:
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Once you have the compressed fonts archive (usually ending in .tar.gz)
you first need to extract the font files. If you have the gnu version
of tar you may do this in a single step with the command
tar xzf fontfile.tar.gz
substituting the correct filename for fontfile, of course.
If the above command reports that z is an unknown option then you
don't have gnu tar so you do the same thing in two steps, first
decompressing the archive and then extracting the files:
gunzip fontfile.tar.gz
tar xf fontfile.tar
This should produce a set of font files, usually ending in .bdf
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In order to compile the fonts for your system you issue the command
mkfontdir in the fonts directory. Check that a file
fonts.dir is produced with the current date and time.
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You must then inform the system to include this directory in its list
of directories containing fonts. The command
xset fp+ `pwd`
should take care of that.
BE CAREFUL WITH THE SYNTAX!!! " ` " is a backquote, NOT a " ' "
If it fails try substituting the full path
name of the directory for `pwd` and if you get an error
message about "parameter out of range" and "opcode of failed request"
you are probably in trouble because your system takes its fonts from
another machine (remote font server) so it is the other machine where
your new fonts must be installed. See the
previous page for instructions.
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Use the command xset q to check whether your new font
directory shows up in the directory list. If it does, it only remains
to let the system know about the new fonts themselves by looking at
the specified font directories. This is done with the command
xset fp rehash
That's it! Your new fonts are now installed and any programs that look
for them can now use them.
If you have any problems, please read I still cannot read greek.
Once the installation is successfully completed you may erase the
tar file to save space. You may also put the
xset commands in your
.xinitrc file so that the fonts will be available to
you each time you enter the system. Don't forget to use the full
pathname to the font directory.
Back to the X fonts page
HR-Net, 12 July 1998
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