small fonts in netscape
Michiel Kreutzer
all the time until 6.5.15 comes out :-( )
Many websites have stylesheets that point to windows-fonts and/or
fixed point sizes (e.g. 12px or 12 pt). Netscape on unix can't
properly handle these, so you usually end up with extremely fine
print that is nearly impossible to read. (Can _anybody_ for instance
read www.cnn.com on an sgi, with his head more than 5 cm away from
the display?)
A search on the web revealed that there are several workarounds
available. Off course this includes fixing the fontpath to find
the 100dpi fonts first, but that does not aleviate the problem
described above. A good starting point was
http://www2.arnes.si/~mrihta3/ns-unix.html
and the font de-uglification howto on linux pages. The workaround
involves roughly the following:
1. install a truetype-capable fontserver get the missing fonts
which are only available as truetype (e.g. verdana)
2. create pcf fonts from them
3. Set up aliases such that the 9 pt font is used when a 6-pt
font is requested, etc.
I coudn't find a fontserver that is truetype capable for irix,
so I used a linux-box on my local net to serve up the truetype
fonts and did a xset +fp tcp/linuxbox:7100.
This improved netscape's display a bit, although it was slower.
When I wanted to make the pcf fonts
(truetype --(fstobdf)--> bdf --(bdftopcf)--> pcf) I got stuck
with error messages about bad hex values. Also, I am no
X font expert, so I guess I need some help.
So, my question is: has anybody ever tried this workaround,
either involving a fontserver on linux or using a irix port
of e.g. xfstt?
Did anybody succeed in making pcf fonts from the truetype fonts?
Thanks for any input
Michiel Kreutzer
Marcus Herbert
> I coudn't find a fontserver that is truetype capable for irix,
> so I used a linux-box on my local net to serve up the truetype
> fonts and did a xset +fp tcp/linuxbox:7100.
[indigo]:~ $ /usr/local/sbin/xfstt --help
Xfstt 1.1, X font server for TT fonts
Usage: xfstt [[--gslist]--sync][--port portno][--unstrap][--user username]
[--dir ttfdir][--encoding list_of_encodings][--daemon][--inetd]
--sync put ttf-fonts in "/usr/local/share/truetype" in database
--gslist print ghostscript style ttf fontlist
--port change port number from default 7101
--dir use other font directory than /usr/local/share/truetype
--cache use other font cache directory than /var/tmp/xfstt
--res force default resolution to this value
--encoding use encodings other than iso8859-1
--unstrap !DANGER! serve all unicodes !DANGER!
--user Username that children should run as
--daemon run in the background
--inetd run as inetd service
attach to X Server by "xset fp+ unix/:7101"
or "xset fp+ inet/127.0.0.1:7101"
detach from X Server by "xset -fp unix/:7101"
or "xset -fp inet/127.0.0.1:7101"
I modified the sources and the Makefile a bit to make it easier to compile
on IRIX. The sources can be found here:
http://ftp.mayn.de/pub/irix/tools/xfstt-1.1_IRIX.tar.gz
> So, my question is: has anybody ever tried this workaround,
> either involving a fontserver on linux or using a irix port
> of e.g. xfstt?
Works fine here :-) Serving me more than 500 TTF fonts. Together with a local
running junkbuster i don't have any of the usual netscape-4.78-and-6.5.14m
problems. I can only recommend this setup.
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Marcus Herbert
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Your mailsetup doesn't like my IP adressblock (and my providers
smtp-relay is a joke), that's why you get the answer via this way
(which is in the sense of usenet anyway).
On Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 05:20:29PM +0100, Michiel Kreutzer wrote:
> I tried compiling, but I have some problems. I think it is related
> to the fact that gcc 3.0 is now installed on my system.
You are right, it is because of GCC 3.0. I fixed the sources a little
and now they compile fine with GCC 3.0.1 and MIPSPro 7.3 too.
http://ftp.mayn.de/pub/irix/tools/xfstt-1.1.1b_IRIX.tar.gz
> Will these problems go away by downgrading to gcc 2.95 (which I wanted
> to do anyway because 3.0 will not compile mysql) ?
Yes, these problems will then go away. But i don't recommend this step.
The way to go is GCC 3.x. Yes, 3.0.1 had bugs but meanwhile we are at
3.0.3 (SGI will hopefully release a new freeware version of GCC soon)
and all OpenSource projects will start to migrate to compile fine with
the new GCC too - let's hope for better code *sigh*.
> Did you make such an alias file to get rid of the fine print in
> Netscape?
No.
> Do you have any idea what the use of making those pcf files is?
You dont need to. Either use xfstt and adapt your X11 fontpath (the xset fp+
thing) or convert your TTF fonts to PCF and use these.
Michiel Kreutzer
> You are right, it is because of GCC 3.0. I fixed the sources a little
> and now they compile fine with GCC 3.0.1 and MIPSPro 7.3 too.
>
> http://ftp.mayn.de/pub/irix/tools/xfstt-1.1.1b_IRIX.tar.gz
>
Thanks a million! Works like a charm now. (that is , it serves up
tt-fonts. I still have the annoying fine print.)
> > Did you make such an alias file to get rid of the fine print in
> > Netscape?
>
> No.
Well, I the source code, fonts.alias is mentioned:
if( !stat( "fonts.alias", &statbuf)) {
aliasSize = statbuf.st_size;
int fd = open( "fonts.alias", O_RDONLY);
if( fd <= 0) return 0;
aliasBase = (char*)mmap( 0L, aliasSize, PROT_READ,
MAP_SHARED, fd, 0L);
close( fd);
}
No idea what it does with it, though. Anyway, making a fonts.alias does
not help much, the fonts are still small. Using xfs on a Redhat box with
the appropiate fonts.alias is better: I get the larger fonts.
> > Do you have any idea what the use of making those pcf files is?
>
> You dont need to. Either use xfstt and adapt your X11 fontpath (the xset fp+
> thing) or convert your TTF fonts to PCF and use these.
So, for larger ttf-fonts, I have the following options:
1. configure xfs on a nearby linux-box, suffer some performance penalty.
2. convert all the ttf to pcf fonts.
I will also try the second route, and i'll keep you posted on the progress.
Cheers
Michiel