FontFAQ

• Q: Which server can I use for my fonts?

• A: Try:

   apt-get install xfstt

  • * Xfstt serves TrueType fonts to X11 servers.

• Q: Where are my truetype fonts?
• A: In /usr/share/fonts/truetype
• Q: After a dist-upgrade I lost my fonts. I have only a couple of fonts to choose from and none of them are Helvetica that I use for my desktop and the konsole font is also not as it used to be.

• A: Chances is that fontconfig has been upgraded and the standard local.conf has overwritten your version. The following fc-cache run has then removed all cached bitmap fonts. In order to solve this problem, edit /etc/fonts/local.conf and enable the bitmapped fonts by removing the <!-- and --> comment markers below the sentence <!-- Uncomment below to enable bitmapped fonts --> then, as root, rerun the command 'fc-cache -fv' to recreate the font cache. Programs can now be restarted to use the proper fonts.

• Q: I don't understand how to configure X fonts under debian and I don't have time to learn. Am I doomed to look at crappy fonts for the rest of my life?

• A: Not at all. Follow these simple instructions: http://web.archive.org/web/20050306015258/http://egads.ertius.org/~rob/font_guide.txt

  • As of 2017 these instructions don't help as they reference packages no longer available.
• Q: There is no true-type font for Helvetica. How can I fix this?
• A: Replace Helvetica with sans-serif.

(copied from iMacG5 configuration) You need to create a new font configuration file. In the terminal:

{{{cd ~ nano -w .fonts.conf}}}

and add these lines. If you already have text in this file (because you have set up font-smoothing, for example) then you need to copy the lines inside the <fontconfig> tag, since the header and <fontconfig> tags already exist in your file

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">

<fontconfig>

<!-- Helvetica is a non true type font, and will look bad. This
replaces it with whatever is the default sans-serif font -->

<match target="pattern" name="family" >
<test name="family" qual="any" >
<string>Helvetica</string>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="family" >
<string>sans-serif</string>
</edit>
</match>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>

</fontconfig>