• Diff for "Fonts"

Adding fonts

Fonts can be added to Debian by installing the appropriate package; in Squeeze, fonts are specified in the “Fonts” section.

• lenny/x11/

• squeeze/fonts/

• sid/fonts/

Note:

• For most uses, you’ll want TrueType (TTF) and ?OpenType (OTF) fonts – these packages start with fonts- for wheezy (ttf- or otf- for squeeze)

• Some non-free fonts are in contrib, which you will need to add to your sources if no present.

• Any TTF, OTF, or TTC (TrueType Collection) files can be manually installed on an ad hoc basis.

  • GNOME way: opening a Nautilus window to fonts:// and dragging and dropping.

  • Command line: copy a font file in the directory /usr/local/share/fonts (for all users) or ~/.fonts (for a specific user).

Above mentioned paths can be customized in the fontconfig configuration file at /etc/fonts/fonts.conf – you can also include subdirectories or links, which is useful if you have a directory of fonts on a separate hard drive (or partition or other location).

You may check that the fonts are present by checking for them in an application (such as a word processor) or by using the command fc-list – in future the (GNOME) font-manager may provide a good list. If fonts do not show up, try fc-cache -fv to force a rebuild of the font list.

Configuration

fontconfig is the underlying configuration tool; you may find the following programs useful:

• fc-list – lists fonts fc-cache -fv – rebuilds cached list of fonts

You may find the following useful to change default font rendering:

• dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config

  dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig

Lists

See all the TrueType (TTF) fonts included in Debian at http://pkg-fonts.alioth.debian.org/review/ (updated weekly), http://www.miriamruiz.es/debfonts/ or http://fonts.debian.net/.

See all the TrueType (TTF) and ?OpenType (OTF) fonts included in Debian for usage on Windows or Mac OS X at http://fonts.debian.net/.

email lists: CJKUnifonts-devel CJKUnifonts-HakkaIM CJKUnifonts-MinnanIM Freefont-devel Pkg-fonts-bugs Pkg-fonts-commits Pkg-fonts-devel

Commonly Used Fonts

The ttf-liberation package supplies fonts with the same metrics as Times, Arial and Courier. These fonts are named Liberation and are present in most cases. If you require the non-free original Microsoft fonts the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package (in contrib) can be used to obtain them.

Debian Fonts Task Force

http://pkg-fonts.alioth.debian.org/

Bugs

Usertags

The pkg-fonts team will use these tags for usertags (user: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org)

• non-free: for packages that contain non-free fonts taken from the web (severity serious)
• license-violation: for packages that contain fonts that are GPL/LGPL but do not distribute source (severity serious)
• duplicate: for packages that contain fonts that duplicate fonts from other packages (severity normal?minor?wishlist?)
• split: for packages that contain fonts we would like to see split into other packages (severity wishlist)

Templates

non-free

To:      Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: <package>: contains non-free font

Package: 
Version: 
Severity: serious
User: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: non-free
X-Debbugs-CC: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org

Your package contains a non-free font:

<filename in Debian here>
<url to the pkg-fonts review page here>

This looks to be from here:

<upstream URLs here>

From the zip file:

/----------------------------------------------------------------
<upstream licence here>
\----------------------------------------------------------------

This licence does not clearly allow all the DFSG-required freedoms:

http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

Please contact the font author and ask them to licence the font
under a DFSG-compliant font licence such as the OFL:

http://scripts.sil.org/OFL
http://scripts.sil.org/OFL_web
http://scripts.sil.org/OFL-FAQ_web

If they are not willing to do so or cannot be contacted, please remove
the font from the binary package and the source package and depend on
another font package or move the package to non-free.

Please contact your upstream and ask them to use fontconfig or similar
to get fonts for use by the software instead of using a specific font.

This message is brought to you by the Debian Fonts Task Force:

http://wiki.debian.org/Fonts

license-violation

To:      Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: <package>: violates font license

Package: 
Version: 
Severity: serious
User: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: license-violation
X-Debbugs-CC: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org

Your package contains a GPL/LGPL font:

<package>: <filename in Debian here>
<url to the pkg-fonts review pages here>

This looks to be from here:

<upstream URLs here>

Your source package contains the binary font:

<srcpackage>: <font filename within source package>

The font's source code appears to be here:

<upstream source code URL>
<filenames of the source code in upstreams archive>

Your source package does not contain the font source code, therefore your distribution of the font constitutes a violation of the license.

Please notify your upstream that they are violating the font license.

Please remove the font from the binary package and the source package and depend on the font package instead.

Please contact your upstream and ask them to use fontconfig or similar
to get fonts for use by the software instead of using a specific font.

This message is brought to you by the Debian Fonts Task Force:

http://wiki.debian.org/Fonts

duplicate

To:      Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: <package>: contains duplicate font

Package: 
Version: 
Severity: wishlist
User: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: duplicate
X-Debbugs-CC: pkg-fonts-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org

Your package contains a duplicate font:

<filename in Debian here>
<url to the pkg-fonts review page here>

This looks to be from here:

<url to the packages.debian.org page for the font package>
<url to the pkg-fonts review page here>

Please remove the font from the binary package and depend on the
package containing the font you are using.

If your package cannot use fontconfig to search for fonts, please
contact your upstream and ask them to use fontconfig or similar
to get fonts for use by the software instead of using a specific font.

If that isn't possible you should ask them to allow a build-time
configuration option to hardcode a specific font file path.

If that isn't possible then you will need to create a symlink from
the font file path that your package uses to the font file path
in the font package.

This message is brought to you by the Debian Fonts Task Force:

http://wiki.debian.org/Fonts

Source Font Formats

sfd (fontforge's ascii file format for vector fonts) UFO (Unified Font Object)

Generating Fonts from Source

The fontforge is an editor for outline and bitmap fonts that generates all kinds of fonts. It is also scriptable and has an addon tool xgridfit for hinting. The following fonts are built from sfd (found using apt-cache rdepends fontforge):

- ttf-junicode

- beteckna

- essays1743

- ttf-atarismall

- ttf-breip

I created some script to create bold, italic, and condensed typefaces out of sfd fonts:

sfd2*.ff

Font Formats

ttf, otf, bdf, pfb, fnt

Font Tools

texlive-font-utils, fttools, ttf2tex, freetype1-tools, ttf2pt1, otf2bdf

Subpixel-hinting and Font-smoothing

The default fonts in Debian derived distributions like Ubuntu and Linux Mint have better looking fonts when compared to default Debian squeeze. A lot of things about the cairo package has changed recently in wheezy and unstable which have brought almost the same font setup to Debian (But not Squeeze or old) but you have to set it up to your liking. You can create a .fonts.conf file to any user account home folder to set this up. Patching and rebuilding of Cairo packages are not needed any more. An Example of .fonts.conf which you can add to your user account home folder without altering anything else:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
   <const>hintslight</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

Fontconfig

Fonts and Debian: existing and missing

Font related pages:

Further Resources

• Chinese fonts in Debian - a blog post

• Font Configuration, ?ArchLinux Wiki – useful general information

Outdated

Old, retained for historical interest and reference:

• TrueType Fonts in Debian mini-HOWTO – 2000 FAQ by Bear Giles

• Debian Font Guide, Rob Weir