## Fonts and FreeBSD

A Tutorial
Dave
Bodenstab

    imdave@synet.net

Wed Aug 7, 1996

This document contains a description of the various font files that may be used with FreeBSD and the syscons driver, X11, Ghostscript and Groff. Cookbook examples are provided for switching the syscons display to 80x60 mode, and for using type 1 fonts with the above application programs.

## Introduction

There are many sources of fonts available, and one might ask how they might be used with FreeBSD. The answer can be found by carefully searching the documentation for the component that one would like to use. This is very time consuming, so this tutorial is an attempt to provide a shortcut for others who might be interested.

## Basic terminology

There are many different font formats and associated font file suffixes. A few that will be addressed here are:

`.pfa, `.pfb``

  Postscript type 1 fonts. The `.pfa` is the Ascii form and `.pfb` the Binary form.

`.afm`

  The font metrics associated with a type 1 font.

`.pfm`

  The printer font metrics associated with a type 1 font.

`.ttf`

  A TrueType font

`.fot`

  An indirect reference to a TrueType font (not an actual font)

`.fon, `.fnt``

  Bitmapped screen fonts

The `.fot` file is used by Windows as sort of a symbolic link to the actual TrueType font (`.ttf`) file. The `.fon` font files are also used by Windows. I know of no way to use this font format with FreeBSD.

## What font formats can I use?

Which font file format is useful depends on the application being used. FreeBSD by itself uses no fonts. Application programs and/or drivers may make use of the font files. Here is a small cross reference of application/driver to the font type suffixes:

Driver

  syscons

    `.fnt`

Application

  Ghostscript

    `.pfa`, `.pfb`, `.ttf`

  X11

    `.pfa`, `.pfb`

  Groff

    `.pfa`, `.afm`

  Povray

    `.ttf`

The `.fnt` suffix is used quite frequently. I suspect that whenever someone wanted to create a specialized font file for their application, more often than not they chose this suffix. Therefore, it is likely that files with this suffix are not all the same format; specifically, the `.fnt` files used by syscons under FreeBSD may not be the same format as a `.fnt` file one encounters in the MSDOS/Windows environment. I have not made any attempt at using other `.fnt` files other than those provided with FreeBSD.

## Setting a virtual console to 80x60 line mode

First, a 8x8 font must be loaded. `/etc/sysconfig` should contain the lines:

    # Choose font 8x8 from /usr/share/syscons/fonts/* (or NO for default)
    font8x8=/usr/share/syscons/fonts/cp437-8x8.fnt

The command to actually switch the mode is vidcontrol1:

    bash$ vidcontrol VGA_80x60

Various screen orientated programs, such as vi1, must be able to determine the current screen dimensions. These can be set with stty1:

    bash$ stty crt rows 60 columns 80

To make this more seamless, one can embed these commands in the startup scripts so it takes place when the system boots. One way to do this is:

1. Modify `/etc/sysconfig` as above

2. Add to `/etc/rc.local`:

       for tty in /dev/ttyv?
       do
         vidcontrol VGA_80x60 <$tty >/dev/null 2>&1
       done

3. Add to `/etc/profile`:

       TTYNAME=`basename \`tty\``
       if expr "$TTYNAME" : 'ttyv' >/dev/null
       then
         stty crt rows 60 columns 80
       fi

References: stty1, vidcontrol1.

## Using type 1 fonts with X11

X11 can use either the `.pfa` or the `.pfb` format fonts. The X11 fonts are located in various subdirectories under `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts`. Each font file is cross referenced to its X11 name by the contents of the `fonts.dir` file in each directory.

There is already a directory named `Type1. The most straight forward way to add a new font is to put it into this directory. A better way is to keep all new fonts in a separate directory and use a symbolic link to the additional font. This allows one to more easily keep track of ones fonts without confusing them with the fonts that were originally provided. For example:`

    Create a directory to contain the font files
    bash$ mkdir -p /usr/local/share/fonts/type1
    bash$ cd /usr/local/share/fonts/type1

    Place the .pfa, .pfb and .afm files here
    One might want to keep readme files, and other documentation
    for the fonts here also
    bash$ cp /cdrom/fonts/atm/showboat/showboat.pfb .
    bash$ cp /cdrom/fonts/atm/showboat/showboat.afm .

    Maintain an index to cross reference the fonts
    bash$ echo showboat - InfoMagic CICA, Dec 1994, /fonts/atm/showboat >>INDEX

Now, to use a new font with X11, one must make the font file available and update the font name files. The X11 font names look like:

    -bitstream-charter-medium-r-normal-xxx-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
         |        |      |    |   |     |  | | | | | |    \    \
         |        |      |    |   |     \  \ \ \ \ \ \     +----+- character set
         |        |      |    |   \      \  \ \ \ \ \ +- average width
         |        |      |    |    \      \  \ \ \ \ +- spacing
         |        |      |    \	\      \  \ \ \ +- vertical res.
         |        |      |     \	 \	\  \ \ +- horizontal res.
         |        |      |      \	  \	 \  \ +- points
         |        |      |       \     \	  \  +- pixels
         |        |      |        \     \	   \
      foundry  family  weight   slant  width  additional style

A new name needs to be created for each new font. If you have some information from the documentation that accompanied the font, then it could serve as the basis for creating the name. If there is no information, then you can get some idea by using strings1 on the font file. For example:

    bash$ strings showboat.pfb | more
    %!FontType1-1.0: Showboat 001.001
    %%CreationDate: 1/15/91 5:16:03 PM
    %%VMusage: 1024 45747
    % Generated by Fontographer 3.1
    % Showboat
     1991 by David Rakowski.  Alle Rechte Vorbehalten.
    FontDirectory/Showboat known{/Showboat findfont dup/UniqueID known{dup
    /UniqueID get 4962377 eq exch/FontType get 1 eq and}{pop false}ifelse
    {save true}{false}ifelse}{false}ifelse
    12 dict begin
    /FontInfo 9 dict dup begin
     /version (001.001) readonly def
     /FullName (Showboat) readonly def
     /FamilyName (Showboat) readonly def
     /Weight (Medium) readonly def
     /ItalicAngle 0 def
     /isFixedPitch false def
     /UnderlinePosition -106 def
     /UnderlineThickness 16 def
     /Notice (Showboat
     1991 by David Rakowski.  Alle Rechte Vorbehalten.) readonly def
    end readonly def
    /FontName /Showboat def
    --stdin--

Using this information, a possible name might be:

    -type1-Showboat-medium-r-normal-decorative-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1

The components of our name are:

Foundry

  Lets just name all the new fonts `type1.`

Family

  The name of the font.

Weight

  Normal, bold, medium, semibold, etc. From the strings1 output above, it appears that this font has a weight of medium.

Slant

  roman, italic, oblique, etc. Since the ItalicAngle is zero, roman will be used.

Width

  Normal, wide, condensed, extended, etc. Until it can be examined, the assumption will be normal.

Additional style

  Usually omitted, but this will indicate that the font contains decorative capital letters.

Spacing

  proportional or monospaced. Proportional is used since isFixedPitch is false.

All of these names are arbitrary, but one should strive to be compatible with the existing conventions. A font is referenced by name with possible wild cards by an X11 program, so the name chosen should make some sense. One might begin by simply using

    …-normal-r-normal-…-p-…

as the name, and then use xfontsel1 to examine it and adjust the name based on the appearance of the font.

So, to complete our example:

    Make the font accessible to X11
    bash$ cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
    bash$ ln -s /usr/local/share/fonts/type1/showboat.pfb .

    Edit fonts.dir and fonts.scale, adding the line describing the font
    and incrementing the number of fonts which is found on the first line.
    bash$ ex fonts.dir
    :1p
    25
    :1c
    26
    .
    :$a
    showboat.pfb -type1-showboat-medium-r-normal-decorative-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1
    .
    :wq

    fonts.scale seems to be identical to fonts.dir…
    bash$ cp fonts.dir fonts.scale

    Tell X11 that things have changed
    bash$ xset fp rehash

    Examine the new font
    bash$ xfontsel -pattern -type1-*

References: xfontsel1, xset1, The X Windows System in a Nutshell, O'Reilly & Associates.

## Using type 1 fonts with Ghostscript

Ghostscript references a font via its `Fontmap file. This must be modified in a similar way to the X11 `fonts.dir` file. Ghostscript can use either the `.pfa` or the `.pfb` format fonts. Using the font from the previous example, here is how to use it with Ghostscript:`

    Put the font in Ghostscript's font directory
    bash$ cd /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts
    bash$ ln -s /usr/local/share/fonts/type1/showboat.pfb .

    Edit Fontmap so Ghostscript knows about the font
    bash$ cd /usr/local/share/ghostscript/4.01
    bash$ ex Fontmap
    :$a
    /Showboat        (showboat.pfb) ; % From CICA /fonts/atm/showboat
    .
    :wq

    Use Ghostscript to examine the font
    bash$ gs prfont.ps
    Aladdin Ghostscript 4.01 (1996-7-10)
    Copyright (C) 1996 Aladdin Enterprises, Menlo Park, CA.  All rights
    reserved.
    This software comes with NO WARRANTY: see the file PUBLIC for details.
    Loading Times-Roman font from /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/tir_____.pfb...
     /1899520 581354 1300084 13826 0 done.
    GS>Showboat DoFont
    Loading Showboat font from /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/showboat.pfb...
     1939688 565415 1300084 16901 0 done.
    >>showpage, press <return> to continue<<
    >>showpage, press <return> to continue<<
    >>showpage, press <return> to continue<<
    GS>quit

References: `fonts.txt` in the Ghostscript 4.01 distribution

## Using type 1 fonts with Groff

Now that the new font can be used by both X11 and Ghostscript, how can one use the new font with groff? First of all, since we are dealing with type 1 postscript fonts, the groff device that is applicable is the ps device. A font file must be created for each font that groff can use. A groff font name is just a file in `/usr/share/groff_font/devps`. With our example, the font file could be `/usr/share/groff_font/devps/SHOWBOAT`. The file must be created using tools provided by groff.

The first tool is `afmtodit. This is not normally installed, so it must be retrieved from the source distribution. I found I had to change the first line of the file, so I did:`

    bash$ cp /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/groff/afmtodit/afmtodit.pl /tmp
    bash$ ex /tmp/afmtodit.pl
    :1c
    #!/usr/bin/perl -P-
    .
    :wq

This tool will create the groff font file from the metrics file (`.afm` suffix.) Continuing with our example:

    Many .afm files are in Mac format&hellip ^M delimited lines
    We need to convert them to unix style ^J delimited lines
    bash$ cd /tmp
    bash$ cat /usr/local/share/fonts/type1/showboat.afm |
    	tr '\015' '\012' >showboat.afm

    Now create the groff font file
    bash$ cd /usr/share/groff_font/devps
    bash$ /tmp/afmtodit.pl -d DESC -e text.enc /tmp/showboat.afm generate/textmap SHOWBOAT

The font can now be referenced with the name SHOWBOAT.

If ghostscript is used to drive the printers on the system, then nothing more needs to be done. However, if true postscript printers are used, then the font must be down loaded to the printer in order for the font to be used (unless the printer happens to have the showboat font built in or on an accessible font disk.) The final step is to create a down loadable font. The `pfbtops tool is used to create the `.pfa` format of the font, and the `download file is modified to reference the new font. The `download file must reference the internal name of the font. This can easily be determined from the groff font file as illustrated:```

    Create the .pfa font file
    bash$ pfbtops /usr/local/share/fonts/type1/showboat.pfb >showboat.pfa

Of course, if the `.pfa` file is already available, just use a symbolic link to reference it.

    Get the internal font name
    bash$ fgrep internalname SHOWBOAT
    internalname Showboat

    Tell groff that the font must be down loaded
    bash$ ex download
    :$a
    Showboat      showboat.pfa
    .
    :wq

To test the font:

    bash$ cd /tmp
    bash$ cat >example.t <<EOF
    .sp 5
    .ps 16
    This is an example of the Showboat font:
    .br
    .ps 48
    .vs (\n(.s+2)p
    .sp
    .ft SHOWBOAT
    ABCDEFGHI
    .br
    JKLMNOPQR
    .br
    STUVWXYZ
    .sp
    .ps 16
    .vs (\n(.s+2)p
    .fp 5 SHOWBOAT
    .ft R
    To use it for the first letter of a paragraph, it will look like:
    .sp 50p
    \s(48\f5H\s0\fRere is the first sentence of a paragraph that uses the
    showboat font as its first letter.
    Additional vertical space must be used to allow room for the larger
    letter.
    EOF
    bash$ groff -Tps example.t >example.ps

    To use ghostscript/ghostview
    bash$ ghostview example.ps

    To print it
    bash$ lpr -Ppostscript example.ps

References: `/usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/groff/afmtodit/afmtodit.man`, groff_font5, groff_char5, pfbtops1.

## Can TrueType fonts be used?

The TrueType font format is used by Windows, Windows 95, Mac's,&hellip It is quite popular and there are a great number of fonts available in this format. Unfortunately, there are only two applications that I am aware of that can use this format: Ghostscript and povray. Ghostscript's support, according to the documentation, is rudimentary and the results are likely to be inferior to type 1 fonts.

However, groff would need a font description file, and I know of no tools to construct the metrics from a TrueType font. In addition, the font would have to be down loaded to postscript printers in the appropriate format, and again, groff cannot handle TrueType fonts in this fashion.

X11 has no support for TrueType fonts that I am aware of.

The only program that I know of that has the ability to use TrueType fonts is povray version 3, but I rather doubt many people will be creating documents as a series of raytraced pages! :-)

## Where can additional fonts be obtained?

Many fonts are available on the Internet. They are either entirely free, or are share-ware. In addition, there are many inexpensive CDROMs available that contain many fonts. Some Internet locations (as of August 1996) are:

- ftp://ftp.winsite.com (Formerly CICA)

- http://www.simtel.net/simcgi-bin/dosfind.cgi

- ftp://ftp.coast.net/

- http://af-pc-plloyd.ecel.uwa.edu.au/fonts/index.html

- http://www.esselte.com/letraset/index.html

- http://www.inil.com/users/elfring/esf.htm

## Additional questions

- What use are the `.pfm` files?

- Can one generate the `.afm` file from a `.pfa` or `.pfb`?

- How to generate the groff character mapping files for postscript fonts with non-standard character names?

- Can xditview and devX?? devices be setup to access all the new fonts?

- It would be good to have examples of using TrueType fonts with povray and ghostscript.