mitch@HQ.AF.MIL (Mitch Wright) (12/08/90)
This is probably a silly question, but... I just finished installing X11R4 on my Sun386i at home and have been trying to get an xterm to use a different font. I have used the "-fn" option with millions of different arguments as well as using xfontsel. If I select a font such as Times, the spacing (of spaces) are WAY off. So my question is: How can I use different fonts in an xterm and have it useable? Please reply via E-mail, since our USENET feed is currently down. ~mitch (W): mitch@hq.af.mil (Mitch Wright) | The Pentagon, 1B1046 | (703) 695-0262 (H): mitch@oz.com
melby@daffy.yk.Fujitsu.CO.JP (John B. Melby) (12/10/90)
Typically, xterm-based clients (including kterm) expect fixed-width fonts, such as a14. Each character displayed by xterm is assumed to have a width of one em (in the literal sense), and in the interest of speed, strings of characters are displayed as strings. Hence, the disparity between position-based output and proportional string output causes the spacing to go screwy. ----- John B. Melby Fujitsu Limited, Machida, Japan melby%yk.fujitsu.co.jp@uunet
mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (12/10/90)
> I just finished installing X11R4 on my Sun386i at home and have been > trying to get an xterm to use a different font. I have used the > "-fn" option with millions of different arguments as well as using > xfontsel. If I select a font such as Times, the spacing (of spaces) > are WAY off. xterm does not behave at all well with a non-fixed-width font. You really need a character-cell font to get proper behavior out of it, though any fixed-width font will mostly work. The spacing is indicated by the letter marked in the example below: v -adobe-times-bold-i-normal--10-100-75-75-p-57-iso8859-1 Here is what the XLFD has to say about this field. xterm, and most other terminal-emulator clients, assume a character-cell font, though most of them will work with varying degrees of success with monospaced or proprtional fonts. 3.1.2.11. SPACING : code-string SPACING is a code-string that indicates the escapement class of the font, i.e., monospace (fixed pitch), proportional (variable pitch), or charcell (a special monospaced font that conforms to the traditional data processing character cell font model). _________________________________________________________________ Code English Translation Description _________________________________________________________________ ``P'' Proportional A font whose logical character widths vary for each glyph. Note that no other restrictions are placed on the metrics of a proportional font. ``M'' Monospaced A font whose logical character widths are constant (i.e., all char widths of the font are equal to max_bounds.width). No other restrictions are placed on the metrics of a monospaced font. ``C'' CharCell A monospaced font which follows the standard typewriter character cell model (i.e., the glyphs of the font can be modeled by X clients as ``boxes'' of the same width and height which are imaged side by side to form text strings, or top to bottom to form text lines. By definition, all glyphs have the same logical character width, and no glyphs have ``ink'' outside of the character cell - there is no kerning (i.e., on a per-char basis with positive metrics: 0 <= left-bearing <= right-bearing <= width; with negative metrics: width <= left-bearing <= right-bearing <= 0) - and the vertical extents of the font do not exceed the vertical spacing (i.e., on a per char basis: ascent <= font-ascent and descent <= font-descent). The cell height = font-descent + font-ascent, and width = AVERAGE_WIDTH. _________________________________________________________________ der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
fgreco@dprg-330.GOVt.shearson.COM (Frank Greco) (12/14/90)
> > I just finished installing X11R4 on my Sun386i at home and have been trying to > get an xterm to use a different font. I have used the "-fn" option with > millions of different arguments as well as using xfontsel. If I select a font > such as Times, the spacing (of spaces) are WAY off. > > So my question is: How can I use different fonts in an xterm and have it > useable? Simple question. Simple answer. You can only use *mono*-spaced fonts in your xterm. Xterm is not "proportional-spaced-fonts" knowledgeable (no reason to be actually). Times is a proportional-spaced font face. Try courier, lucidasanstypewriter, terminal-bold, any of the nXn "fonts" (eg, 8X13, 7X14), etc. If you really want to edit with all sorts of fonts, you'll have to get a third-party package like Framemaker. Frank G. BTW, Instead of a cmd line arg, you could set your xterm's font via a resource too: In some file (say ".Xdefaults") xterm*font: 8X13 and "xrdb -load .Xdefaults" upon X startup.
etaylor@wilkins.iaims.bcm.tmc.edu (Eric Taylor) (12/15/90)
In article <9012141433.AA21913@islanders.>, fgreco@dprg-330.GOVt.shearson.COM (Frank Greco) writes: |> > |> > I just finished installing X11R4 on my Sun386i at home and have been trying to |> > get an xterm to use a different font. I have used the "-fn" option with |> > millions of different arguments as well as using xfontsel. If I select a font |> > such as Times, the spacing (of spaces) are WAY off. |> > |> > So my question is: How can I use different fonts in an xterm and have it |> > useable? |> |> Simple question. Simple answer. You can only use *mono*-spaced fonts |> in your xterm. Xterm is not "proportional-spaced-fonts" knowledgeable |> (no reason to be actually). |> |> Times is a proportional-spaced font face. Try courier, lucidasanstypewriter, |> terminal-bold, any of the nXn "fonts" (eg, 8X13, 7X14), etc. |> |> If you really want to edit with all sorts of fonts, you'll have to |> get a third-party package like Framemaker. |> |> |> |> Frank G. |> |> BTW, Instead of a cmd line arg, you could set your xterm's font via a resource too: |> |> In some file (say ".Xdefaults") |> |> xterm*font: 8X13 |> |> and "xrdb -load .Xdefaults" upon X startup. Think of how xterm is supposed to work. All characters are x-y addressable. This is not possible if the font is not of fixed width. -- Eric Taylor Baylor College of Medicine etaylor@wilkins.bcm.tmc.edu (713) 798-3776