Fighting Font Frustration
Resources

By Steve Coile

As a heavy user of Netscape Navigator under Red Hat Linux, I find myself frequently frustrated with the problems experienced visiting overly-fancy Web page designs and Web pages designed only for Microsoft Windows users related, often because of problems rendering fonts. Unfortunately, these problems occur frequently. On the up-side, I've managed to find ways to alleviate them to an acceptable level. This article discusses several steps that can be taken to improve the Web browsing experience using Netscape Navaigator and Communicator under Red Hat Linux. Much of this material may also be applied to other variants of Linux and UNIX.

In part one of this article, I discussed the basic steps that users of Netscape Navigator and Communicator for Red Hat Linux and other UNIX and Linux variants can take to improve the browsing experience. In part two, I discussed steps for more advanced Red Hat Linux users and systems administrators to alleviate remaining font sizing issues. In part three, I discussed how to create compatability fonts for Red Hat Linux systems to handle Web pages that reference fonts only available on Microsoft platforms. This part contains other resources for addressing font-related problems.

mkaliasfont

Script used to create alias fonts. Mkaliasfont is not included with Red Hat Linux 6.2. By Steve Coile. [part 3]

Re: Netscape font is too small

A posting from the comp.os.linux.setup newsgroup proposing some options for dealing with small and poorly rendered fonts under Netscape for Linux. By Karsten M. Self. [part 2]

Red Hat anonymous FTP archive

One of many sources for 100 DPI font packages, among others. [part 2]

Red Hat FTP mirrors

Mirrors of Red Hat's FTP site, where 100 DPI font packages may also be found.

Using TrueType Fonts with Red Hat Linux

Informative collection of tips for using TrueType fonts with Red Hat Linux, plus links to additional font-related resources. By Dan Kegel.

XFree86 Font Deuglification Mini HOWTO

Tips for improving the apperance of fonts under XFree86. Source of several suggestions in this article. By Doug Holland. [part 2]

.Xresources (a k a .Xdefaults)

Located in your home directory, this file contains X resources that are used to tailor your X environment, including the behavior of Netscape. [part 1]

/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs

Script used to start, stop, and restart the X font server (xfs). [part 2]

/etc/X11/fs/config

The X font server (xfs) configuration file, used to identify available fonts and font resolution preferences. [part 2, part 3]

/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers

XDM configuration file containing the X server command line. Used to configure the default display resolution of the X server. [part 2]

/usr/bin/X11/mkfontdir (a k a mkfontdir)

Command used to complete setup of a new font specification directory. [part 3]

/usr/bin/X11/xlsfonts (a k a xlsfonts)

Command used to display listing of fonts currently available to X applications. Used to obtain templates for alias font specifications. [part 3]

/usr/sbin/chkfontpath (a k a chkfontpath)

Command used to add new fonts to the X font server (xfs) configuration. [part 3]

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts

Directory containing font definition directories. [part 2, part 3]

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/compat

Directory in which the compatibility (alias) fonts, such as Arial, are defined. [part 3]

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/compat/fonts.alias

File containing compatability (alias) font specifications, generated by following the procedures included in this article. [part 3]

• Visual 1.1: Example of pixelation [part 1]
• Visual 1.2: Disabling font scaling in Nescape [part 1]
• Visual 1.3: Non-tool toolbar buttons in Netscape [part 1]
• Visual 1.4: Text selection color change, before [part 1]
• Visual 1.5: Text selection color change, after [part 1]
• Visual 3.1: Font appearance and alias fonts, before [part 3]
• Visual 3.2: Font appearance and alias fonts, after [part 3]