gimp, fonts, X11

[ericw13]

Now that I have X11 on my iBook (both XDarwin and X11.app, no less), I have started messing around with the gimp. I have found the available fonts severly lacking!

How does one go about adding to the font repository in X11 on OSX? Where can one find good, free fonts for this purpose?

Thanks
Eric

[sao]

ericw13,

I asked the same question:

How does one go about adding to the font repository in Apple X11 on OSX?

and John Harper from Apple answered the following:

"Add fonts to /Library/Fonts or /System/Library/Fonts, then run xftcache as root"


And if this is possible can I add OSX fonts?

"Any applications that use Xft for font management should automatically pick up the native fonts".


Cheers...

[ericw13]

Originally posted by sao
ericw13,

I asked the same question:

How does one go about adding to the font repository in Apple X11 on OSX?

and John Harper from Apple answered the following:

"Add fonts to /Library/Fonts or /System/Library/Fonts, then run xftcache as root"

I dumped a font in /Library/Fonts and it shows up fine in OSX apps. I tried to run sudo xftcache, but got a command not found on xftcache. Where is this program located by default? Is it even a default program? If not, where can I get it (w/o fink... don't like fink... rather ./configure && make && sudo make install myself).

And if this is possible can I add OSX fonts?

"Any applications that use Xft for font management should automatically pick up the native fonts".


Cheers...

Thanks!
Eric

[sao]

ericw13,

which xftcache
/usr/X11R6/bin/xftcache

Cheers...

[olealf]

"Any applications that use Xft for font management should automatically pick up the native fonts".
How do I know if an application uses Xft?

I tried to get AbiWord and OpenOffice to recognize the fonts in my ~/Library/Fonts/ folder but they just don't show up.

The Xftcache man page is no big help.

[ericw13]

Since this seems to have fallen by the wayside, I'll bring it up again...

Anyone know where to get good, free X11 fonts, say for use with the Gimp?
:D

Eric

[sao]

ericw13,

I just read a tip for OpenOffice:

Run the admin program:

% cd /Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.1/program/
% ./spadmin

click on fonts, add the ones you want (that are unix enabled via fondu) and click add.

Try that and let me know if it works.

[olealf]

I already tried that. Neither the fonts in my classic system folder show up when trying to add nor the fonts in my ~/Library/Fonts folder. Don't know why but didn't do too much testing yet. May it's a question of the font format.

Wrote this while not having read your whole post... I think I did not "Unix enable" them but I'll try. Thanks for your answer.

[olealf]

That's it! I just ran fondu on the fonts i'd like to add and voila! This is all new to me so I didn't know the fondu thing.

Thanks again.

[ericw13]

All of this is great, but none of it helps me figure out how to get these fonts into the Gimp. I used fondu on a Mac font to create a .ttf (TrueType Font) version, I added the font using spadmin from the OOo package, and ran OOo. The font showed up... looked like crap, but it was available.

When I fired up the Gimp, there were no new fonts available, even though I added every ttf I found in /Library/Fonts with spadmin, as well as the one I fondu'd.

I also tried copying my new ttf to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF, but that didn't work. I want to make some logos in the gimp with some nice big blocky letters, but the default fonts don't fit the bill and I cannot figure out how to get the gimp to recognize other ttfs!!!

Bleck
Eric

[sao]

If using Apple's X11.app, add in /etc/X11/XftConfig the following directories:

# add OS X system-wide font directories

dir "/Library/Fonts"
dir "/System/Library/Fonts"

This would work with freetype aware X11 applications (like xterm).

You can run:

xterm -fa Monaco -fs 14

to get an xterm with Monaco fonts.

[ericw13]

Is there any reason that XDarwin wouldn't use this same file? X11.app is a bit too beta for my tastes.

Thanks
Eric

[Lewisham]

because it still doesn't work. I've followed all the instructions to get my Mac OS X truetype fonts to work with Gimp, but still nothing :(

I don't want to pay for Apple PhotoElements :(

[machiavel]

If you want extra X11 fonts (that will work with Gimp fairly easily), you can try the fonts available at http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gnu-darwin/direct_download/packages/ppc/x11-fonts/

The urwfonts are a good place to start. Untar them and place them anywhere you like. (Normally, they go in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts directory. Then run the following commands:

xset +fp [path to fonts file]
xset fp rehash

If it works, put them in your .xinitrc file so they'll be avaliable everytime you start X11 (or XDarwin).

[rgray]

Here (http://www.gimp.org/fonts.html) are some fonts from the gimp.org pages.

[i5m]

Using OSX10.3.5, Gimp.app version 2.0

This might be an old thread, but I was searching for how to add fonts to Gimp and haven't come up with a lot. There is a fink package called applesystemfonts ("http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/applesystemfonts') that might do the trick. When reading about this package it said that ttf fonts will be symlinked. So I tried it (symlinking) since I only needed one font in Gimp and it worked.

Via terminal cd to ~/.gimp-2.0/fonts

type: ln -s /Library/Fonts/fontinquestion.ttf ./fontinquestion.ttf

You can then refresh the font list via the font dialog in Gimp and it will show up (No need to restart Gimp or X11)