[opus]

FreeBSD wimpy.hopto.org 5.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE #0

Xorg as well

All my fonts are too small, whats the deal. Of course I can selectively change xterm and the browser. Xmms, I can barely see.

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "record"
Load "xtrap"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psm0"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "YES"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
#DisplaySize 330 270 # mm
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "NEC"
ModelName "NEC LCD1700V"
### Uncomment if you don't want to default to DDC:
HorizSync 31.0 - 80.0
# HorizSync 65.0 - 0.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"

[Atlas]

Uncomment your DisplaySize line under the Monitor section and play around with the two variables until you like the font sizes. If I were smarter, I would be able to tell you the numbers that you should use, but since I'm not, all I can say is give it a shot. :)

[opus]

I played with that. It doesd change the Fluxbox fonts but not xterm or xmms or Firefox.

[Atlas]

Not FireFox? It solved my problem. Now that I'm home, here is the line I used:
DisplaySize 400 300

Are you using the nVidia drivers?

[opus]

yes, NV drivers. I've tried about everything I could search up so far.

[bmk1st]

NV or Nvidia driver? Both are different drivers. NV driver usually comes with XFree and Xorg while Nvidia driver is a binary driver released by Nvidia.

[opus]

Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nv"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NV5 [RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

[Atlas]

That's the driver that ships with xorg and the font sizes should be correct using it. Because I'm out of ideas now, I would probably try using the nvidia-released binary driver coupled with the displaysize argument and see if that solves the problem.

Also, you might check to make sure that you've installed all the expected font packages. I just always say yes to everything but cyrillic, but that's just because I don't really know what I'm doing with all that stuff. :)

[opus]

I think you may be right...in both senses. I know nothing about fonts.

[bmw]

I just always say yes to everything but cyrillic
How are ya going to view all the nice Russion spam? You won't be able to send away for a Moscow mail-order bride! :-)

[Atlas]

How are ya going to view all the nice Russion spam? You won't be able to send away for a Moscow mail-order bride! :-)
You've found the only flaw in my plan! Damn!

[bumbler]

I know LOTS about fonts. And screen resolution.

1. Take the native resolution. Mine is 1280x1024. That's about 1.25 to 1. Whatever your calculation, you have to maintain that ratio. My 19" is natively 352x264, but gives me an odd size font rendering, so I played with combinations until I found 330x264=1.25. That makes fonts 96x96. Square is the goal.

2. For anything Mozilla-based, it's more a matter of font settings in your ~/.mozilla directory. Fix the first issue, then we'll get into that. Or you can check my fonts tutorials at ed.asisaid.com.

Ask me questions. This is one of the few things I understand.

bumbler

[opus]

Hey Bumbler,

Things arent out of perspective, it just that they are small. There is no consistency to anything. My res is 1024x768. I have never had to fuss with fonts before. I did read a bit of your fonts tutorial..until I saw the word algebra. I fled like a fuzzy dog on fire then! The only time I have font issues are in X, just to be clear.

[bumbler]

Yes, and X is all about algebra and a bunch of other obscenities. The resolution does affect display size, but not as you would expect. Go ahead and calculate the proper setting, because that is just one of numerous issues affecting fonts in Xorg and XFree86. I'd never have believed it if I hadn't played with it so much.

Also, make sure your /usr/X11R6/fonts/fonts.conf includes all your root font directories. Here's a shot of mine, near the top of the file:


<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/local/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts</dir>


I don't know if fluxbox uses Xft, but lots of apps do, and without proper listing in that file, Xft won't know about all your fonts. There is a distinct difference between the way Xft handles them in X and the way X handles them by itself.

bumbler

[opus]

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/artwiz-aleczapka-en"
EndSection

[GhostDawg]

I had that problem with the small fonts for 1024x768 also, but now I have a 15" LCD screen and now the fonts are huge. I can't seem to get it fixed at 1024x768 either.

Just a thought!

[bumbler]

Opus, my friend, that's the FontPath list from /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Wrong conf file. I was referring to the /usr/X11R6/fonts/fonts.conf. Different file with an XML format. We don't have the fancy autoconfig that comes with Linux distros, so we have to fix that file by hand. Fix that fonts.conf file and restart X. If that doesn't change anything, I've got more diagnostics up my sleeve.

[opus]

/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/fonts.conf is the file. Guess I am not sure what you mean by 'fix it'.

[bumbler]

If what you pasted a couple messages above is what is in that file, it's the wrong format. The fonts.conf file is XML format. Thus, it would have to have an XML header at the top, like so:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file to configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>

Then the part that matters in this exercise would look like this:

<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/local/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts</dir>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>

That's what's in my /usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/fonts.conf. You only have to point to the directory one level above all the fonts directories. Xft will then descend into the various subdirectories and find what it needs.

[opus]

<!-- Font directory list configured on Sat Oct 16 02:18:00 UTC 2004 -->

<dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>

<dir>~/.fonts</dir>

That is the correct path to my fonts. You are saying I can point to multiple dirs?

[bumbler]

Yes, you can. If you haven't added any fonts to your system via something like KDE's font installer, then you can drop the reference to /usr/local/share/fonts. The third line simply puts the ghostscript fonts into Xft.

Since all this is in place and you still have trouble, there's another item to check. Go to each of the directories which contain fonts, and insure that the fonts.scale is an exact copy of fonts.dir. Just do a size check. If fonts.scale is empty, X cannot process the fonts in that directory. I've always found them empty in 75dpi, 100dpi, and misc.

[opus]

My fonts.scale, were empty. I cp fonts.dir to fonts.scale. They are now the same.

I went into the conf file you told me too, it told me to edit the local.conf file. It tells me to edit /etc/fonts.conf, which there is none. This is the local.conf file.

BTW, none of this is making a bit of sense yet. :o)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts.conf file to configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>
<!-- Enable sub-pixel rendering
<match target="font">
<test qual="all" name="rgba">
<const>unknown</const>
</test>
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign"><const>rgb</const></edit>
</match>
-->

<alias>
<family>serif</family>
<prefer>
<family>Bitstream Vera Serif</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
<family>sans-serif</family>
<prefer>
<family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
<family>monospace</family>
<prefer>
<family>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
</fontconfig>

[bumbler]

The warning in that file is the same arrogant swill you get from that particular coder on a lot of other things. I find his choices for me aren't always in my best interest. However, if you are concerned, you can indeed make for yourself in your user's home directory a ~/.fonts.conf and include anything you like. Xft should pick it up. The reference to /etc/fonts/fonts.conf is obsolete on FreeBSD.

As for making no sense: this whole business of how Xft is designed is from that particular coder I mentioned. However, without doing a ton of recoding, you can't get around it. He's convinced both XFree86 and X.org to buy into his ideas. So I learned ways to tame it. It's a nice idea, as yet very poorly implemented.

The X-server itself does a fine job of displaying fonts, but has no capacity (yet) to smooth them internally. TTFs come out a bit chiseled, for example, and some of them do not kern nicely -- they don't position themselves evenly on the line, and the spacing between them is a bit odd at times. Xft is supposed to fix that. However, it has been built like a lot of other stuff this guy does. Other experts say his stuff is all convoluted and complicated beyond reason. Sadly, this fellow is very influential. I consider him the primary reason the GNOME Project is so messed up. We are stuck with silly politics making a mess of fonts. Someday X may work like it should, but that's still a dream.

[RandomSF]

Hey bumbler, thanks for the info. Adjusting DisplaySize allowed me to fix and then fine tune my fonts after switching to fluxbox.