I have yet to figure out...

The problem with fonts is that the font shaping programs (though not the fonts themselves) are subject to copyright. This limits the distribution of high-quality fonts. The problem, of course, is that these days resolution of fonts is done in a distributed manner, not at specific printing locations, and more and more often, fonts are being resolved on free platforms for which proprietary distribution terms aren't applicable. This is a huge problem, and one that I've bitched about in the past. One suggestion I made at an OpenOffice presentation at SVLUG was that Sun take their fonts and place them under X rather than install them within OO, in part to answer this issue.

Microsoft themselves recognized this with their TT fonts, and made the fonts liberally available for users so that documents produced with their software would be broadly useable. This is the source of TT fonts most GNU/Linux users seem to use. Of course, liberally avaialble != free software, and most GNU/Linux distros don't include these fonts.

One possible solution are the so-called [link|http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/fonts/urw.html|URW fonts], which are packaged for various GNU/Linux distributions as part of the GhostScript font selection. The Debian package is gsfonts-x11, check your distro for equivalents.

Post #13,099 by admin 10/12/01 9:24:51 AM Reply	I have yet to figure out... Why none of the distributions seem to properly set up fonts. Why do I always have to set up TrueType fonts and the like? This should be done by the distro. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #13,156 by kmself 10/12/01 3:03:27 PM Reply	Copyright & URW Fonts The problem with fonts is that the font shaping programs (though not the fonts themselves) are subject to copyright. This limits the distribution of high-quality fonts. The problem, of course, is that these days resolution of fonts is done in a distributed manner, not at specific printing locations, and more and more often, fonts are being resolved on free platforms for which proprietary distribution terms aren't applicable. This is a huge problem, and one that I've bitched about in the past. One suggestion I made at an OpenOffice presentation at SVLUG was that Sun take their fonts and place them under X rather than install them within OO, in part to answer this issue. Microsoft themselves recognized this with their TT fonts, and made the fonts liberally available for users so that documents produced with their software would be broadly useable. This is the source of TT fonts most GNU/Linux users seem to use. Of course, liberally avaialble != free software, and most GNU/Linux distros don't include these fonts. One possible solution are the so-called [link\|http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/fonts/urw.html\|URW fonts], which are packaged for various GNU/Linux distributions as part of the GhostScript font selection. The Debian package is `gsfonts-x11`, check your distro for equivalents. `-- Karsten M. Self [link\|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com\|kmself@ix.netcom.com] What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?`
Post #13,161 by admin 10/12/01 3:54:10 PM Reply	That's all well and good... ... but (at least some of) the distros don't even bother to set up TrueType support in X! I've had to set it up in every installation I've ever done, in both RedHat 6.X/7.X and SuSE 7.2. Regards, -scott anderson

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