2 How To Convert Windows Fonts
3 ============================
5 If you have access to a Windows installation you should use
6 fnt2bdf utility (found in the 'tools)' directory to convert
7 bitmap fonts (VGASYS.FON, SSERIFE.FON, and SERIFE.FON) into
8 the format that X Window System can recognize.
10 Step 1. Extract bitmap fonts with 'fnt2bdf'.
12 Step 2. Convert .bdf files produced by the Step 1 into
13 .pcf files with 'bdftopcf'.
15 Step 3. Copy .pcf files to the font server directory which
16 is usually /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc (you will probably
17 need superuser privileges). If you want to create a new
18 font directory you will need to add it to the font path.
20 Step 4. Run 'mkfontdir' for the directory you copied fonts to.
21 If you are already in X you should run 'xset fp rehash'
22 to make X server aware of the new fonts.
24 Step 5. Edit WINE.CONF file to remove aliases for the fonts
25 you've just installed.
27 WINE can get by without these fonts but 'the look and feel'
28 may be quite different. Also, some applications try to load
29 their custom fonts on the fly (WinWord 6.0) and since WINE does
30 not implement this yet it instead prints out something like;
32 STUB: AddFontResource( SOMEFILE.FON )
34 You can convert this file too. Note that .FON file may not hold
35 any bitmap fonts and fnt2bdf will fail if this is the case. Also
36 note that although the above message will not disappear WINE will
37 work around the problem by using the font you extracted from the
40 What to do with TrueType fonts? There are several commercial
41 font tools that can convert them to the Type1 format but the
42 quality of the resulting fonts is far from stellar. The other
43 way to use them is to get a font server capable of rendering
44 TrueType (Caldera has one).
46 However, there is a possibility of the native TrueType support
47 via FreeType renderer in the future (hint, hint :-)
50 How To Add Font Aliases To WINE.CONF
51 ====================================
53 Many Windows applications assume that fonts included in original Windows 3.1
54 distribution are always present. By default Wine creates a number of aliases
55 that map them on the existing X fonts:
57 Windows font ...is mapped to... X font
59 "MS Sans Serif" -> "-adobe-helvetica-"
60 "MS Serif" -> "-bitstream-charter-"
61 "Times New Roman" -> "-adobe-times-"
62 "Arial" -> "-adobe-helvetica-"
64 There is no default alias for the "System" font. Also, no aliases are
65 created for the fonts that applications install at runtime. The recommended
66 way to deal with this problem is to convert the missing font (see above).
67 If it proves impossible, like in the case with TrueType fonts, you can force
68 the font mapper to choose a closely related X font by adding an alias to the
69 [fonts] section. Make sure that the X font actually exists (with xfontsel
72 AliasN = [Windows font], [X font] <, optional "mask X font" flag>
76 Alias0 = System, --international-, subst
81 * There must be no gaps in the sequence {0, ..., N} otherwise all aliases
82 after the first gap won't be read.
84 * Usually font mapper translates X font names into font names visible to
85 Windows programs in the following fashion:
87 X font ...will show up as... Extracted name
89 --international-... -> "International"
90 -adobe-helvetica-... -> "Helvetica"
91 -adobe-utopia-... -> "Utopia"
92 -misc-fixed-... -> "Fixed"
94 -sony-fixed-... -> "Sony Fixed"
97 Note that since -misc-fixed- and -sony-fixed- are different fonts
98 Wine modified the second extracted name to make sure Windows programs
99 can distinguish them because only extracted names appear in the font
102 * "Masking" alias replaces the original extracted name so that in the
103 example case we will have the following mapping:
105 --international- -> "System"
107 "Nonmasking" aliases are transparent to the user and they do not
108 replace extracted names.
110 Wine discards an alias when it sees that the native X font is
113 * If you do not have access to Windows fonts mentioned in the first
114 paragraph you should try to substitute the "System" font with
115 nonmasking alias. 'xfontsel' will show you the fonts available to
118 Alias.. = System, ...bold font without serifs
120 Also, some Windows applications request fonts without specifying the
121 typeface name of the font. Font table starts with Arial in most Windows
122 installations, however X font table starts with whatever is the first line
123 in the fonts.dir. Therefore WINE uses the following entry to determine
124 which font to check first.
128 Default = -adobe-times-
131 It is better to have a scalable font family (bolds and italics included)
132 as the default choice because mapper checks all available fonts until
133 requested height and other attributes match perfectly or the end of the
134 font table is reached. Typical X installations have scalable fonts in
135 the ../fonts/Type1 and ../fonts/Speedo directories.
138 How To Manage Cached Font Metrics
139 =================================
141 WINE stores detailed information about available fonts in the ~/.wine/.cachedmetrics
142 file. You can copy it elsewhere and add this entry to the [fonts] section
145 FontMetrics = <file with metrics>
147 If WINE detects changes in the X font configuration it will rebuild font
148 metrics from scratch and then it will overwrite ~/.wine/.cachedmetrics with
149 the new information. This process can take a while.
152 Too Small Or Too Large Fonts
153 ============================
155 Windows programs may ask WINE to render a font with the height specified
156 in points. However, point-to-pixel ratio depends on the real physical size
157 of your display (15", 17", etc...). X tries to provide an estimate of that
158 but it can be quite different from the actual size. You can change this
159 ratio by adding the following entry to the [fonts] section:
161 Resolution = <integer value>
163 In general, higher numbers give you larger fonts. Try to experiment with
164 values in the 60 - 120 range. 96 is a good starting point.
167 "FONT_Init: failed to load ..." Messages On Startup
168 ===================================================
170 The most likely cause is a broken fonts.dir file in one of your font
171 directories. You need to rerun 'mkfontdir' to rebuild this file. Read
172 its manpage for more information. If you can't run mkfontdir on this machine
173 as you are not root, use "xset -fp xxx" to remove the broken font path.