Version: (using KDE KDE 3.5.0) Installed from: SuSE RPMs PCF is the native X11 bitmap font format, but it seems that kfontinst doesn't know how to install them. To reproduce: 1) Open Control Center 2) System Administration->Font Installer 3) Administrator Mode 4) Add Fonts… 5) File dialog pops up; click on a .pcf file or a .pcf.gz file and then click "Open" Observed behaviour: 6) Error dialog pops up: "Only fonts may be installed. If installing a fonts package (*.fonts.tar.gz), then extract the components, and install individually.) Expected behaviour: 6) kfontinst should have installed the font without complaining. After all, it already recognizes and lists the dozens of PCF fonts which came with X11!
> Observed behaviour: > 6) Error dialog pops up: "Only fonts may be installed. If installing a > fonts package (*.fonts.tar.gz), then extract the components, and install > individually.) Well something must be wrong with the font. Fonts are checked with FreeType to see if it recognises them before installing - and the above error occurs when FreeType does not like the font. Can you email me the font in question? I've just downloaded some .pcf.gz fonts, and they installed fine. Craig.
I checked your claim by copying a PCF font out of my /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi directory and trying to install it with kfontinst -- lo and behold, it worked fine. Yet I'm sure the fonts I was trying to install previously were OK, because Konqueror recognized them just fine and even provided previews. So what's the difference between the fonts in /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi and the fonts I was trying to install? Observe: [psy@port-3108:/tmp/fonts]$ file -z /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/luIS10.pcf.gz /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/luIS10.pcf.gz: X11 Portable Compiled Font data (gzip compressed data, from Unix) [psy@port-3108:/tmp/fonts]$ file -z trisk.pcf.gz trisk.pcf.gz: X11 Portable Compiled Font data, LSB first (gzip compressed data, was "trisk.pcf", from Unix) It seems the problem, then, is that kfontinst (or FreeType?) doesn't like it when the PCF font is LSB first. Maybe the solution, then, is to have kfontinst automatically "fix" the files before installation. Since the font in question is freeware, I'm attaching it.
Created attachment 13897 [details] trisk.pcf: X11 Portable Compiled Font data, LSB first
Thanks for the font - I will look into this later. Doing this sort of conversion would have to wait for KDE4.0 Not sure how to do this tho - or whether it is really the installer's job. Perhaps you should file a bug report with FreeType?
Well, I don't know if it's kfontinst's job or FreeType's job, but it's certainly not the user's job. The average Joe User downloading fonts off the web shouldn't be expected to have the technical expertise to convert between LSB and MSB PCF fonts. (Heck, I'm a technically savvy Unix user and even I don't know how to do the conversion.) All he wants to do is download the font and have it install correctly on his KDE system.
I can't find any info on the web or in my system documentation on how to fix the PCF files. I'm asking on Usenet here: <news:2123196.hsOoVIHov8@ID-187157.News.Individual.NET>
Totally agree. But I still think it should be FreeType's responsibility to handle the font. But, if there is a simple way to convert, then I'll think about adding support - hence I'll leave this report open to bug me. However, I cant image most users these days wanting to install bitmap fonts of any type.
I'm not so sure; <a href="http://typographi.com/000744.php">this discussion on programming fons</a> generated dozens upon dozens of replies. Apparently there are entire websites devoted to bitmap screen fonts, mostly for programmers who are tired of staring at Courier New twelve hours a day.
Its been over a year, and no progress. Plus, the bug really lies with FreeType not handling LSB first PCF fonts.
I'm running into this with all pcf fonts at http://www.proggyfonts.com/index.php?menu=download . xfontsel can display them, no problem.
Still a problem under debian etch with proggyfonts -- are these invalid?
(In reply to Krishna Sethuraman from comment #11) > Still a problem under debian etch with proggyfonts -- are these invalid? Perhaps your problem is Bug 297067?