Solved How can I use non-bitmap Helvetica on Freebsd?

H

horatio

Hello.

I would like to use Helvetica font on Freebsd, but it seems that the Helvetica installed by default is a bitmap version. Is there any way to use a Helvetica font that is not bitmap? Thank you in advance.
 
So long as you have an Helvetica True Type Font, then add a similar line as the arrowed line below to xorg.conf

Code: 
Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/misc/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/" <<<<<<<<
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/OTF"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/bitstream-vera/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/comic-neue/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/dejavu/"
        FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/webfonts/"
EndSection
 
Helvetica setting is really ugly by default. What helped me was putting a symlink in /usr/local/etc/fonts/conf.d/ to /usr/local/etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf.
 
Thank you all. I should have seen the thread Thread 61501...

I wonder if it is reasonable that bitnmap fonts are still enabled by default in FreeBSD. If the performance of the machine is not enough to accommodate scalable fonts, it would not accommodate current FreeBSD itself.
 
It has nothing to do with performance capability (IMO). Those bitmap fonts are a x11/xorg thing. If you do not use Xorg you should never have problems with that. And if someone machine is not "powerful" enough to handle some fonts it would be better to get a new one. :)

I may be wrong but it is x11-fonts/fontconfig itself that set/kept them ON by default for what use it (fontconfig). In FreeBSD, by rule, the upstream defaults are just changed if there is a good reason for that, inclusive because everyone can easily change the default options later, or using ports.

Other than that a lot of people use bitmap fonts. Specially those who use WMs, me included. My setup uses x11-fonts/ohsnap almost exclusively, but for web pages (but still uses it for mono spaced fonts).
 
I see, there seem a lot of unique fonts that are offered only as bitmap fonts. Makes sense.

I still think some people (especially those who are used to OTF) would be puzzled that shaggy versions of Helvetica and others are installed by default and appear occasionally. I thought this was for the very limited systems that cannot handle scalable fonts.
 
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