1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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4 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
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5 | %general-entities;
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6 | ]>
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7 |
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8 | <sect1 id="TTF-and-OTF-fonts">
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9 | <?dbhtml filename="TTF-and-OTF-fonts.html"?>
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10 |
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11 |
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12 | <title>TTF and OTF fonts</title>
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13 |
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14 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts">
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15 | <primary sortas="a-TTF-and-OTF-fonts">TTF and OTF fonts</primary>
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16 | </indexterm>
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17 |
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18 | <!-- although indexterm entries can be added for the individual fonts, and
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19 | will link to the correct part of the page, that seems unnecessary unless
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20 | the font is linked from other pages -->
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21 |
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22 | <sect2 role="configuration">
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23 | <title>About TTF and OTF fonts</title>
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24 |
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25 | <para>
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26 | Originally, Xorg provided only bitmap fonts. Later, some scalable
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27 | Type1 fonts were added, but the desktop world moved on to using TrueType
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28 | and Open Type fonts. To support these, Xorg uses Xft, the X FreeType
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29 | interface library.
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30 | </para>
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31 |
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32 | <para>
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33 | These fonts can provide hints, which <application>fontconfig</application>
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34 | uses to adjust them for maximum readability on computer monitors. On Linux
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35 | you should always use the hinted versions if they are available (in
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36 | general the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabets can use hints, most other
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37 | writing systems do not use hinting).
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38 | </para>
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39 |
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40 | <para>
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41 | A few fonts are provided as collections (TTC or OTC) where font data
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42 | is shared between different fonts, which saves disk space. These should
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43 | be treated in exactly the same way as individual TTF or OTF files.
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44 | </para>
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45 |
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46 | <para>
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47 | If a font provides both TTF and OTF forms, you should prefer the OTF form
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48 | in Linux, as it may provide more features for programs which know how to
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49 | use them (such as xelatex).
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50 | </para>
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51 |
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52 | <para>
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53 | A font may have multiple variations. For example, Noto Sans
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54 | has 9 weights (ExtraLight, Light, Thin, Normal, Medium, SemiBold,
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55 | Bold, ExtraBold, and Black) and 2 styles (Regular and Italic), thus
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56 | 18 variations in total. Normally each variation is provided as a
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57 | separate TTF or OTF file. For full coverage you need to install
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58 | all these TTF or OTF files. Even if you are low on disk space, you
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59 | should still install two weights (Regular and Bold) by two styles
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60 | (Normal and Italic) if the font has these variations. Some fonts
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61 | do not have Italic style (for example most CJK fonts and some
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62 | monospace fonts), and some fonts only have one variation (for example
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63 | Noto Sans Math, it only provides the glyph of some mathematic
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64 | symbols).
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65 | </para>
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66 |
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67 | <para>
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68 | Some fonts are also available as <emphasis>variable</emphasis> font
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69 | files. Unlike a normal font file which only contains one variation,
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70 | a variable font file contains infinite variations. Each variation
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71 | can be defined by the application using this font by assigning
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72 | number(s) to one or more variables. There are also pre-defined
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73 | <emphasis>named instances</emphasis> analogous to the traditional
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74 | variations. For example, with the variable version of Noto Sans, the
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75 | weight variable can be assigned any number not less than 100 and not
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76 | greater than 900, and 9 named instances are pre-defined: ExtraLight
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77 | for weight=100, Regular for weight=400, Bold for weight=700, etc. So
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78 | once a variable font file for Noto Sans is installed, all the
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79 | 9 named instances (or <quote>variations</quote>) are available. Note
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80 | that the slope is not defined as a variable in the variable version
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81 | of Noto Sans, so Regular and Italic are still traditional variations
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82 | and a separate variable font file is needed for the Italic variation.
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83 | </para>
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84 |
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85 | <para>
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86 | A variable font file is obviously more flexible than the normal
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87 | (static) font files. It's extremely useful for fine tuning the
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88 | font for Web pages or publications. And, the size of a variable font
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89 | file is usually significantly smaller than the total size of several
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90 | static font files for multiple variations. For example, the variable
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91 | font file for Noto Sans SC is only 11M, while the total size of 9
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92 | static font files for Noto Sans SC is 91M. But you must make sure
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93 | your applications really support variable fonts before installing one.
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94 | For example, <command>lualatex</command> supports variable font but
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95 | <command>xelatex</command> does not. So if you want to use a font for
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96 | an article and use <command>xelatex</command> for typesetting, you
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97 | must not install the variable font files.
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98 | </para>
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99 |
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100 | <para>
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101 | For information about variable fonts, please see <ulink
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102 | url="https://fonts.google.com/knowledge/introducing_type/introducing_variable_fonts/">
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103 | Variable Fonts</ulink>.
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104 | </para>
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105 |
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106 | <para>
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107 | For some scripts, <application>Pango</application> is required to
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108 | render things correctly, either by selecting different glyph forms, or by
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109 | combining glyphs - in both cases, according to the context. This applies
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110 | particularly to Arabic and Indic scripts.
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111 | </para>
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112 |
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113 | <para>
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114 | Standard scalable fonts that come with <application>X</application>
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115 | provide very poor Unicode coverage. You may notice in applications that
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116 | use <application>Xft</application> that some characters appear as a box
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117 | with four binary digits inside. In this case, a font with the
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118 | required glyphs has not been found. Other times, applications that
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119 | don't use other font families by default and don't accept substitutions
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120 | from <application>Fontconfig</application> will display blank lines when
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121 | the default font doesn't cover the orthography of the user's language.
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122 | </para>
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123 |
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124 | <para>
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125 | The fonts available to a program are those which were present when
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126 | it was started, so if you add an extra font and wish to use it in a program
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127 | which is currently running, then you will have to close and restart that
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128 | program.
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129 | </para>
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130 |
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131 | <para>
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132 | Some people are happy to have dozens, or even hundreds, of font files
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133 | available, but if you ever wish to select a specific font in a desktop
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134 | application (for example in a word processor) then scrolling through a lot of
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135 | fonts to find the right one is slow and awkward - fewer is better. So, for
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136 | some font packages you might decide to install only one of the fonts - but
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137 | nevertheless install the different variants (italic, bold, etc) as these are
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138 | all variations for the same font name.
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139 | </para>
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140 |
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141 | <para>
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142 | In the past, everybody recommended running <command>fc-cache</command>
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143 | as the &root; user after installing or removing fonts, but this is not
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144 | necessary anymore on Linux, <application>fontconfig</application> will do
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145 | it automatically if needed as well as if the font caches are more than 30
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146 | seconds old. However, if you add a font and want to use it immediately,
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147 | you can run that command as a normal user.
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148 | </para>
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149 |
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150 | <para>
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151 | There are several references below to CJK characters. This stands for
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152 | Chinese, Japanese and Korean, although modern Korean is now almost all
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153 | written using the phonetic Hangul glyphs (it used to sometimes use Hanja
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154 | glyphs which are similar to Chinese and Japanese). Unicode decided to go
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155 | for <ulink
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156 | url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification">Han Unification</ulink>
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157 | and to map some Chinese and Japanese glyphs to the same codepoints. This
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158 | was very unpopular in Japan, and the result is that different fonts will
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159 | render some codepoints in quite different shapes. In addition, Simplified
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160 | Chinese will sometimes use the same codepoint as Traditional Chinese but
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161 | will show it differently, somewhat analogous to the different shapes used
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162 | for the letters 'a' and 'g' in English (single-storey and two-storey),
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163 | except that in a language context one will look "wrong" rather than just
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164 | "different".
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165 | </para>
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166 |
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167 | <para>
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168 | Unlike most other packages in this book, the BLFS editors do not
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169 | monitor the versions of the fonts on this page - once a font is good enough
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170 | for general use, the typical additions in a new version are minor (e.g. new
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171 | currency symbols, or glyphs not for a modern language, such as emojis or
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172 | playing cards). Therefore, none of these fonts show version or md5
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173 | information.
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174 | </para>
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175 |
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176 | <para>
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177 | The list below will not provide complete Unicode coverage.
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178 | Unicode is updated every year, and most additions are now for historic
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179 | writing systems. For almost-complete coverage you can install <xref
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180 | linkend="noto-fonts"/> (about 180 fonts when last checked) but that
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181 | number of fonts makes it <emphasis>much</emphasis> less convenient to
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182 | select a specific font in a document, and most people will regard many
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183 | of them as a waste of space. We used to recommend the <ulink
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184 | url="https://unifont.org/fontguide/">Unicode Font Guide</ulink>, but that
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185 | has not been updated since 2008 and many of its links are dead.
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186 | </para>
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187 |
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188 | <para>
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189 | Rendered examples of most of these fonts, and many others, with
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190 | details of what languages they cover, some examples of latin fonts with
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191 | the same metrics (listed as "Substitute latin fonts") and various files
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192 | of dummy text to compare fonts of similar types, can be found at this
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193 | <ulink url="http://zarniwhoop.uk/ttf-otf-notes.html#examples">
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194 | font comparison</ulink> page. That site also covers other current
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195 | writing systems.
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196 | </para>
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197 |
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198 | <para>
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199 | Fonts are often supplied in zip files, requiring <xref linkend="unzip"/>
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200 | to list and extract them, but even if the current release is a tarball,
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201 | you should still check to see if it will create a directory (scattering
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202 | the contents of a zipfile or tarball across the current directory can be
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203 | very messy, and a few fonts create __MACOSX/ directories). In addition,
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204 | many fonts are supplied with permissions which do not let 'other' users
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205 | read them - if a font is to be installed for system-wide use, any
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206 | directories must be mode 755 and all the files mode 644, so you need to
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207 | change them if the permissions are different. If you forget, the root
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208 | user may be able to see a particular font in <command>fc-list</command>,
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209 | but a normal user will not be able to use them.
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210 | </para>
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211 |
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212 | <para>
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213 | As a font installation example, consider the installation of the
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214 | <xref linkend="dejavu-fonts"/>. In this particular package, the TTF files
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215 | are in a subdirectory. From the unpacked source directory, run the
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216 | following commands as the &root; user:
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217 | </para>
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218 |
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219 | <screen role="root"><userinput>install -v -d -m755 /usr/share/fonts/dejavu &&
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220 | install -v -m644 ttf/*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/dejavu &&
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221 | fc-cache -v /usr/share/fonts/dejavu</userinput></screen>
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222 |
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223 | <para>
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224 | If you wish, you can also install any licenses or other documentation,
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225 | either alongside the font or in a corresponding directory under
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226 | <filename class="directory">/usr/share/doc/</filename>.
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227 | </para>
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228 |
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229 | <para>
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230 | A few fonts ship with source as well as the completed TTF or OTF
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231 | file(s). Unless you intend to modify the font, and have the correct tools
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232 | (sometimes <xref linkend="fontforge"/>, but often commercial tools), the
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233 | source will provide no benefit, so do not install it. One or two fonts even
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234 | ship with Web Open Font Format (WOFF) files - this is useful if you run a
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235 | webserver and want to use that font on your website, but not useful for
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236 | a desktop system.
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237 | </para>
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238 |
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239 | <para>
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240 | To provide greater Unicode coverage, you should install some of the
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241 | following fonts, depending on what websites and languages you want to
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242 | read. The next part of this page details some fonts which cover at least
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243 | Latin alphabets, and the final part deals with some CJK issues.
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244 | </para>
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245 |
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246 | <note>
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247 | <para>
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248 | Installation of the <xref
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249 | linkend="dejavu-fonts"/> is strongly recommended.
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250 | </para>
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251 | </note>
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252 |
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253 | <!-- fonts covering at least latin languages, order alphabetically
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254 | NB the xreflabel in the bridgehead is used in any link names, the
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255 | associated text is embiggened for the heading, the text for the
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256 | sortas appears as the key in the longindex -->
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257 |
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258 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="Caladea"
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259 | xreflabel="Caladea">Caladea</bridgehead>
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260 |
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261 | <para>
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262 | <ulink url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Caladea">Caladea</ulink>
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263 | (created as a Chrome OS extra font)
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264 | is metrically compatible with MS Cambria and can be used if you
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265 | have to edit a document which somebody started in Microsoft Office using
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266 | Cambria.
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267 | </para>
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268 |
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269 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="cantarell-fonts"
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270 | xreflabel="Cantarell fonts">Cantarell fonts</bridgehead>
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271 |
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272 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts cantarell-fonts">
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273 | <primary sortas="a-cantarell-fonts">Cantarell fonts</primary>
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274 | </indexterm>
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275 |
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276 | <para>
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277 | <ulink url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Cantarell">Cantarell fonts</ulink>
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278 | – The Cantarell typeface family provides a contemporary Humanist
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279 | Sans Serif. It is particularly optimised for legibility at small sizes
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280 | and is the preferred font family for the
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281 | <application>GNOME</application> user interface.
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282 | </para>
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283 |
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284 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="Carlito"
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285 | xreflabel="Carlito">Carlito</bridgehead>
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286 |
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287 | <para>
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288 | <ulink url=
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289 | "https://github.com/googlefonts/carlito">Carlito</ulink>
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290 | (created as another Chrome OS extra font)
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291 | is metrically compatible with MS Calibri and
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292 | can be used if you have to edit a document which somebody started in
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293 | Microsoft Office using Calibri.
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294 | </para>
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295 |
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296 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="dejavu-fonts"
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297 | xreflabel="Dejavu fonts">DejaVu fonts</bridgehead>
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298 |
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299 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts dejavu-fonts">
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300 | <primary sortas="a-dejavu-fonts">DejaVu fonts</primary>
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301 | </indexterm>
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302 |
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303 | <para>
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304 | <ulink
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305 | url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/dejavu/files/dejavu/">DejaVu
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306 | fonts</ulink> – These fonts are an extension of, and replacement
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307 | for, the Bitstream Vera fonts and provide Latin-based scripts with
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308 | accents and punctuation such as "smart-quotes" and variant spacing
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309 | characters, as well as Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian,
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310 | Georgian and some other glyphs. In the absence of the Bitstream Vera
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311 | fonts (which had much less coverage), these are the default fallback
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312 | fonts.
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313 | </para>
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314 |
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315 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="freefont"
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316 | xreflabel="freefont">GNU FreeFont</bridgehead>
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317 |
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318 | <para>
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319 | <ulink url="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/">GNU FreeFont</ulink>
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320 | – This set of fonts covers many non-CJK characters, in
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321 | particular some of the variants of Latin and Cyrillic letters used in
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322 | minority languages, but the glyphs are comparatively small (unlike DejaVu
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323 | fonts which are comparatively large) and rather light weight ("less black"
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324 | when black on white is used) which means that in some contexts such as
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325 | terminals they are not visually pleasing, for example when most other
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326 | glyphs are provided by another font. On the other hand, some fonts used
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327 | primarily for printed output, and many CJK fonts, are also light weight.
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328 | </para>
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329 |
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330 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="Gelasio"
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331 | xreflabel="Gelasio">Gelasio</bridgehead>
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332 |
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333 | <para>
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334 | <ulink url="https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/gelasio">Gelasio</ulink> is
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335 | metrically compatible with MS Georgia and
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336 | <application>fontconfig</application> will use it if MS Georgia is
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337 | requested but is not installed.
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338 | </para>
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339 |
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340 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="liberation-fonts"
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341 | xreflabel="Liberation fonts">Liberation fonts</bridgehead>
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342 |
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343 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts liberation-fonts">
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344 | <primary sortas="a-liberation-fonts">Liberation fonts</primary>
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345 | </indexterm>
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346 |
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347 | <para>
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348 | The <ulink url="https://github.com/liberationfonts/"> Liberation
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349 | fonts</ulink> provide libre substitutes for Arial, Courier New, and Times
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350 | New Roman. <application>Fontconfig</application> will use them as
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351 | substitutes for those fonts, and also for the similar Helvetica, Courier,
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352 | and Times Roman, though for these it can prefer a different font (see
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353 | the examples in the 'Substitutes' PDFs at <ulink
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354 | url="http://zarniwhoop.uk/files/PDF-substitutes/">zarniwhoop.uk.)</ulink>
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355 | </para>
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356 |
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357 | <para>
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358 | Many people will find the Liberation fonts useful for pages where one of
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359 | those fonts is requested.
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360 | </para>
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361 |
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362 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="corefonts"
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363 | xreflabel="corefonts">Microsoft Core Fonts</bridgehead>
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364 |
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365 | <para>
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366 | The <ulink url="https://corefonts.sourceforge.net/">Microsoft Core
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367 | Fonts</ulink> date from 2002. They were supplied with old versions of
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368 | Microsoft Windows and were apparently made available for general use.
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369 | You can extract them from the '.exe' files using
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370 | <application>bsd-tar</application> from <xref linkend="libarchive"/>.
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371 | Make sure that you read the license before using them. At one time some
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372 | of these fonts (particularly Arial, Times New Roman, and to a lesser
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373 | extent Courier New) were widely used on web pages. The full set
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374 | contains Andale Mono, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier
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375 | New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and
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376 | Webdings.
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377 | </para>
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378 |
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379 | <para>
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380 | Please note that if you only want to use a font with the same metrics
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381 | (character size, etc) as Arial, Courier New, or Times New Roman you can
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382 | use the libre Liberation Fonts (above), and similarly you can replace
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383 | Georgia with Gelasio.
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384 | </para>
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385 |
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386 | <para>
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387 | Although many old posts recommend installing these fonts for
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388 | output which looks better, there are more recent posts that these are
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389 | 'ugly' or 'broken'. One suggestion is that they do not support anti-aliasing.
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390 | </para>
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391 |
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392 | <para>
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393 | The newer fonts which Microsoft made their defaults in later releases of
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394 | MS Windows or MS Office (Calibri and Cambria) have never been freely
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395 | available. However, if you do not have them installed you can find metric
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396 | equivalents (Carlito and Caladea) above.
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397 | </para>
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398 |
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399 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="noto-fonts"
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400 | xreflabel="Noto fonts">Noto fonts</bridgehead>
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401 |
|
---|
402 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts noto-fonts">
|
---|
403 | <primary sortas="a-noto-fonts">Noto fonts</primary>
|
---|
404 | </indexterm>
|
---|
405 |
|
---|
406 | <para>
|
---|
407 | The <ulink
|
---|
408 | url="https://fonts.google.com/noto/">Noto fonts</ulink> ('No Tofu', i.e.
|
---|
409 | avoiding boxes with dots [hex digits] when a glyph cannot be found) are a
|
---|
410 | set of fonts which aim to cover <emphasis>every glyph in Unicode, no
|
---|
411 | matter how obscure</emphasis>. Noto Sans is the preferred font for KDE
|
---|
412 | Plasma and applications, except for monospace fonts where <ulink
|
---|
413 | url="https://github.com/source-foundry/Hack">Hack</ulink> is preferred.
|
---|
414 | </para>
|
---|
415 |
|
---|
416 | <para>
|
---|
417 | People using languages written in Latin, Greek or Cyrillic alphabets only
|
---|
418 | need to install Noto Sans itself, and perhaps Noto Sans Symbols for
|
---|
419 | currency symbols. For more details on the organization of Noto fonts see <ulink
|
---|
420 | url="https://fonts.google.com/noto/use#how-are-noto-fonts-organized/">how
|
---|
421 | are noto fonts organized</ulink>. There are also separate fonts for every
|
---|
422 | other current writing system, but these will also require Noto Sans
|
---|
423 | (or Noto Serif) and perhaps Noto Symbols.
|
---|
424 | </para>
|
---|
425 |
|
---|
426 | <para>
|
---|
427 | It may be easier to download a specific Noto font by going to <ulink
|
---|
428 | url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Noto+Sans">Noto Sans</ulink>
|
---|
429 | and changing the font name as appropriate, with '+' between each word,
|
---|
430 | e.g. 'Noto+Kufi+Arabic', 'Noto+Serif+Georgian' or whatever, then clicking
|
---|
431 | on 'Download family'.
|
---|
432 | </para>
|
---|
433 |
|
---|
434 | <para>
|
---|
435 | However, you should be aware that <application>fontconfig</application>
|
---|
436 | knows nothing about Noto fonts. The 'Noto Sans Something' fonts are each
|
---|
437 | treated as separate fonts (and for Arabic there is not a specific Sans
|
---|
438 | name), so if you have other fonts installed then the choice of which font
|
---|
439 | to use for missing glyphs where 'Noto Sans' is specified will be random,
|
---|
440 | except that Sans fonts will be preferred over <emphasis>known</emphasis>
|
---|
441 | Serif and Monospace fonts because Sans is the fallback for unknown fonts.
|
---|
442 | </para>
|
---|
443 |
|
---|
444 | <!--<bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="oxygen-fonts"
|
---|
445 | xreflabel="Oxygen fonts">Oxygen fonts</bridgehead>
|
---|
446 |
|
---|
447 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts oxygen-fonts">
|
---|
448 | <primary sortas="a-oxygen-fonts">Oxygen fonts</primary>
|
---|
449 | </indexterm>
|
---|
450 |
|
---|
451 | <para>
|
---|
452 | When KDE Frameworks 5 was first released, it used the <ulink url=
|
---|
453 | "https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Oxygen">Oxygen Sans</ulink> and
|
---|
454 | <ulink url=
|
---|
455 | "https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Oxygen+Mono">OxygenMono</ulink> fonts
|
---|
456 | which were designed for integrated use with the KDE desktop. Those fonts
|
---|
457 | are not actively maintained anymore, so KDE made a decision to switch to
|
---|
458 | <xref linkend="noto-fonts"/>, but for the moment they are still
|
---|
459 | <emphasis>required</emphasis> by 'startkde'.
|
---|
460 | </para>-->
|
---|
461 |
|
---|
462 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="source-code-pro"
|
---|
463 | xreflabel="Source Code Pro">Source Code Pro</bridgehead>
|
---|
464 |
|
---|
465 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts source-code-pro">
|
---|
466 | <primary sortas="a-source-code-pro">Source Code Pro</primary>
|
---|
467 | </indexterm>
|
---|
468 |
|
---|
469 | <para>
|
---|
470 | This set of fonts from Adobe (seven different weights) includes what is
|
---|
471 | now the preferred monospace font for those applications which use <xref
|
---|
472 | linkend="gsettings-desktop-schemas"/>. The github release <ulink url=
|
---|
473 | "https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-code-pro.git#release">
|
---|
474 | source-code-pro</ulink>
|
---|
475 | contains OTF (preferred) and TTF as well as the source and WOFF fonts.
|
---|
476 | </para>
|
---|
477 |
|
---|
478 | <para>
|
---|
479 | To use this in terminals, you probably will only want the Regular font.
|
---|
480 | </para>
|
---|
481 |
|
---|
482 | <para>
|
---|
483 | There is also an older TTF version of this available from <ulink url=
|
---|
484 | "https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro?selection.family=Source+Code+Pro">
|
---|
485 | Google fonts</ulink> but that has very limited coverage (adequate for most
|
---|
486 | European languages using a Latin alphabet).
|
---|
487 | </para>
|
---|
488 |
|
---|
489 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="CJKfonts"
|
---|
490 | xreflabel="CJKfonts">CJK fonts:</bridgehead>
|
---|
491 |
|
---|
492 | <para>
|
---|
493 | As indicated earlier, usage of a combination of Chinese, Japanese
|
---|
494 | and Korean characters can be tricky - each font only covers a subset
|
---|
495 | of the available codepoints, the preferred shapes of the glyphs can differ
|
---|
496 | between the languages, and many of the CJK fonts do not actually support
|
---|
497 | modern Korean.
|
---|
498 | </para>
|
---|
499 |
|
---|
500 | <para>
|
---|
501 | Also, <application>fontconfig</application> prefers Chinese to Japanese
|
---|
502 | by default. Tuning that is covered at <xref linkend="prefer-chosen-CJK-fonts"/>.
|
---|
503 | </para>
|
---|
504 |
|
---|
505 | <para>
|
---|
506 | Although Unicode has been extended to allow a very large number of CJK
|
---|
507 | codepoints, those outside the Base Plane (greater than U+0xFFFF) are not
|
---|
508 | commonly used in Mandarin (the normal form of written Chinese, whether
|
---|
509 | Simplified (Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore) or Traditional
|
---|
510 | (Hong Kong and Taiwan)), or Japanese.
|
---|
511 | </para>
|
---|
512 |
|
---|
513 | <para>
|
---|
514 | For Hong Kong, which uses Traditional Chinese and where Cantonese is the
|
---|
515 | dominant language, the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set was added to
|
---|
516 | Unicode in 2005 and revised in 2009 (it is part of CJK Extension B and
|
---|
517 | contains more than 1900 characters). Earlier fonts will not be able to
|
---|
518 | support either Cantonese or use these characters where local names are
|
---|
519 | written in Mandarin. The UMing HK, Noto Sans HK and WenQuanYi Zen Hei
|
---|
520 | fonts all seem to cover Hong Kong usage
|
---|
521 | (<application>fontconfig</application> disagrees about Noto Sans HK).
|
---|
522 | </para>
|
---|
523 |
|
---|
524 | <para>
|
---|
525 | The Han glyphs are double width, and other glyphs in the same font may be
|
---|
526 | narrower. For their CJK content, all of these fonts can be regarded as
|
---|
527 | monospaced (i.e. fixed width).
|
---|
528 | </para>
|
---|
529 |
|
---|
530 | <para>
|
---|
531 | If you wish to use Noto fonts, there are also Serif versions of their
|
---|
532 | various CJK fonts. The Noto Sans/Serif SC/TC/HK/JP/KR fonts are
|
---|
533 | derived from a monolithic <ulink
|
---|
534 | url="https://github.com/notofonts/noto-cjk">noto-cjk</ulink>
|
---|
535 | repository and you can find the
|
---|
536 | <filename class='extension'>.ttc</filename> files for the entire
|
---|
537 | Noto Sans CJK (including SC/TC/HK/JP/KR) or Noto Serif CJK font family
|
---|
538 | there. Google recommends the normal users to use the separate Noto
|
---|
539 | Sans/Serif SC/TC/HK/JP/KR fonts instead, but if you are capable and
|
---|
540 | willing to read texts in more than one CJK character systems it may be
|
---|
541 | easier to use a monolithic
|
---|
542 | <filename class='extension'>.ttc</filename> file for full coverage.
|
---|
543 | </para>
|
---|
544 |
|
---|
545 | <para>
|
---|
546 | If all you wish to do is render CJK glyphs, installing
|
---|
547 | <xref linkend="wenquanyi-zenhei"/> may be a good place to start if you do
|
---|
548 | not already have a preference.
|
---|
549 | </para>
|
---|
550 |
|
---|
551 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="Chinese-fonts"
|
---|
552 | xreflabel="Chinese fonts">Chinese fonts:</bridgehead>
|
---|
553 |
|
---|
554 | <para>
|
---|
555 | In Chinese, there are three font styles in common use: Sung (also
|
---|
556 | known as Song or Ming), which is the most-common ornamented ("serif")
|
---|
557 | form, Kai ("brush strokes") which is an earlier ornamented style that
|
---|
558 | looks quite different, and modern Hei ("sans"). Unless you appreciate the
|
---|
559 | differences, you probably do not want to install Kai fonts.
|
---|
560 | </para>
|
---|
561 |
|
---|
562 | <para>
|
---|
563 | The current versions of Chinese Noto Sans fonts can be found at <ulink
|
---|
564 | url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Noto+Sans+SC">Noto Sans SC</ulink>
|
---|
565 | for Simplified Chinese, <ulink
|
---|
566 | url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Noto+Sans+TC">Noto Sans TC</ulink>
|
---|
567 | for Traditional Chinese, and as mentioned above <ulink
|
---|
568 | url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Noto+Sans+HK">Noto Sans HK</ulink>
|
---|
569 | for use in Hong Kong.
|
---|
570 | </para>
|
---|
571 |
|
---|
572 | <!-- prefer the less-old Opendesktop-fonts to fireflysung
|
---|
573 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="fireflysung"
|
---|
574 | xreflabel="fireflysung">Fireflysung</bridgehead>
|
---|
575 |
|
---|
576 | <para>
|
---|
577 | <ulink url=
|
---|
578 | "http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/blfs/conglomeration/Xorg//fireflysung-1.3.0.tar.gz">fireflysung</ulink>
|
---|
579 | – This font ('AR PL New Sung') was one of the first libre fonts to
|
---|
580 | provides Chinese coverage. <application>fontconfig</application> knows
|
---|
581 | it is to be treated as a Serif font.
|
---|
582 | </para> -->
|
---|
583 |
|
---|
584 | <!-- the get/noto/help/cjk url now gives general info on the organization of
|
---|
585 | Noto fonts, linked from above. The current versions are no-longer in
|
---|
586 | ttc packages, there is a separate set of files for each CJK language.
|
---|
587 | Therefore, this appears to be redundant.
|
---|
588 |
|
---|
589 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="NotoSansCJK"
|
---|
590 | xreflabel="Noto Sans CJK">Noto Sans CJK</bridgehead>
|
---|
591 |
|
---|
592 | <!\-\- indexterm entry retained for future linkage from kde \-\->
|
---|
593 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts NotoSansCJK">
|
---|
594 | <primary sortas="a-noto-sans-cjk">Noto Sans CJK</primary>
|
---|
595 | </indexterm>
|
---|
596 |
|
---|
597 | <para>
|
---|
598 | <ulink url="https://www.google.com/get/noto/help/cjk/">
|
---|
599 | Noto Sans CJK
|
---|
600 | </ulink>
|
---|
601 | – Sans-Serif sets of all CJK fonts in a ttc – as the link
|
---|
602 | says, you can choose to install the TTC and cover all the languages in
|
---|
603 | all weights in a 110MB file, or you can download subsets. There are
|
---|
604 | also Monospace versions.
|
---|
605 | </para> -->
|
---|
606 |
|
---|
607 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="Opendesktop-fonts"
|
---|
608 | xreflabel="Opendesktop-fonts">Opendesktop fonts</bridgehead>
|
---|
609 |
|
---|
610 | <para>
|
---|
611 | A copy of version 1.4.2 of the
|
---|
612 | <ulink url="https://sources.archlinux.org/other/opendesktop-fonts/">
|
---|
613 | opendesktop-fonts
|
---|
614 | </ulink>
|
---|
615 | is preserved at Arch. This was a later development of fireflysung which
|
---|
616 | BLFS used to recommend, adding Kai and Mono fonts. The name of the Sung
|
---|
617 | font remains 'AR PL New Sung' so they cannot both be installed together.
|
---|
618 | </para>
|
---|
619 |
|
---|
620 | <para>
|
---|
621 | At one time there was a 1.6 release, and more recently some versions at
|
---|
622 | github, which also included a Sans font (Odohei), but those have dropped
|
---|
623 | off the web and it is unclear if there was a problem.
|
---|
624 | <application>Fontconfig</application> does not know anything about the
|
---|
625 | later fonts (AR PL New Kai, AR PL New Sung Mono) and will default to
|
---|
626 | treating them as Sans.
|
---|
627 | </para>
|
---|
628 |
|
---|
629 | <!-- comment, because not recommended
|
---|
630 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="UKai"
|
---|
631 | xreflabel="UKai">UKai</bridgehead>
|
---|
632 |
|
---|
633 | <para>
|
---|
634 | <ulink
|
---|
635 | url="http://packages.debian.org/sid/fonts-arphic-ukai">UKai fonts</ulink>
|
---|
636 | – sets of Chinese Kai fonts in a ttc which contain variations of
|
---|
637 | Simplified and Traditional (Taiwanese, second variant for different
|
---|
638 | <ulink url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo">bopomofo</ulink>,
|
---|
639 | and Cantonese). This ships with old-syntax files which can install to
|
---|
640 | <filename class="directory">/etc/fonts/conf.d/</filename> but see <xref
|
---|
641 | linkend="editing-old-style-conf-files"/>.
|
---|
642 | </para>
|
---|
643 | -->
|
---|
644 |
|
---|
645 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="UMing"
|
---|
646 | xreflabel="UMing">UMing</bridgehead>
|
---|
647 |
|
---|
648 | <para>
|
---|
649 | <ulink url=
|
---|
650 | "http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/f/fonts-arphic-uming/">UMing fonts</ulink>
|
---|
651 | – sets of Chinese Ming fonts (from Debian, use the '.orig' tarball)
|
---|
652 | in a ttc which contain variations of Simplified and Traditional Chinese
|
---|
653 | (Taiwanese, with second variant for different
|
---|
654 | <ulink url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo">bopomofo</ulink>,
|
---|
655 | and Cantonese for Hong Kong). This ships with old-syntax files which you
|
---|
656 | can install to
|
---|
657 | <filename class="directory">/etc/fonts/conf.d/</filename> but see <xref
|
---|
658 | linkend="editing-old-style-conf-files"/>.
|
---|
659 | </para>
|
---|
660 |
|
---|
661 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="wenquanyi-zenhei"
|
---|
662 | xreflabel="WenQuanYi ZenHei">WenQuanYi Zen Hei</bridgehead>
|
---|
663 |
|
---|
664 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts wenquanyi-zenhei">
|
---|
665 | <primary sortas="a-wenquanyi-zenhei">WenQuanYi Zen Hei</primary>
|
---|
666 | </indexterm>
|
---|
667 |
|
---|
668 | <para>
|
---|
669 | <ulink
|
---|
670 | url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/wqy/files/wqy-zenhei/">WenQuanYi
|
---|
671 | Zen Hei</ulink> provides a Sans-Serif font which covers all CJK scripts
|
---|
672 | including Korean. Although it includes old-style conf files, these are
|
---|
673 | not required: <application>fontconfig</application> will already treat
|
---|
674 | these fonts (the 'sharp' contains bitmaps, the monospace appears not
|
---|
675 | to be Mono in its ASCII part) as Sans, Serif, and Monospace. If all
|
---|
676 | you wish to do is to be able to render Han and Korean text without
|
---|
677 | worrying about the niceties of the shapes used, the main font from
|
---|
678 | this package is a good font to use.
|
---|
679 | </para>
|
---|
680 |
|
---|
681 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="Japanese-fonts"
|
---|
682 | xreflabel="Japanese fonts">Japanese fonts:</bridgehead>
|
---|
683 |
|
---|
684 | <para>
|
---|
685 | In Japanese, Gothic fonts are Sans, and Mincho are Serif. BLFS used to
|
---|
686 | only mention the Kochi fonts, but those appear to now be the
|
---|
687 | least-preferred of the Japanese fonts.
|
---|
688 | </para>
|
---|
689 |
|
---|
690 | <para>
|
---|
691 | Apart from the fonts detailed below, also consider <ulink
|
---|
692 | url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Noto+Sans+JP">Noto Sans
|
---|
693 | JP</ulink>.
|
---|
694 |
|
---|
695 | </para>
|
---|
696 |
|
---|
697 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="IPAex"
|
---|
698 | xreflabel="IPAex fonts">IPAex fonts</bridgehead>
|
---|
699 |
|
---|
700 | <!-- indexterm retained for expected link from tuning fontconfig -->
|
---|
701 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts IPAex">
|
---|
702 | <primary sortas="a-ipaex-fonts">IPAex fonts</primary>
|
---|
703 | </indexterm>
|
---|
704 |
|
---|
705 | <para>
|
---|
706 | The <ulink url="https://moji.or.jp/ipafont/">IPAex fonts</ulink> are
|
---|
707 | the current version of the IPA fonts. Use
|
---|
708 | <ulink url='https://moji-or-jp.translate.goog/ipafont/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp'>Google Translate</ulink>
|
---|
709 | on the home page, then click on the download link for IPAex Font Ver.004.01.
|
---|
710 | Unfortunately, <application>fontconfig</application> only knows about
|
---|
711 | the older IPAfonts and the forked IPA Mona font (which is not easily
|
---|
712 | available and which apparently does not meet Debian's Free Software
|
---|
713 | guidelines). If you install the IPAex fonts, you may want to make it known
|
---|
714 | to fontconfig. Please see <xref
|
---|
715 | linkend="prefer-chosen-CJK-fonts"/> for one way to accomplish this.
|
---|
716 | </para>
|
---|
717 |
|
---|
718 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="Kochi"
|
---|
719 | xreflabel="Kochi">Kochi fonts</bridgehead>
|
---|
720 |
|
---|
721 | <para>
|
---|
722 | The <ulink url="https://osdn.net/projects/efont/releases/p1357">Kochi
|
---|
723 | Substitute fonts</ulink> were the first truly libre Japanese fonts (the
|
---|
724 | earlier Kochi fonts were allegedly plagiarized from a commercial font).
|
---|
725 | </para>
|
---|
726 |
|
---|
727 | <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="VLGothic"
|
---|
728 | xreflabel="VL Gothic">VL Gothic</bridgehead>
|
---|
729 |
|
---|
730 | <indexterm zone="TTF-and-OTF-fonts VLGothic">
|
---|
731 | <primary sortas="a-vlgothic-fonts">VL Gothic</primary>
|
---|
732 | </indexterm>
|
---|
733 |
|
---|
734 | <para>
|
---|
735 | The <ulink url="https://osdn.net/projects/vlgothic/releases/">VL
|
---|
736 | Gothic</ulink> font is a modern Japanese font in two variants with
|
---|
737 | monotonic or proportional spacing for the non-Japanese characters.
|
---|
738 | </para>
|
---|
739 |
|
---|
740 | <bridgehead renderas="sect3" id="Korean-fonts"
|
---|
741 | xreflabel="Korean fonts">Korean fonts:</bridgehead>
|
---|
742 |
|
---|
743 | <para>
|
---|
744 | In Korean, Batang or Myeongjo (the older name) are Serif, Dotum or
|
---|
745 | Gothic and are the main Sans fonts. BLFS previously recommended the
|
---|
746 | Baekmuk fonts, but the Nanum and Un fonts are now preferred to Baekmuk by
|
---|
747 | <application>fontconfig</application> because of user requests.
|
---|
748 | </para>
|
---|
749 |
|
---|
750 | <!-- when testing, my previous Nanum link gave permission errors, so
|
---|
751 | link to a general page, at the cost of making it more complicated to
|
---|
752 | download -->
|
---|
753 |
|
---|
754 | <para>
|
---|
755 | A convenient place to see examples of these and many other Korean
|
---|
756 | fonts is <ulink url="https://www.freekoreanfont.com/">Free Korean
|
---|
757 | Fonts</ulink>. Click on 'Gothic Fonts' or 'All Categories -> Myeongjo
|
---|
758 | Fonts', then click on the font example to see more details including the
|
---|
759 | License, and click on the link to download it. For Nanum, you will need
|
---|
760 | to be able to read Korean to find the download link on the page you get
|
---|
761 | to. For Un there are direct links and you can find the un-fonts-core
|
---|
762 | tarball in the <filename class="directory">releases/</filename>
|
---|
763 | directory.
|
---|
764 | </para>
|
---|
765 |
|
---|
766 | <para>
|
---|
767 | Alternatively, consider <ulink
|
---|
768 | url="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Noto+Sans+KR">Noto Sans
|
---|
769 | KR</ulink> or <xref linkend="wenquanyi-zenhei"/>.
|
---|
770 | </para>
|
---|
771 |
|
---|
772 | </sect2>
|
---|
773 |
|
---|
774 | </sect1>
|
---|