This page discusses font handling on the ViewStation.
Font
Handling on the ViewStation
Font handling has changed with the
release of X11R5. Under X11R4, each server (X terminal or workstation)
had to use a set of .snf fonts specific to the server architecture.
Separate directories of .snf fonts were maintained for each server
type. An snf font file was loaded on request of the server.
A font server program was introduced with X11R5 that used
portable, scalable fonts that were converted by the font server to a
given server format on demand. This is a more economical method of font
management.
Font Servers
This
page discusses host-based font servers.
Fonts in the X
Window System
Many clients in the X Window System use special display fonts for
their screen presentation. The fonts may be large or small, use bold or
italic forms, or use different typefaces. To accommodate the needs of
all the X clients, the X Window System provides a number of typefonts
as part of its standard distribution. An X terminal must be able to
find and use these fonts to handle X clients successfully.
The X Window System fonts offer different type styles,
different sizes of characters, and different screen font resolutions for
the characters (for instance, 75 dpi or 100 dpi). In addition, there
may be different character sets involved, including multinational and
non-Roman alphabets, such as Kanji and Katakana. Further, the X Window
System supports a number of clients that use fonts from different
sources, such as DEC proprietary fonts, Open Look fonts, or Postscript
fonts.
These fonts are made available to the server from a font
server or from a remote host. The HDS ViewStation uses either TFTP
(Trivial File Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), or NFS
(Network File System) to locate and load the fonts dynamically on
demand. You can make this protocol selection for each remote host from
the Remote Hosts menu in Setup Mode.
Automatic Fontpath Configuration
The HDS ViewStation has features designed to make installation of
fonts and fontpaths very simple. The fonts and font utility programs,
along with other important files, are contained on the HDSware tape.
When you load this tape onto one of your host systems, all that remains
for you to do is enter that host address and directory location on the
Setup Mode Main Menu as the HDSware host and path.
The ViewStation takes this information and prepends it to the
directory structure of the tape and uses that information to locate the
fonts. The fontpaths, the server code files, configuration files, etc.
are all located automatically, so you don't have to enter them
manually. The fonts distributed with the HDSware tape are in the
correct .snf format and are ready to use. The automatic fontpath
configuration does not include font servers (which is a host-based
service) but lists only the X11R5 font directories in the HDSware
distribution.
HDS ViewStation Font File Formats
The ViewStation can use .bdf, .pcf, or .snf font files
directly. If any of these font formats are available to the
ViewStation, it can use them. The .pcf fonts are usually available with
an X11R5 font server.
A complete set of compressed .snf font files, in HDS
ViewStation format, is available directly from HDS. You may contact your
sales representative or distributor for more information about these
pre-compiled fonts. If you use these fonts, you can load them onto a
host and then set the fontpath automatically by using the HDSware host
described above, or you can set the fontpath manually in the User
Preferences menu of Setup Mode.
ViewStation Compressed Font Files
The ViewStation uses font files in either compressed or
uncompressed form. The font files are normally supplied as compressed
files (with the .Z file extension) on the HDSware tape. You do not need
to uncompress these fonts to use them on the ViewStation.
If you are compiling your own fonts, you can use fonts in an
uncompressed form. If you do need to compress the fonts, use 12 bit
compression rather than 16 bit compression. The normal 16 bit
compression uses a larger, less efficient table, so 12 bit compression
is recommended. The command to use 12 bit compression is:
compress -b 12
ViewStation Font
Utility Programs
This section discusses font utility programs
provided with HDSware. These utility programs are supplied to let you
generate your own ViewStation font files.
Setting the Fontpath
Setting the fontpath on the ViewStation is also an important
consideration in using fonts on the ViewStation.
Fonts.dir and Fonts.alias Files
This page discusses the
fonts.dir and fonts.alias files and their function in font handling.
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