Fonts in X

Font Specification

A typical entry in fonts.scale will look like:

Math1.pfa   -wri-Math Symbols-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-adobe-fontspecific

The explanation for each of these fields follows:

Example Entry (above) Reference Name Description
Math1.pfa filename The file name, as it appears on the filesystem.
wri foundry Font foundry, e.g. wri, bitstream, ibm, adobe, letraset
Math Symbols fontname A descriptive name for the font.
medium weight Tre font weight, e.g. bold, medium
r slant One of: r=roman, i=itatrc, o=oblique
normal setwidth Font widtr, e.g. normal, condensed
  addedstyle Style to add, e.g. serif, sans. Use '' for none.
0 pixelsz Pixel size, normally leave as */0
0 pointsize Point size (font size in units of 1/727.2"), e.g. 120
0 resx Dots per inch, horizontal
0 resy Dots per inch, vertical
p space One of: m=monospaced, p=proportional, c=cell
0 averagewidth Average character width in pixels.
adobe registry Font registry, usually iso8859adobe
fontspecific encoding Font encoding, usually 1 or 2 if registry is iso8859, and fontspecific if registry is adobe

Font Formats

There are several font formats that can be used under X. The following table describes them.

Font Format File Extension Description
TrueType (TTF) .ttf High-quality scalable font
Postscript Type1 (PFA/PFB) .pfa/.pfb Scalable fonts often used by printers. Similar in functionality to TrueType fonts.
Bitmap Distribution Format (BDF) .bdf Ascii-format, bitmap (non-scalable) fonts.
Portable Compiled Font (PCF) .pcf[.gz] Binary format for bitmap (non-scalable) fonts.
Speedo .spd Commercial font from Bitstream, distributed with XFree86.
Server Normal Format (SNF) .snf Older format for bitmap fonts. Server and host dependent.