2 How To Convert Windows Fonts
3 ============================
5 If you have access to Windows installation you should use
6 fnt2bdf utility (found in the 'tools)' directory to convert
7 bitmap fonts (VGASYS.FON, SSERIFE.FON, and SERIFE.FON) into
8 the format that X Window System can recognize.
10 Step 1. Extract bitmap fonts with 'fnt2bdf'.
12 Step 2. Convert .bdf files produced by the Step 1 into
13 .pcf files with 'bdftopcf'.
15 Step 3. Copy .pcf files to the font server directory which
16 is usually /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc (you will probably
17 need superuser privileges). If you want to create a new
18 font directory you will need to add it to the font path.
20 Step 4. Run 'mkfontdir' for the directory you copied fonts to.
21 If you are already in X you should run 'xset fp rehash'
22 to make X server aware of the new fonts.
24 Step 5. Edit wine.conf file to remove aliases for the fonts
25 you've just installed.
27 Wine can get by without these fonts but 'the look and feel'
28 will be quite different. Also, some applications try to load
29 their custom fonts on the fly (WinWord 6.0) and since Wine does
30 not implement this yet it instead prints out something like;
32 STUB: AddFontResource( somefile.FON )
34 You can convert this file too. Note that .FON file may not hold
35 any bitmap fonts and fnt2bdf will fail if this is the case.
37 What to do with TrueType fonts? There are several commercial
38 font tools that can convert them to the Type1 format but the
39 quality of the resulting fonts is far from stellar. The other
40 way to use them is to get a font server capable of rendering
41 TrueType (Caldera has one).
43 However, there is a possibility of the native TrueType support
44 via FreeType renderer in the future (hint, hint :-)
47 WINE.CONF And Font Mapper
48 =========================
50 Many Windows applications assume that fonts included in original Windows 3.1
51 distribution (Arial, Times New Roman, MS Sans Serif, etc.) are always present.
52 In order to make font mapper choose a closely related font you can add aliases
53 to the [fonts] section.
55 AliasN = [Windows font], [X font] <, optional "mask X font" flag>
59 Alias0 = System, --international-, mask
60 Alias1 = Arial, -adobe-helvetica-
61 Alias2 = Times New Roman, -adobe-times-
65 There must be no gaps in the sequence {0, ..., N} otherwise all aliases
66 after the first gap won't be read.
68 Usually font mapper translates X font names into font names visible to
69 Windows programs in the following fashion:
73 -adobe-helvetica-... "Helvetica"
74 -adobe-utopia-... "Utopia"
75 -misc-fixed-... "Fixed"
77 -sony-fixed-... "Sony Fixed" (already have "Fixed")
80 Only converted names appear in the font selection dialogs. However,
81 if there is an alias with the "mask" flag set converted name will be
82 replaced by this alias.
84 --international- "System"
86 Nonmasking aliases are translated only when program asks for a font
87 with the name that matches an alias.
89 If you do not have an access to Windows fonts mentioned in the first
90 paragraph you should try to substitute them with similar X fonts.
92 Alias.. = System, ...bold font without serifs
93 Alias.. = MS Sans Serif, ...helvetica-like font
95 Also, some Windows applications request fonts without specifying the
96 typeface name of the font. Font table starts with Arial in most Windows
97 installations, however X font table starts with whatever is the first line
98 in the fonts.dir. Therefore WINE uses the following entry to determine
99 which font to check first.
103 Default = -adobe-times-
106 It is better to have a scalable font family (bolds and italics included)
107 as the default choice because mapper checks all available fonts until
108 requested height and other attributes match perfectly or the end of the
109 font table is reached.
115 WINE stores detailed information about available fonts in the ~/.wine/.cachedmetrics
116 file. You can copy it elsewhere and add this entry to the [fonts] section
119 FontMetrics = <file with metrics>
121 If WINE detects changes in the X font configuration it will rebuild font
122 metrics from scratch and then it will overwrite ~/.wine/.cachedmetrics with
123 the new information. This process can take a while.