infinality-bundle-fonts: a free multilingual font collection for Arch

bohoomil · 2013-10-07 23:06:04

infinality-bundle-fonts: a free multilingual font collection for Arch Linux

infinality-bundle-fonts is meant to be a complete, 'install-and-forget' solution for most (Arch) Linux users looking for easy access to common type-faces diversity needed to create and reproduce (hyper)text documents. It consists of freely available, hand-picked fonts providing correct, uniform and high quality rendering of multilingual content.

Obligatory teaser

click

Installation instructions

See Infinality-bundle+fonts.

Technical information and user notes

Popular proprietary fonts substitutions

See /etc/fonts/conf.avail.infinality/free/37-repl-global-free.conf.

Default sans-serif, serif, monospace, fantasy, cursive

See /etc/fonts/conf.avail.infinality/free/60-latin-free.conf.

Languages covered and special cases

Wikipedia was used as a reference when testing Latin and non-Latin linguistic scenarios and I believe that the majority of users should be satisfied with the results (the completeness, rendering quality, readability, clarity, coherence… you name it).
If in doubt, you can easily check which font family is used to display a particular script:
```
[~] $ fc-match :lang=ja
sawarabi-gothic-medium.ttf: "Sawarabi Gothic" "Medium"
```
Before you install a third-party font package, first check if it is already present in the infinality-bundle-fonts repository.
The default sans family is Noto Sans. However, in order to preserve the correct layout of certain web documents, Liberation Sans will remain the replacement for Arial. The width difference between the two could be problematic for certain websites prioritizing Arial/Helvetica over 'anything sans' (rather than 'anything serif'). Websites intentionally designed to use any sans font will select Noto Sans by default.
There is an extensive choice of available serif type-faces: the default is Heuristica, others include Crimson Text, Merriweather, TeX Gyre Termes, Gentium family, and more.
A few popular font packages available in the Arch Linux official repositories were re-packed in order to avoid rendering issues.
A few packages available in the AUR were re-packed for compatibility reasons.
You will be notified if a package you already have in your system should be replaced with a corresponding one from the infinality-bundle-fonts repository. If this is the case, just hit 'Y' to accept and install the new one.
Additional font files can be found in infinality-bundle-fonts-extra group. Some may be handy extensions for particular scripts (like 'ttf-dejavusans-yunati-*-ibx'), others are strictly optional and task specific. The 'extra' group is expected to offer those few quality bits that users most often need to use but that do not belong to the main set. Suggestions are welcome. Note: 'extra' is not a place for 10 mono / sans / decorative type-faces, etc. This is technically impossible due to server bandwidth limits and practically against the usability principle that a well organized general purpose font collection should offer.

Licensing

The files available in the infinality-bundle-fonts repository are freely available for download, redistribution, personal and/or commercial use. 95% of the fonts are licensed under the GPL, Apache or OFL license. The remaining 5% can still be freely distributed and used under certain conditions specified by the author and/or the foundry. Please, consult a particular license for details if a proper license matters to you.

Sources and build scripts

All source files are available in the usual place:

PKGBUILD

Enjoy.

Last edited by bohoomil (2013-12-04 23:29:11)

cfr · 2013-10-07 23:14:51

This sounds wonderful - wow, that must have been a lot of work!

Is there any particular reason to re-fetch and re-sign your key?

EDIT: typo: gsfont probably should be gsfonts?

Last edited by cfr (2013-10-07 23:21:24)

bohoomil · 2013-10-07 23:32:07

Yes, it was a typo: gsfonts of course. Thanks for pointing this out.

And no, there's no need to play with keys again: The signature part is just for the record.

cfr · 2013-10-07 23:36:30

Thanks. I'd actually already ignored the bit about signatures and am installing. I forgot this would take a while because it will update the cache after every removal and installation! (Sure it will be worth it, though. )

karol · 2013-10-07 23:54:57

cfr wrote:

Thanks. I'd actually already ignored the bit about signatures and am installing. I forgot this would take a while because it will update the cache after every removal and installation! (Sure it will be worth it, though. )

If I were allowed to keep slaves, I would make them write transaction support for pacman.
If pacman had transaction support, it would update the font cache only once per transaction, not per package.
Unfortunately, slavery has been abolished, because someone deemed it a bad thing, so this feature has been put indefinitely on hold. Maybe one day ...

bohoomil wrote:

Languages covered and spcial cases

'special'.

cfr · 2013-10-08 00:25:34

Also, I don't have fontconfig-infinality-ultimate-2.10.95-3.1-${arch}.pkg.tar.xz in my cache. The latest I have is 2.10.95-2-${arch}.pkg.tar.xz.

EDIT: Ignore me. I'm an idiot.

Last edited by cfr (2013-10-08 00:37:28)

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-08 00:26:55

I've followed your advice for some time… I'm not about to stop now!

Does this mean that I can confidently uninstall the M$ fonts I have on my machine?

cfr · 2013-10-08 00:28:47

It might depend what applications you use - don't some ignore fontconfig? (LibreOffice?)

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-08 00:46:37

Yeah, you might be right about that. I'm going to uninstall those just to see…

Jristz · 2013-10-08 00:57:49

So those programs that want use an specific font (like Xfce for the envirnment and other for the wm), what is the reccomend from this selecction??

bohoomil · 2013-10-08 00:58:43

cfr wrote:

Also, I don't have fontconfig-infinality-ultimate-2.10.95-3.1-${arch}.pkg.tar.xz in my cache. The latest I have is 2.10.95-2-${arch}.pkg.tar.xz.

You have to use the download link in the first post (signatures included). This release will be available in the repository as soon as I manage to resolve a few autoconf related issues. Besides, even though I've been using it for quite a while, I'd appreciate some more independent testing.

WonderWoofy wrote:

I've followed your advice for some time… I'm not about to stop now!
Does this mean that I can confidently uninstall the M$ fonts I have on my machine?

In order to make sure that the idea makes sense, I decided to remove all proprietary font families and go entirely free. And I really like it. The core MS fonts are substituted with their most relevant alternatives (IMO) and everything should be fine. However, if you use Office documents whose layout depends heavily on MS fonts, it may be worth keeping the basic ones at least.

There's now a simple script available in fontconfig-ib which will let you switch easily between three rendering presets, depending which font collection you are using as your default one. Just run

# fc-presets set

and select the right option (custom, free or ms). See 'fc-presets help' for more info.

karol wrote:

'special'.

bohoomil wrote:

Thank you.

Last edited by bohoomil (2013-10-08 01:04:14)

bohoomil · 2013-10-08 01:01:58

Jristz wrote:

So those programs that want use an specific font (like Xfce for the envirnment and other for the wm), what is the reccomend from this selecction??

Personally, I've been using 'Noto Sans UI 8pt' for my GUI and I find it terrific. Give it a go and see if you like it, too.

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-08 01:03:32

Well… I removed all those fonts, and its fabulous! I think things actually look better now (though I have only tested in dwb so far).

Thanks for all you do bohoomil!

cfr · 2013-10-08 01:04:31

bohoomil wrote:

cfr wrote:
Also, I don't have fontconfig-infinality-ultimate-2.10.95-3.1-${arch}.pkg.tar.xz in my cache. The latest I have is 2.10.95-2-${arch}.pkg.tar.xz.
You have to use the download link in the first post (signatures included). This release will be available in the repository as soon as I manage to resolve a few autoconf related issues. Besides, even though I've been using it for quite a while, I'd appreciate some more independent testing.

Yes. I realised that. Hence the comment about my being an idiot .

EDIT: I am very happy to see that Noto includes Ŵ, ŵ, Ŷ, ŷ !

Last edited by cfr (2013-10-08 01:10:27)

Jristz · 2013-10-08 01:19:29

ttf-chromeos-ib conflict whit ttf-chromwos-extra-fonts AND ttf-chromeos-fonts
so we find a problem

bohoomil · 2013-10-08 02:14:19

Thanks -- I will re-build and re-upload the package in a minute.

Edit: OK, done. ttf-chromeos-fonts has to be in conflicts=() because it provides exactly the same content as ttf-chromeos-ib. ttf-chromeos-extra-fonts was removed.

Last edited by bohoomil (2013-10-08 02:25:24)

Jristz · 2013-10-08 03:03:34

bohoomil wrote:

Thanks -- I will re-build and re-upload the package in a minute.
Edit: OK, done. ttf-chromeos-fonts has to be in conflicts=() because it provides exactly the same content as ttf-chromeos-ib. ttf-chromeos-extra-fonts was removed.

I say AND: conjuntion that mean both in this case conflict=('ttf-chromeos-fonts' 'ttf-chromes-extra-fonts')

before

ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos

now

ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Arimo-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Cousine-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-chromeos-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Tinos-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-lohit-oriya-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Lohit-Oriya.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-lohit-punjabi-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/Lohit-Punjabi.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansArmenian-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansArmenian-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansDevanagari-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansDevanagari-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansDevanagariUI-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansDevanagariUI-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansEthiopic-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansEthiopic-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansGeorgian-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansGeorgian-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansHebrew-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansHebrew-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansTamil-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansTamil-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansTamilUI-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansTamilUI-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansThai-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansThai-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansThaiUI-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSansThaiUI-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerif-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerif-BoldItalic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerif-Italic.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerif-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerifArmenian-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerifArmenian-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerifGeorgian-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerifGeorgian-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerifThai-Bold.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos
ttf-noto-serif-multilang-ib: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/NotoSerifThai-Regular.ttf existe en el sistema de archivos

bohoomil · 2013-10-08 03:35:26

There was a typo in the conflicts=(), hence the issue you reported. Now it should be fine. Sorry for the mess…

oliver · 2013-10-08 07:28:29

for people like me who scanned the instructions quickly... make sure you have the newer version of fontconfig-infinality-ultimate downloaded before removing the old one. It will make things easier and save you having to re-install an older one from /var/cache/pacman/pkg and then remove it again (because the browser needs libfontconfig to get the newer one)

Purely an error on my side - the instructions are clear enough.

Jristz · 2013-10-08 07:39:17

Yayt are great, now I have a perfect font set
thanks

karol · 2013-10-08 11:28:53

cfr wrote:

I forgot this would take a while because it will update the cache after every removal and installation!

Next time you can try https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacmannrd/

bohoomil · 2013-10-08 20:28:07

A little upgrade: please, run 'pacman -U foo.${arch}.pkg.tar.xz'.

x86_64 (sig)
i686 (sig)

cfr · 2013-10-08 21:30:19

karol wrote:

cfr wrote:
I forgot this would take a while because it will update the cache after every removal and installation!
Next time you can try https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacmannrd/

Oh, you mean if I were to create something parallel for fontconfig updates? Just as it is, it wouldn't do anything, right? (Not for this case - sounds like it might help with KDE updates though I'm not sure I've noticed a problem there really.)

karol · 2013-10-08 21:40:02

cfr wrote:

karol wrote:
cfr wrote:
I forgot this would take a while because it will update the cache after every removal and installation!
Next time you can try https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacmannrd/
Oh, you mean if I were to create something parallel for fontconfig updates?

Yup.

Hspasta · 2013-10-09 06:17:16

Installed it and I can hardly tell the difference from the Microsoft fonts which is amazing! Thanks for all the hard work!

Is it possible to change the defaults?

Last edited by Hspasta (2013-10-09 07:09:36)

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#1 2013-10-07 23:06:04