[SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

prairie_dad · 2011-02-13 18:42:27

I've installed a number of font packages using pacman and yaourt, including all the Google and Microsoft fonts, Charis, the Gentiums, etc. Having done some tests, I would like to use a few of them on a regular basis, but not remove the others from the system altogether. The drop down menu in Writer shows everything I've got...it's a drag to go through it one by one to find what I want...how can I make the menu shorter without eliminating fonts from /usr/share/fonts?

I know there is a .fonts directory in ~, but that's not where Writer is looking...even if it's empty I get the whole list.

What do do?

Also, is there no decent fontmanager for Linux (I'm using Xfce for my DE.) I have FontyPython installed (didn't want the Qt dependency in fontmatrix) but even if I make a collection I like, and install it in .fonts, I still can't get Writer to look there.

And, if I make .fonts the place to look...will I hurt the availability of things like system fonts to terminal, Thunar, GIMP, etc.?

thanks,

dave

Last edited by prairie_dad (2011-02-15 03:48:24)

thisoldman · 2011-02-13 18:59:29

Fontmanager allows you to preview fonts, sort them into collections, disable or enable individual fonts or collections. It's lightweight and it works. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=30037

There is also font-manager in AUR, but it has more capabilities and so it's a "heavier" app. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=29861

prairie_dad · 2011-02-14 01:17:47

thisoldman wrote:

Fontmanager allows you to preview fonts, sort them into collections, disable or enable individual fonts or collections. It's lightweight and it works. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=30037
There is also font-manager in AUR, but it has more capabilities and so it's a "heavier" app. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=29861

Thanks, I've installed and played around a little with both now, and neither seems to do the trick at all, at all. Neither seems to disable, even when requested to, that's one thing...or is there a trick I'm missing...do I have to reboot, or source some file, or ...? With LibreOffice _off_, disabling a font and then starting LO up again does _not_ remove it from the drop down...

And again, the real question is, where is LO looking for fonts...and can one change that. If I could make it point at .fonts, and only put some there (via FontyPython, for example) I could get the limited availability I want in LO and not effect any other apps...

thoughts?

thanks!

thisoldman · 2011-02-14 02:28:32

Using fontmanager, disable a font or font collection and save the changes (File -- Save). Then from a terminal, run:

$ fc-cache -vf

That updates the font information cache. The font is now disabled. Or you could stop and restart X to rebuild the cache.

There's an added line in your ~/.fonts.conf that adds ~/.fontmanager/fontmanager.conf to your font configuration. That fontmanager config file is where the changes made to disable a font are written.

prairie_dad · 2011-02-14 18:50:57

well, thanks for this, too...but no go...and I am going to stop for a while. This is clearly an area where some help is needed in the GTK world, and I think not just by me...the idea that fontmanager and font-manager (really just different versions of the same app, as far as I can tell from the history...one 0.5 and the other 0.5.7 (?)) need fc-cache to finish their work, but don't _say_ so anywhere isn't much help...and now that I have gone through the exercise...they still don't do it anyway!

Very curious behavior, in part...I have a directory called ~/.config/font-manager and also one called ~./fontmanager (note the difference, as in the application names) and in the former there are files, such as local.conf, that contain only a reference to what is in the latter; the _other_ apps directory! And anyway, as I say, running fc-cache makes no difference, even when the files listed in the fontmanager.conf file are indeed marked as disabled, as I "requested" in the apps' interfaces (both work the same way, really.)

For now, and until I can find out where the different apps look for fonts, or can script fontconfig to tell different apps to look at different directories (!!) I think I'll give it a rest...maybe make a second directory in /usr/share/fonts/TTF for the ones I don't want all the time, and drop them there manually...a bore but it'll do the trick...right?

thanks again for your help, it's been very educational if not very successful! If you're at all inclined to look...I think FontyPython much the best of these apps,conceptually, considering they all don't work!!

regards,

dave

bernarcher · 2011-02-14 21:51:26

So if I understand properly, you want to keep all your installed TTF fonts but use only a few of them. Now given they are installed in the /usr/share/fonts/TTF folder, why not move this folder to, say, usr/share/fonts-installed/TTF, create a new usr/share/fonts/TTF folder and copy the font definitions to be used back there.

Afterwards go to this new folder and run as root mkfontscale, mkfontdir and fc-cache. This should adjust the fonts information to know of the wanted fonts only.

There is a caveat, however. Any time you want install a new font or have an installed one updated you must keep caution to move the original fonts back in place before and most likely run mkfontscale, mkfontdir and fc-cache before any change attempt.

Another way may involve changing the paths fontconfig knows of. Check "man fonts.conf" for this.

Note, I did not check this at all. But it may be worth a try.

prairie_dad · 2011-02-15 00:36:23

Thanks bernarcher,

Du hast wohl verstanden! But I did it the other way around, I left what I wanted in /usr/share/fonts, and moved the unused to a directory called fonts_not_used_now. The only trick was that I had to take it right out of fonts, so it lives here /usr/share/fonts_not_used_now...otherwise it would continue to be picked up in the fontconfig "sweep" through /usr/share/fonts.... I ran mkfontscale, mkfontdir (both of which I would have forgotten) fc-cache, restarted X and voila! Now I have it more or less the way I want it, with a drop-down menu less than half the size it would have been otherwise. I kept the standard sorts of serif and sans fonts, and scrapped almost all the "handwriting" fonts, etc. Much better.

Wo kommst Du her? Bin gerade in Dtld gewesen, zum ersten mal seit 2002...Berlin, Rheinland, Sachsen...wunderbar, vom Wetter abgesehen!

thanks again,

dave

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-13 18:42:27

[SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

#2 2011-02-13 18:59:29

Re: [SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

#3 2011-02-14 01:17:47

Re: [SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

#4 2011-02-14 02:28:32

Re: [SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

#5 2011-02-14 18:50:57

Re: [SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

#6 2011-02-14 21:51:26

Re: [SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

#7 2011-02-15 00:36:23

Re: [SOLVED...enough ;-) ] Too many fonts...font managers...

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