Fonts & Encodings

8.4. Tools for Managing Fonts under X

The application xfontsel [324] allows us to choose a font name from the components of its XLFD font name. For example, we have a line of text (Figure 8-2)

-fndry-fmly-wght-slant-aWdth-adstyl-...
                       ...pxlsz-ptSz-resx-resy-spc-avgWdth-rgstry-encdng

that is nothing but a list of abbreviations of the names of XLFD's fields. By clicking on one of these abbreviated names, we obtain a contextual menu that shows all the possible choices for this XLFD field among all the available fonts. In the area in which this line appears, the XLFD name is displayed. In the beginning, this name is nothing but a sequence of* wildcards and thus represents all fonts.

When we select a value for an XLFD field, it is displayed in the XLFD font name in the second line, and the possible choices for the other fields are reduced to those that are compatible with the choices already made. Often there is only one choice, other than the wildcard, on the contextual menu. We can thus fill in all the fields in the XLFD font name and obtain the name of the unique font that matches our needs. Note that in the upper right part of the window the phrase ... names match shows us how many fonts that match our current choices exist. There must always be at least one, since xfontsel does not allow us to specify values for the parameters that would not match any font. If we click on the Select button, the selected font name is copied onto the clipboard and can then be pasted into another ...