Gnotices: Gdkxft 1.1 released: Anti-Aliased fonts for GTK+ 1.2

Sep 07, 2001, 01:38 (5 Talkback[s])

gdkxft transparently adds anti-aliased font support to GTK+-1.2. Once it's installed, users can run most existing GTK+ binaries and see anti-aliased fonts in the GTK widgets. There's no need to recompile gtk+ or individual applications.

From Gnotices:

Within only days of the 1.0 release, Gdkxft has been updated to version 1.1. Improvements include more helpful documentation and a slightly smarter installer.

Complete Story (the announcement above with some useful commentary from gnotices readers)

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[ Here's some additional info gathered from getting this to work on a Red Hat 7.1 system running Ximian GNOME. Take it as a "works for me" and with a hearty "your mileage may vary." -mph ]

You may find it useful to add the following line to /etc/X11/gdm/gnomerc:

export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libgdkxft.so

Those using truetype fonts from Microsoft (Arial, Verdana, etc.) will find it useful to add the following lines to the file /usr/share/gdkxft.conf:

-monotype-*
-microsoft-*

The editor's /etc/X11/Xftconfig looks like this (the default generated by the rpm caused some problems):

dir "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ttf"
dir "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"

# alias 'fixed' for 'mono'

match any family == "fixed"             edit family =+ "mono";


# Check users config file

includeif       "~/.xftconfig"


# Use Lucidux fonts for default faces

match any family == "serif"             edit family += "LuciduxSerif";
match any family == "sans"              edit family += "LuciduxSans";
match any family == "mono"              edit family += "LuciduxMono";


# Alias between XLFD families and font file family name, prefer local
# fonts

match any family == "charter"           edit family += "bitstream charter";
match any family == "bitstream charter" edit family =+ "charter";

match any family == "Lucidux Serif"     edit family += "LuciduxSerif";
match any family == "LuciduxSerif"      edit family =+ "Lucidux Serif";

match any family == "Lucidux Sans"      edit family += "LuciduxSans";
match any family == "LuciduxSans"       edit family =+ "Lucidux Sans";

match any family == "Lucidux Mono"      edit family += "LuciduxMono";
match any family == "LuciduxMono"       edit family =+ "Lucidux Mono";

Related Stories:

• OSNews.com: TheRasterman Speaks of Enlightenment17 and Future of Linux Desktop(Aug 22, 2001)
• Anti Aliasing in GTK+1.2(Jun 05, 2001)
• KDE News: Configuring the Xft extension (including anti-aliasing)(May 15, 2001)
• LinuxPlanet: .comment: A Whole New Desktop with Anti-Aliasing(Mar 15, 2001)
• LinuxProgramming: PR: Qt 2.3 Takes Advantage of X11's Anti-Aliased Font Support(Mar 08, 2001)
• GNOME and Mozilla with Anti-aliasing(Feb 11, 2001)
• LinuxPlanet: .comment: Ain't Anti-Aliasing Amazing?(Dec 27, 2000)
• justLinux.com: TrueType Fonts: Getting to the Point(Apr 11, 2000)