[XeTeX] (Off-topic ?) Installing OpenType fonts on linux

Jonathan Kew jonathan_kew at sil.org
Fri Mar 7 12:49:28 CET 2008


On 7 Mar 2008, at 11:26 am, Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just got a bunch of OpenType fonts from Adobe, and of course I'd  
> like to use
> them with XeTeX. As I understand, XeTeX can use OpenType form the  
> operating
> system, but the point is, I don't know how ton install fonts in my  
> OS (Debian
> GNU/Linux). Of course everything on Adobe's CD-ROM about  
> installation is only
> for MacOs or Windows.
>
> I know this question isn't strictly related to XeTeX, but can  
> anyone give me
> some good hints (url for howtos, name of useful software, etc.) about
> installing fonts on Linux ?

I think it depends on the desktop environment you're using (KDE?  
Gnome? other?), but all you need to do is put the font files into a  
directory that's known to fontconfig. The directories are specified  
in fonts.conf (try "man fonts.conf" to find out where it is,  
probably /etc/fonts/fonts.conf), and usually include "global" places  
like /usr/share/fonts/ and also a "personal" directory ~/.fonts that  
doesn't require root permission for you to add things.

KDE and Gnome may provide GUI ways to view the available fonts (e.g,  
in Ubuntu Gutsy you can get there via System > Preferences >  
Appearance Preferences > Fonts > Details > Go to Fonts Folder), but  
the details may be different in your version.


> And then how to name this fonts on XeTeX,

You can run fc-list to get a list of installed fonts, or just look at  
the font names as shown in GUI applications.


> and how
> to know which OpenType features are available for a given font ?

The otfinfo tool can report this, or you can run the OpenType- 
info.tex file (see the xetex sample files archive) to get a report.

JK



More information about the XeTeX mailing list