Around 23 o'clock on Dec 26, Michael Guntsche wrote:
> Is it possbile to substitute/alias the Helvetica font with Verdana even
> if both are installed? (fc-list shows both)
Yes, but this will *always* replace Helvetica with Verdana, even if you
select "helvetica" in an application font menu.
The "alias" mechanism in the font configuration creates family entries of
"weak" binding; such names always defer to the "strong" binding created by
the application specification of a font family. This ensures that
application family names generally override any substitutions seen in the
font configuration; usually that's what you want.
I put in an escape hatch though -- you can create a "strong" entry in the
family with a match/edit rule that specifies the binding. This allows you
to override the usual rules and map existing family names to other
existing family names:
Here's what I put into my /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file (and which may go into
the distribution for 4.3):
<match target="pattern">
<test name="prefer_outline">
<bool>true</bool>
</test>
<test name="family">
<string>Helvetica</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
<string>Arial</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test name="prefer_outline">
<bool>true</bool>
</test>
<test name="family">
<string>Times</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
<string>Times New Roman</string>
</edit>
</match>
These rules map Helvetica to Arial and Times to Times New Roman. As you
probably know, Monotype was paid by MS to create Arial as an Helvetica
"clone" so that MS wouldn't have to pay the Linotype license fee (a
per-copy royalty); it's not the same as Helvetica, but it does have
essentially identical escapements which means type set with Helvetica will
line up the same as type set with Arial. Verdana is quite a bit wider set,
making it a less suitable replacement.
To enable these rules, I place:
<match target="pattern">
<edit name="prefer_outline">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
in my ~/.fonts.conf file to turn on the above substitution rules. If we
get outline simalcrula for the other core bitmaps, we would add more rules
to the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf and then users with the enabling rule would
automatically get the new substitutions as well.
Keith Packard XFree86 Core Team HP Cambridge Research Lab
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