Fonts - PC and Mac based X term software packages

Installation

All Versions

This note is for ObjecTime users wishing to run ObjecTime on their PC or Mac based X terminal software package. While we cannot support the multitude of X terminal packages that exist, this note attempts to mention the important steps for font installation which seem to be common between the various packages. This note is based on information provided by our many customers who have successfully run ObjecTime on their X packages, and is not based on first hand experience with installation. As such, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of anything in this note.

We have specific notes on how to install the fonts for the Mac based 'Mac-X' package and the PC based 'HummingBird' package. If you have either of these packages, be sure to also obtain the package specific note.

To use the ObjecTime fonts with your X terminal package, you will first need to convert the delivered fonts into a format acceptable to your software. Then you will need to install the fonts and associate the font aliases with the font files. The steps are as follows:

1. Converting fonts - most X terminal software packages have a utility to convert fonts in 'bdf' format into an acceptable format. Each software package is different on the exact procedure to do this. Consult your manual on how to do this. You will find a 'bdf' version of the ObjecTime fonts in the 'fonts' directory which is inside the ObjecTime installation directory ($OBJECTIME_HOME/fonts/bdf). This directory contains the five font files in bdf format. Use your X terminal's conversion utility to convert the bdf files into the form used by your software.
2. Installing the fonts - refer to your X terminal's manual for the procedure to install the newly created fonts. For some packages, you copy the files to a specific directory, for others, you select menu items to install the font files.
3. Associating the font aliases with the font files - the ObjecTime code refers to the fonts by the ISO standard font name.
   These are long cryptic strings which describe the font. This information is not part of the font file, therefore your X terminal will have to be told about this information in a separate step. This information is usually found in the 'fonts.alias' files for standard X fonts (eg. see $OBJECTIME_HOME/fonts/sun/fonts.alias). This information is entered by associating the short font name (eg. 'otl10r') with the long ISO string. The method for doing this varies with the different software packages. Some packages have menu items and dialog boxes to manually enter the information. Other packages allow you to place the information in a file. Refer to your manual for the exact procedure for doing this. The aliases you need to specify are as follows:

  font    alias
  otl10b  -objectime-otl-bold-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  otl10s  -objectime-otl-ultrabold-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  otl10r  -objectime-otl-normal-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  otl10t  -objectime-otl-ultralight-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  otl10i  -objectime-otl-normal-i-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1

You need to type these aliases exactly with no spaces. The best way to enter these strings is probably to open up one of the 'fonts.alias' files with a text editor, and copy the strings directly from the file into the file or dialog boxes associated with your X package.

Note that when using Mac/PC based X terminal packages, you probably don't want to use the Unix 'xset +fp ...' command to set the font path, as this may cause problems when starting up ObjecTime.

Font diagnostics

The following is the segment of the font installation diagnostic procedure applicable to X terminal software packages. Once the fonts have been installed, you can perform these diagnostics to verify that they are installed correctly.

Try the Unix command 'xlsfonts | grep otl' and verify that the output is:

  -objectime-otl-bold-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  -objectime-otl-normal-i-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  -objectime-otl-normal-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  -objectime-otl-ultrabold-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  -objectime-otl-ultralight-r-normal--12-100-75-75-p-60-iso8859-1
  otl10b
  otl10i
  otl10r
  otl10s
  otl10t

if not, then the ObjecTime fonts cannot be found. Retry the font installation procedure (step 2 above).

Once the fonts are found, then the Unix commands:

    xfd -fn otl10b
    xfd -fn otl10i
    xfd -fn otl10r
    xfd -fn otl10s
    xfd -fn otl10t

can be used to open up windows on the five fonts to verify that they look correct. Here is a quick description of the characters in the fonts to verify that you have the correct font:

If the fonts look correct, there should be no problem running ObjecTime.