Fonts? Fonts! (for sgi X11)

[jenna64bit]

So far I've always stuck with the built-in fonts on my Irix boxes. There are some pretty "banging" fonts in there. Right my fellow kids?

Anyway, if I wanted to add more scalable or bitmapped fonts, that looks straight forward enough. What I'm really interested in is what, if anything, other folks like to use? It has been a long time since I've looked into fonts not intended for anti-aliasing on a 1080p screen or scaling on a 4K+ theme. Any old favorites or new finds?

 

[jenna64bit]

Anyway I haven't followed up on this because I fell in love with Screen.

 

[stormy]

I guess there aren't many graphic designers here But for me 'nice to have' fonts would be all of the typical open source fonts Linux distros ship with these days. But I have a feeling they might be in RSE already.

 

[indigofan]

I was just trying to load more, interesting how system vs. app fonts are treated.... Love some Data 70 for the retro feel.

 

[chulofiasco]

How does one add more fonts?

 

[stormy]

I got this information from ChatGPT, so it might work, it might not... looks alright tho:

To add new fonts to your SGI IRIX 6.5.30 system, follow these steps:

1. Obtain Fonts​

• Ensure the fonts you want to install are in a supported format like PCF, BDF, or TTF (TrueType Fonts).
• Download or copy the font files to a directory on your SGI IRIX machine.

2. Identify Font Directories​

• Typically, fonts are located in /usr/lib/X11/fonts/, but you can add your fonts to a custom directory or existing ones like /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/, /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/, etc.

3. Move the Fonts​

• Copy your new font files into one of the font directories, for example:

cp your-font-file.pcf /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/

4. Update Font Database​

After copying the font files, you need to update the font database files:

• Navigate to the font directory where you added the fonts:

cd /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/

• Run the following commands to update the font database:

mkfontdir
mkfontscale

This will generate/update the fonts.dir and fonts.scale files used by the X server to recognize the fonts.

5. Restart X Server​

For the changes to take effect, restart the X server. You can do this by either logging out and logging back in or by restarting the X server directly:

/usr/bin/X11/X -terminate

6. Verify Fonts​

Once X is restarted, you can verify the new fonts by listing them with xset:

xset q

This will display the font path and show the fonts now available to the system.

7. Optional: Adding Fonts to the Global Font Path​

If you'd like the newly added fonts to be available system-wide, you can add the font directory to the global X11 font path. Edit /usr/lib/X11/fs/config or use xset:

xset +fp /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/
xset fp rehash

After following these steps, the new fonts should be available for use in your SGI IRIX 6.5.30 environment.

 

[flexion]

..and to make the new font path persistent after reboot, add the xset +fp... command to ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession, or edit /var/X11/adm/Xservers to extend the default font path for all users.

useful commands to verify installation and test fonts:
xlsfonts, xfontsel, xfd