On Fri, Apr 09, 2004 at 11:59:49PM +0300, David Harel wrote:
> This still does not say how to identify the actual file that is used 
> when you select a font. All it says is where to look for. So many font 
> names reside in so many different files and I want to identify the 
> actual file when I select a font in a font dialog box like "Sans" 
> "Regular" "12".

The X Windowing system's fonts interfaces do not attempt to provide such
information. It is supposed to be irrelevant to the X client, as the
rendering is done on the server.

And you even make the problem more complicated by using an external
fonts server. All the X server knows is that this font is provided by
the external fonts server.


The rational for that is clear: The client and the server are not
inherently assumed to share the same filesystem.

Xft/fontconfig provide client-side rendering: the X client knows the
fonts and does the rendering. This has some clear benefits (the process
of printing becomes simpler), however it requires an assumption of the
client's filesystem. Specifically: each client needs to have its own
fonts configuration.

Other solutions to the same issues:

* XPrint: a separate X server that renders windows to printable format.
* Sun's alternative to Xft (I forgot its name) is more complicated and
  includes a local fonts server that can also provide the original fonts
  files.

Nither of those to has become widely used enough. Xft seems like the way
to go now.

-- 
Tzafrir Cohen                       +---------------------------+
http://www.technion.ac.il/~tzafrir/ |vim is a mutt's best friend|
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]       +---------------------------+

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