Hello, font needing LyX users of Fedora Core Linux:
Recently, I offered an RPM containing the bakoma4lyx fonts, a subset of
bakoma that was made available with permission of the author. That
package is
http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/software/PolsFC4Updates/latex-bakoma4lyx-fonts-1-2.noarch.rpm
That is a replacement for the latex-xft-fonts package, which provided
lower quality fonts.
After that, I learned that Fedora Core extras was distributing a font
file mathml-fonts and that the lyx in FC4-Extras was requiring
mathml-fonts.
Recently, Stephen Harris asked if the mathml-fonts package conflicts or
duplicates my latex-bakoma4lyx-fonts package and I decided to check it
out. I downloaded the source code for the FC Extras package
mathml-fonts that was prepared by Rex Dieter. The package is very well
designed and the spec file is well documented.
Where do latex-bakoma4lyx-fonts and mathml-fonts differ?
mathml-fonts is a BIGGER set of fonts than bakoma4lyx-fonts.
mathml-fonts innstalls these
/usr/libexec/mathml-fonts
/usr/libexec/mathml-fonts/find_symbol_font.sh
/usr/share/fonts/mathml
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/cmbx10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/cmex10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/cmmi10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/cmr10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/cmsy10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/math1___.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/math2___.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/math4___.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/msam10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/msbm10.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/mtextra.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/mathml/wasy10.ttf
This list includes the original latex-xft fonts (the ones with 10 in the
name), one font from the bakoma package (cmbx10.ttf) which "over writes"
the latex-xft version, a font from MTW_Truetype.exe (mtextra.ttf)
and the rest (mathX__.ttf) are from the Mathematica
program(http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/windows/general/MathFonts_TrueType.
exe). I do not know for sure the licensing provisions of all of these
and wish there were a doc directory with information on that.
People say the latex-xft-fonts look bad. Humph.
So I wanted the mathml-fonts package, but with the bakoma4lyx fonts
replacing the latex-xft-fonts. mathml-fonts also has some nice post
processing to help acrobat reader find fonts (there is a script called
"find_symbol_font"). I've left the install directory as
/usr/share/fonts/mathml so that the post-install processing is not broken.
For my Fedora Linux systems I prepared just such a collection, using
Rex's framework and making only the minimal changes to insert the
bakoma4lyx fonts and tighten up packaging. I inserted the bakoma4lyx
Readme.txt documentation to acknowledge the fine effort of the bakoma
authors. In case you want, you can install it
http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/software/PolsFC4Updates/mathml-bakoma4lyx-fonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm
http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/software/PolsFC4Updates/mathml-bakoma4lyx-fonts-2.0-1.src.rpm
Warning: I inserted provisions here so that, when you install this, it
Obsoletes latex-xft-fonts, latex-bakoma4lyx-fonts, and mathml-fonts
and it lets the RPM system know it provides all functionality of
"mathml-fonts" package. So LyX installs/upgrades from FedoraExtras will
be fine.
I have run lyx and seen these nice fonts, all seems well. In the
increasingly byzantine and arcane world of X system administration, it
is not clear to me how exactly X11 or the Fedora font server find these
fonts, but I think they are being found, even though the directory in
which the fonts are installed is never explicitly put into a font search
path for X11 or for the font server. Maybe its Freetype magic. I know
absolutely for sure because I uninstalled mathml-bakoma4lyx-fonts and
then lyx could not find any math fonts, and re-installed it and lyx
could show the lovely alphas and betas.
--
Paul E. Johnson email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dept. of Political Science http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn
1541 Lilac Lane, Rm 504
University of Kansas Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66044-3177 FAX: (785) 864-5700
