Barcode Font Installation on Unix and Other Systems
Windows and Mac systems have one central directory where all applications access their fonts. In many distros of Linux and Unix, each application implements fonts differently: the X Window system has its way, word processors want it a different way, printing systems want it another way, and so on. Many new Linux distros offer a font manager for easy installation of barcode fonts with a GUI application. All IDAutomation font products provide True Type (TTF) and Open Type (OTF) font formats; either of these can be used in newer distros. Check your distribution’s package manager and see if Font Manager is available to install and follow the instructions. IDAutomation’s TrueType and PostScript fonts are created to the standards set for TrueType and PostScript fonts and can be treated as any other font for the purpose of getting the vendor’s assistance. IDAutomation can only support the font tools, the symbology, and the fonts themselves as stated in the statement of support. However, IDAutomation is unable to assist with the installation of the fonts on Unix or Linux systems.
External Information about Installing Fonts on Linux and Unix:
TrueType font installation – Redhat Linux Example
Font Installation:
This information was from one of IDAutomation’s customers in an older version of Linux.
Enter the following commands in sequence from a terminal window (Assuming the ttf file has been downloaded to “/usr/local/fonts/ttf” directory)
cd /usr/local/fonts/ttf
ttmkfdir > fonts.scale
mkfontdir
This will create two files, “fonts.scale” and “fonts.dir”, containing a list with full font names for each true type font. Finally, add this directory to XWindow’s font search path. Redhat users can make use of “chkfontpath” tool to add search path.
chkfontpath -a /usr/local/fonts/ttf
If the “chkfontpath” utility is not available, then manually edit the “/etc/X11/xfs/config” file (or “/etc/X11/fs/config”). Find the line “catalog = “. Add the directory to the end of list, separated by commas.
Sometimes, the font server needs to be restarted for the changes to take place.
Font Installation on Sun Solaris for Oracle Reports:
The ASCII version of IDAutomation fonts does not always work with X-Server on Sun Solaris with Oracle Reports. This is what one customer did to get the fonts working.
Please note that the following steps were used to install the sample version of the IDAutomation Interleaved 2 of 5 fonts, sADVI25f, on a Solaris machine. In order to get the ASCII version font to work properly in another environment, please substitute the font name to be loaded for IDAutomationC128M.
Customer’s Solution:
“I told you that the binary version *.pfb worked on my X-Server but I need this font for Oracle Reports. Oracle Reports can only handle the ASCII version, so the problem was not solved with the binary version. But I found a solution”:
(0) Make the ASCII-file work: ****************************** I found a website that explains how to generate ASCII out from a binary font file. For Sun Solaris this is the groff-package, which you can download from www.sunfreeware.com. After you have downloaded this package copy this file to /usr/local/. Then do the following: 1. gzip -d groff-1.17.2-sol8-sparc-local.gz 2. pkgadd -d groff-1.17.2-sol8-sparc-local This two steps install the needed files. With these files comes an executable called pfbtops which lies in /usr/local/bin after the successful installation. To make an ASCII version of the pfb file do the following: pfbtops IDAutomationC128M.pfb > IDAutomationC128M.pfa The result is a ASCII version of the font which I can use with my X-Server. This file looks completely different in a text editor than the original but it works, and the version in the header is now 1.0. (1) Installation on Sun Solaris: ********************************* 1. cp IDAutomationC128M.pfa /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline/ 2. cp IDAutomationC128M.afm /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm/IDAutomationC128M.afm //The following two steps are only needed when you have transferred it from a Windows Client 3. dos2Unix /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline/IDAutomationC128M.pfa /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline/IDAutomationC128M.pfa 4. dos2Unix /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm/IDAutomationC128M.afm /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm/IDAutomationC128M.afm 5. cd /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1 6. ln -s ./outline/IDAutomationC128M.pfa IDAutomationC128M.pfa 7. Modify fonts.dir and fonts.scale and add the following line: IDAutomationC128M.pfa -adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1 8. Modify fonts-alias and add the following line: IDAutomationC128M.pfa "-adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1" (2) How to test the correct font installation on Solaris: ********************************************************** 1. set the Display-Variable to the correct X-Server 2. "xset q". This command shows you the fontpath of your current X-Server. This is an executable which you can find under /usr/openwin/bin. This command produces an output similar to the following: -- # xset q Keyboard Control: auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000000 auto repeating keys: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100 Pointer Control: acceleration: 2/1 threshold: 4 Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes timeout: 600 cycle: 600 Colors: default colormap: 0x21 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 255 Font Path (as one single line): /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/misc/, /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/, /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/, /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/ Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled DPMS (Energy Star): Server does not have the DPMS Extension FBPM (Frame Buffer Power Management): Server does not have the FBPM Extension -- 3. "xlsfonts -l | grep <fontname>". This command shows if the X-Server can talk to the font. This command can produce the following output after the installation of IDAutomationC128M: -- # xlsfonts -l | grep 25f --> 32 255 some 0 22 94 0 -adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1 --> 32 255 some 0 22 94 0 IDAutomationC128M -- 4. "xfd -fn -adobe-IDAutomationC128M-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1". This command spans a window on your X-Server-Desktop which contains all the characters from the corresponding font. If there is something wrong with the specified font then this command will produce an output similar to: "xfd: no font to display". When all is correct a window will appear with all the characters."
This is all of the information IDAutomation has concerning the font installation on Sun Solaris.