Beyond Linux From Scratch - Version 6.1

Chapter 9. Graphics and Font Libraries

Fontconfig-2.3.2

Introduction to Fontconfig

The Fontconfig package is a library for configuring and customizing font access.

Package Information

[Note]

Note

The numbering system of Fontconfig is unusual. The beta versions of the package are numbered with a 9x in the last portion of the release number. This means that 2.3.90 is a beta release and the most current release is of the form 2.3.2

Fontconfig Dependencies

Required

FreeType-2.1.10 and expat-1.95.8

Optional

DocBook-utils-0.6.14

[Note]

Note

If you have DocBook-utils installed and you remove the --disable-docs parameter from the configure command below, you must have SGMLSpm and JadeTeX-3.13 installed also, or the Fontconfig build will fail.

Installation of Fontconfig

Install Fontconfig by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-docs &&
make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Now, as the root user: 

make install &&
install -v -m755 -d /usr/share/doc/fontconfig/fontconfig-devel &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.3 /usr/share/man/man3 &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.5 /usr/share/man/man5 &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.{html,pdf,txt} /usr/share/doc/fontconfig &&
install -v -m644 doc/fontconfig-devel/* \
    /usr/share/doc/fontconfig/fontconfig-devel

Command Explanations

--disable-docs: This switch avoids building the documentation (the release tarball includes pre-generated documentation).

Configuring Fontconfig

Config Files

/etc/fonts/* and /etc/fonts/conf.d/*

Configuration Information

The configuration file for Fontconfig is /etc/fonts/fonts.conf. Generally you do not want to edit this file. To put a new font directory in the configuration, create (or update) the /etc/fonts/local.conf file with your local information. The default location of fonts in Fontconfig is:

  • /usr/share/fonts

  • ~/.fonts

[Note]

Note

X also includes an internal (and older) version of Fontconfig and unless it is explicitly disabled when building Xorg or XFree86, the internal version is created leaving two slightly incompatible libraries on your system. It is recommended that you only install one version.

Contents

Installed Programs: fc-cache, fc-list, and fc-match
Installed Library: libfontconfig.[so,a]
Installed Directories: /etc/fonts and /usr/include/fontconfig

Short Descriptions

fc-cache

is used to create font information caches.

fc-list

is used to create font lists.

fc-match

is used to match available fonts, or find fonts that match a given pattern.

libfontconfig.[so,a]

contains functions used by the Fontconfig programs and also by other programs to configure or customize font access.

Last updated on 2005-08-09 19:50:01 -0600