Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 2012-01-16

Chapter 9. Graphics and Font Libraries

Fontconfig-2.8.0

Introduction to Fontconfig

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

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-7.0 platform.

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 2.6.92 is a beta release and the most current release is of the form 2.8.0

Fontconfig Dependencies

Required

FreeType-2.4.8 and either expat-2.0.1 or libxml2-2.7.8

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-1.03ii and JadeTeX-3.13 installed also, or the Fontconfig build will fail.

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/Fontconfig

Installation of Fontconfig

Install Fontconfig by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr \
            --sysconfdir=/etc \
            --localstatedir=/var \
            --disable-docs \
            --without-add-fonts \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.8.0 &&
make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

If you did not remove the --disable-docs parameter from the configure command, you can install the pre-generated documentation by using the following commands as the root user: 

install -v -m755 \
    -d /usr/share/{man/man{3,5},doc/fontconfig-2.8.0/fontconfig-devel} &&
install -v -m644 fc-*/*.1          /usr/share/man/man1 &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.3           /usr/share/man/man3 &&
install -v -m644 doc/fonts-conf.5  /usr/share/man/man5 &&
install -v -m644 doc/fontconfig-devel/* \
    /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.8.0/fontconfig-devel &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.{pdf,sgml,txt,html} \
    /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.8.0

Command Explanations

--localstatedir=/var: This switch places the system font cache files in /var/cache/fontconfig.

--without-add-fonts: This switch disables the automatic search for X Window System fonts which, if found, may confuse some applications.

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

--with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.8.0: Though this parameter seems counter-intuitive following the preceding parameter to the configure command, it is used so that if the builder removes the --disable-docs parameter, the documentation will be installed in a versioned directory name instead of the default /usr/share/doc/fontconfig.

Configuring Fontconfig

Config Files

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

Configuration Information

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

  • /usr/share/fonts

  • ~/.fonts

Fontconfig also ships many example configuration files in the /etc/fonts/conf.avail directory. Symlinking to specific files from /etc/fonts/conf.d will enable them. The default setup is generally good enough for most users. See /etc/fonts/conf.avail/README for a description of the configuration files.

More information about configuring Fontconfig can be found in the user's manual in file:///usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.8.0/fontconfig-user.html.

Contents

Installed Programs: fc-cache, fc-cat, fc-list, fc-match, fc-query, and fc-scan
Installed Library: libfontconfig.{so,a}
Installed Directories: /etc/fonts, /usr/include/fontconfig, /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.8.0 and /var/cache/fontconfig

Short Descriptions

fc-cache

is used to create font information caches.

fc-cat

is used to read 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.

fc-query

is used to query fonts files and print resulting patterns.

fc-scan

is used to scan font files and directories, and print resulting patterns.

libfontconfig.{so,a}

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

Last updated on 2011-12-10 01:21:48 +0000