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Linux Fonts

Fri, 27/04/2007 - 07:21 — matben

Since I have had several requests on improving the appearance on Linux by using the typical desktop fonts, I started investigating it. I thought it should be a simple task by just switching the default fonts, but was not.

Instead Linux (and unix) uses Xft which so far only exists in Tcl 8.5 and as a patch. Since the typical Linux desktop fonts uses Xft they don't show up in Tk. However, it looks like there is an old patch for aMSN which perhaps could be used. Not sure if it is related to the 8.5 implementation. In any case I suffer from the extremely slow release pace for 8.5 from the Tcl Core Team. Perhaps I should start thinking strategically for things that can fire up them, but I don't know what.

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Comments

Fri, 27/04/2007 - 09:55 — sander

Maybe the Software/Fonts page on freedesktop can help you?

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Mvg, Sander Devrieze.

Tue, 01/05/2007 - 18:47 — Petteri

Tkabber starpack for 0.10 includes Tcl/Tk 8.5a4 which has xft fonts. You could include that in the linux version.

Wed, 02/05/2007 - 07:07 — matben

I think it is way too early (and riscy) to use 8.5. The first beta is in the pipeline but I've read about too many problems with it on news:comp.lang.tcl.

Wed, 02/05/2007 - 07:51 — sander

Just an idea, maybe it's stupid. But what about backporting the xft fonts?

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Mvg, Sander Devrieze.

Thu, 03/05/2007 - 07:37 — matben

Way too complicated. But you can always run a tclkit 8.5a4 and see how that works. This way you avoid messing around with your installation.

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