Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 6.3

Chapter 9. Graphics and Font Libraries

Fontconfig-2.4.2

Introduction to Fontconfig

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

Package Information

Fontconfig Dependencies

Required

FreeType-2.3.7 and either expat-2.0.1 or libxml2-2.6.31 (requires pkg-config-0.22)

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 \
    --with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.4.2 &&
make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Now, as the root user: 

make install &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.3 /usr/share/man/man3 &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.5 /usr/share/man/man5 &&
install -v -m755 \
        -d /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.4.2/fontconfig-devel &&
install -v -m644 doc/*.{html,pdf,txt} \
        /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.4.2 &&
install -v -m644 doc/fontconfig-devel/* \
        /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.4.2/fontconfig-devel

Command Explanations

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

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

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

--with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.4.2: 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-2.4.2/fontconfig-user.html.

Contents

Installed Programs: fc-cache, fc-cat, fc-list, and fc-match
Installed Library: libfontconfig.{so,a}
Installed Directories: /etc/fonts, /usr/include/fontconfig, /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-2.4.2 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.

libfontconfig.{so,a}

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

Last updated on 2008-05-06 00:26:07 -0500