Baslinux mailing list

["Krzysztof A. Suchecki" <christopher.suchecki AT wp.pl>]

James wrote: 

> But, when I think of changing the font, I think of font face - Times New
> Roman, Verdana, Arial, Courier and the like.  Can someone help me somehow
> clarify my (mis?)understanding of these terms and their import?

You won't find fonts you enumerated in console fonts. :)
Because they are vector fonts and not bitmap fonts.
So it means their shapes are defined as Bezier's curves.

As for fonts you enumerated, they are saved in TrueType font format, so 
font shapes are defined as polynomials 2nd (a*x^2+b*x+c). As you may suspect, 
TrueType font format is m$ invention. They wanted to overcome Adobe
Type1 font format where font shapes are defined as pols 3rd 
(a*x^3+b*x^2+c*x+d). 

What's more m$ and Adobe weren't the first who started the war.
It's war between 2 competitors, 2 font creators: Monotype and Linotype.
Look at Arial and Helvetica font shapes. They are nearly the same.
To use font, you need a licence. 

Arial is younger - it was created because m$ didn't want to pay so
much money for Helvetica and ask 2nd font foundry for font
similar to Helvetica.

There is also another problem - computer screen is not a vector device,
it's bitmap device - you say 640x480 pixels etc. So there is a problem
how to display a vector font on a bitmap device. Especially in low
resolutions like screen (72dpi) and low font heights (like 6pt).
That's why such fonts like Verdana, Georgia were designed.

In X Window you can use vector fonts. Of course not for console.

As for kbd.tgz it gives you only bitmap fonts.

You will find them in /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts although if you use 
only English language, you will not need them unless you like 
i.e. mediaeval letter shapes.


Chris


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HIT SEZONU! Premiera w Polsce! RECK POLICE - replika szwajcarskiego pistoletu 
SIG SAUER.
Super cena! < http://pasaz.wp.pl/app/vppp.po?s=2413&p=25588>