A Quick Look: Ubuntu 9.10 and Font Installation

A previous post on installing fonts in Windows and Ubuntu discussed Ubuntu not having a logical method of font installation. The recent release of the new Ubuntu 9.10, “Karmic Koala”, has seen a great improvement in font management.

Opening a font file now throws up a different preview screen, one more detailed than that of Ubuntu 9.04. This screen also includes a button which has long featured on the Windows preview screen - “Install Font”.

There are still some areas in need of improvement to bring Linux up to speed with Windows’ font management. Firstly, Linux lacks an option to install a font when you right-click on its icon. This has been present in Windows since XP and is a useful shortcut when installing a select few fonts from a large selection.

Another issue is one which could confuse less tech-savvy users. If a font has already been installed and the “Install Font” button is pressed, the button changes to read “Install Failed”. This is true, however the font still remains installed. In similar situations Windows informs the user that the font is already installed and the old file should be removed to install the new one.

Although still rough around the edges, Linux font management has vastly improved with this new version of the operating system (OS). The “Install Font” button has made it possible for people who have never used Ubuntu to figure out how to install a font. This improvement is a sign of Linux’s progression from a IT professional’s server OS to a standard desktop frontend.

How To: Easily Create a Font for Free

Fonts. You’re looking at one now. Look around your screen and chances are you will find at least one more, but have you ever wanted something different? Something unique to you? Well, what could be more unique than your very own, home made font!

To make a good font easily, you need two free programs:

• Inkscape
  This is a cross-platform vector image editor (that is, images that can be resized without pixilation) that can export in the SVG format. Other similar programs may also work.
• FontForge
  This is a cross-platform font creator. It is native to Linux, however there are ports (versions) which work well on Windows.

Once you have downloaded and installed these two applications, you can begin.

1. Firstly, you need to get creative in Inkscape and create your font. Shapes can be created with the pen tool and the circle, square and polygon tools. Other tools may not export to FontForge well if at all. If you want your glyph (your individual font image) to have a transparent section within an opaque area, create the inner shape over the outer shape, select both and navigate to “Path>Exclusion”. This will make the middle transparent. 
2. Save each glyph as a separate SVG file under an appropriate name.
3. Open font forge and at the “Open Font” menu,  select “New”. You will be presented with a table of empty glyph positions.
4. Double-click on the glyph you wish to insert your image into.
5. A rather daunting screen will appear (if the grid one wasn’t already scary enough!), but it is easier to use than it looks. If you want to create your glyph from scratch with the FontForge toolbox (this is NOT what is being explored in this tutorial) you can do so now. However, as we have already created the glyph in Inkscape, simply select “File>Import”, choose “SVG” from the “Format” drop-down and navigate to and select the file made in Inkscape.
6. Now we need to resize the imported image. Click and drag a box around the glyph with the “Pointer” tool. Now either move the body of the image to the first bottom line in the guideline from the centre, or click “Scale the Selection” from the Toolbox (7th button down on the left) and resize it to the size you want it to be. Holding down the Shift key on the keyboard will help to keep the image in shape. At the end, the body of the glyph should line up with the first line, with any tail overlapping toward the second line. This second line should not be passed.
7. Now you can adjust any point (or points) in the glyph that you are not happy with. Using the “Pointer” tool, select the nodes in the glyph and move or adjust them as you feel fit.
8. Now the glyph needs to be finished by adjusting the margin between the edge of the glyph and the right and left sides of the bounding box. Usually an equal distance on each side works well. Simply select the whole glyph (as we did before) and nudge it left or right using the corresponding keys on the keyboard until the left margin is as large as you want it to be. Deselect the glyph and then drag the bounding box line on the right to be roughly the same as that on the left.
9. Repeat for each glyph. Not all glyphs need to be filled, however it is recommended that most letters and numbers are created.
10. When you have completed your font, on the grid screen select "Element>Font Info”. Here you set your font’s name. It’s acceptable to enter the same name in each of these, just make sure it is one that is unique to the font to avoid conflicts.
11. Export the font! To do this, select “File>Generate Fonts”. Select “True Type” from the first drop down menu and, if you choose to, select “upload it to the Open Font Library”. If you decide to upload your font to this resource, make sure you read the licensing requirements of this service as it makes your font open source. Click “Save” and accept the error dialogues and your font should work fine.
12. There isn’t one! You have finally finished! A long process but well worth it.

Also see: How To: Install Fonts in Windows and Ubuntu

How To: Install Fonts in Windows and Ubuntu

Fonts are surprisingly hard to install for something that we use daily, and chances are if you have bought a CD of fonts they were installed for you using a setup program. But what if you have a single font file that you have downloaded or made and want to install on your computer?
In Windows operating systems, a shortcut to install a font (without going to the fonts folder) was not included until XP, and in my experience this is not present for some users in Vista. Windows 7 makes it easier, however in both Vista and 7 users must be able to supply administrator credentials at the User Account Control (UAC) prompt. Windows 7 also improves the Fonts folder - the first major update since Windows 3.1.
Ubuntu is baffling for anyone trying to install a font, unless they have been told how to do this before hand. The process is simple once explained, however font installation in Ubuntu is still in need of some work.
FOR WINDOWS USERS:

In any version of Windows from 3.1 to Vista, a font can be installed from the ‘Fonts’ folder. To get to this, open the ‘Control Panel’ and then open the ‘Fonts’ applet; this will take you to the Fonts folder. Click ‘File>Install New Font…’ in the Menu Bar. If the menu bar is not present (i.e. there is no ‘File’ menu), right-click on a blank  area in the folder and then select ‘Install New Font…’.
In Windows 7, a new font is installed by opening the font file and selecting ‘Install’ or right-clicking on the font and selecting ‘Install’ and then accepting the UAC prompt if it appears.
The right-click method may also work in XP and Vista depending on user privileges.

A CLOSER LOOK: INSTALLING FONTS IN WINDOWS XP AND VISTA:
The ‘Add Fonts’ menu (accessed by clicking ‘File>Install New Font…’ in the ‘Fonts’ folder) has remained the same since Windows 3.1, and can be a little confusing to navigate for less tech-enthusiastic people.
To find a font that is in your  ‘My Documents’, or ‘Desktop’ folder, or in a subfolder of one of these folders, you need to navigate to your user files. All user files are usually located in the C:\ drive. Select ‘C:\’ from the top of the ‘Folders’ area, and for Windows XP users, open ‘Documents and Settings’ and for Vista users open ‘Users’. From here, open the folder with your username and then choose the appropriate file.

FOR UBUNTU USERS:
Ubuntu requires a slightly different process to install a font. There is no graphical installation for fonts, but fonts are installed by simply copying and pasting them into the ‘.fonts’ folder in your home folder. This, however, only installs the font for the user installing the font.
The ‘.fonts’ folder usually doesn’t exist by default, and if it does exist it is hidden. To view hidden files, navigate to your home folder and select ‘View>Show Hidden Files’, or hold down the control key and press ‘H’.
Now the procedure is simply a matter of checking if the ‘.fonts’ folder is present and, if it isn’t, making the folder. This folder will become hidden once you close the file browser, so to access it again click ‘Show Hidden Files’.
Now open the folder with the font/s that you want to install, copy them and then paste them into the ‘.fonts’ folder. The font/s will become available to applications when they are next started.

Once these processes are learned for each operating system (OS), it is easy to install a new font on that OS – just make sure that you back up any purchased fonts!

On A Friday: Fantastically Fun Font

This week, On A Friday brings you a font made by this blog's author.
The font was made using the application 'FontForge' in the 'Ubuntu Studio' operating system.

                   ===  DOWNLOAD ===

Download Font (zip)

Password: onecuckoosnestsmegmented

File Info:	Font names: Smegmented, Smegmented Even Spaced, Smegmented Italic. Format: Truetype Font (*.ttf)
Requirements:	Any operating system that supports truetype font files. This includes Windows, Linux and Mac.