Using True Type Fonts in XTerm

I’ve not had to use TrueType fonts before as my desktop display resolution never warranted it. Now with eyesight failing and much better monitors, I decided to give them a go. Fonts are globally managed by settings in /etc/X11/app-defaults. However, TrueType fonts can be locally set in ~/.Xresources.

To browse the list of fonts use:

fc-list :fontformat=TrueType -f "%{family}\n" | sort -u | less

Test a font by specifying in the xterm command using the -fa option:

xterm -fa 'Luxi Mono' -fs 10

Where fa refers to the fonts face name, and fs, the font size.

Once happy with your font, apply to your application in ~/.Xresources.
For example to apply for XTerm:

! my customisations
XTerm*faceName: DejaVu Sans Mono
 XTerm*faceSize: 11

The final step is to set these resource changes using xrdb:

xrdb -merge .Xresources

So, next time you invoke a plain xterm command you will be greeted with your new font.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linux Mint on HP Mini 110

Image
I have a little experimental machine for playing with different distributions.   Lately, the  HP Mini 110-1081TU  has been running MeeGo . Now it has been commissioned to run Linux Mint . This comes in a variety of flavours. The one reviewed here is Linx Mint Debian 201109 . While the download was a monstrous 1.1G, the installation is the fastest I've ever seen. It literally took 10 minutes!  Post Installation - Wireless This is where the fun begins. First off, I had trouble getting wireless to work.  Reading dmesg gave very helpful instructions.  Read the recommendations carefully! Doing so can save you much time and effort. The HP Mini 110 uses a Broadcom 4312 WLAN . Install the packages b43-fwcutter and firmware-b43-lpphy-installer . I recommend the  Linux Wireless page as it has exceptionally good documentation. Post Installation - Sound Sound quality is actually better than under previous Linux distributions I've tried. So I ...
Read more

Installing MCE Remote for XBMC

The remote I purchased was a Media Center Remote Control / Receiver, RC118 / IR6065A / QIR606A / Q. This being a MCE certified device I thought it would be easy to set-up. However, it took a little more effort than expected. Fortunately the steps are easy, and it was a useful problem solving exercise.  System I am running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with kernel 2.6.32-31-generic for use as a server for XBMC version 10.1.  I received advice from Jarod Wilson of lirc that, lirc_mceusb is obsolete. This device is already supported by the in-kernel mceusb driver. So hopefully you are much luckier than I was in setting this up! Getting the remote to work Even though dmesg reported that I had a infrared receiver, lirc failed to recognise it when testing with irw. dmesg reports: [ 23.721796] generic-usb 0003: 147A : E03E .0003: timeout initializing reports [ 23.722033] generic-usb 0003: 147A : E03E .0003: hiddev97,hidraw2: USB HID v1.00 Device [ Formosa21 eHome Infrared Transce...
Read more

MeeGo

Out with the Slow I've been running Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my HP Mini 110, from 10.04 then onto Unity with 10.10, 11.04. I really like Unity. It is clean and simple and pretty for a small netbook. However, upgrading from 10.10 to 11.04 saw a distinct performance hit. Start-up was so slow. Once started it was acceptably responsive. You really needed to be patient with the slow start-up, and worse, the even slower login. Those using MS-Windows may not have noticed anything, but seasoned Linux users would. What to do? I shut-down unnecessary services. Still no noticeable improvement. This is using SSD ! How can it be so slow? Once logged in the network was available. But that was the only benefit. Time to try something new. A new chapter Good device support There are Linux choices for netbooks. You could even run a standard desktop and configure for the small form factor. That is small screen and small keyboard. After some thought, these are my requirements: Minimal setu...
Read more