Question about fonts in Inkscape

[timeth]

Hi folks,

Thought I'd post this here cause I didn't get an answer at the Inkscape forum. Should have come here first! 

I'd like to get Inkscape to recognise a folder of fonts that I have and I realise that I could just load them in with my system fonts but I have around 6000 fonts (crazy, I know  ) and I think if I did that it would slow down my boot time so I'm wondering if there's another way.
I did find a folder in /usr/share/inkscape called fonts with a readme file inside which says to '.....please place the appropriate files into this folder'. Does that mean font files? Anyway, I tried it but it didn't recognise the fonts. By the way, I'm using Inkscape 0.46+devel. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. Thanks.

[Jaws]

Hey Tim,

This is probably not the solution you are looking for but I install fonts through --> KCC --> System Admin --> Font Installer. This way it makes them Personal fonts.

I don't go through the Administrator Mode when in KCC nor do I use PCC to install fonts, which if you do, they will become system-wide fonts used throughout and possibly slowing down boot time (that I don't know for sure though). Didn't Windows have that problem?

I love a good font and have my favorites installed. If I have a specific style of font in mind, I'll go looking for it from the many excellent sites that break down by category. Just seems so much easier.

I couldn't image going through 6000 fonts to find one I need. I've got 71 fonts from 63 families installed as Personal fonts. 191 fonts in 94 families as system fonts installed through Synaptic.

As per your question of the font directory in user/share/inkscape/fonts, I think I read where it will be for future use but I could be wrong.

Cheers

[timeth]

Thanks Jaws 

I decided to try installing all of the fonts to my personal fonts as you described and it worked well. Programs like Abiword and Gimp picked them up, but Inkscape refused to load. Too many fonts perhaps? I then uninstalled them all and Inkscape was back to normal. Oh well, I think I might go through and cull all the ones I think I'll never use. Thanks for your help.

[ruel24]

I'm using Mandriva, right now, and it has it's own font installer (PCLinuxOS is the same). However, Inkscape still doesn't use all the fonts. I'm not sure if some of the fonts aren't built right, or what. Some fonts, when you choose them, just revert to Sans. This is an area of Linux I don't like. Things like fonts need to work consistently across the board in all environments and applications.

[Sproggy]

Inkscape only recognises certain formats of fonts ... be very careful with certain fonts as they will stop Inkscape from loading then you have to search for that font to uninstall it to make your inkscape work again .... trust me i just installed a heap of fonts and it took a little while to find the offending font that stopped my inkscape working

Kori

[gemlog]

The number 6000 sounds familiar to me as I once collected a whole bunch of fonts over a few weeks and posted the link to the file I made on the old pclos forums. All those fonts would be over 5-6 years old by now (at least). I still have that tarball, it's 165MB and contains about 6,800 ttf fonts. AFAIK they are all free to use. The KDE desktop (maybe gnome too, but not microsoft) makes it easy to preview fonts before installing them. Sadly, they are only sorted in dirs by alphabet, which is horrible for searching as most are not named in a descriptive way. Still, if anyone wants my little collection, just send me a pm and I'll give you a link to the file on my box, so you can download them.

Do *not* install them all just for fun. You will bring your box to an absolute crawl and font drop-downs (like in openoffice) will be practically useless -- if they open at all.

Anyhow, it's there if you want it, just let me know via pm.

[Jaws]

Hey Gemlog,

Welcome to LGU, good to see you here.

That offer is very generous but I wouldn't know what to do with 6,000+ fonts. I'd probably never make a decision on which one I'd want to use for a project, LOL.

Cheers

[ms_meme]

I went searching for Inkscape Fonts and found this topic. But didn't exactly find what I was looking for.

I want to use some different fonts in Inkscape. I see projects and they suggest using something I don't see in my Inkscape drop down fonts.

1. Where do I find different fonts?
2. How do I get them into my version? I need really specific directions for this.   
I am using PCLinuxOS.

[gemlog]

Search for truetype fonts on the net -- anything you like. After you've downloaded and unzipped them (if needed) you have at least a couple of options for installing them. Here's a random site I just got from google:
http://www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts.html

Font files end with .ttf

If you use the KDE desktop, you can open them by simply clicking on them. This will pull up a previewer showing the font and there is an 'install' button in the lower right hand corner. You can install into your home dir or system wide; it will ask you. I normally choose personal (home dir) as they then survive O/S re-installs.

The second way is to use PCC as root. Under the system tab you will see a font installer. This one can only install system wide and not for just one user. Still, it's easy to shift select dozens at a time for install.

Also, be sure that you tell dolphin or whatever file manager to show previews for fonts as that makes things a lot easier when browsing your collection.

All your programs, including inkscape, will have access to the new fonts you install using either method.

BTW, they end up in your home dir in a dir named '.fonts' if you install for personal use only.

[ms_meme]

Thanks for this information. It looks incredibly simple.  I will make it my New (all) Year's project.