decoding .bdf files

[Jan van der Steen]

wolf at alesi.cipl.uiowa.edu (Mike Wolf) writes:

>I have two files, standard.bdf and xconq.bdf,  these are supposed
>to be X11 font files encoded.  How do I decode them?  The README
>file with the archives says to smply do 'make X11fonts', but I get
>the following when I try this:

>(cd lib;  fc xconq.bdf;  fc standard.bdf)
>sh: fc: not found
>*** Error code 1

>Stop.

>What format are these files in and how do I decode them?

>All help appreciated, thanks.

>Michael
>WOLF at MEL.CIPL.UIOWA.EDU


Bdf files contain ascii data (bitmap distribution format).
They specify a font by including a bitmap for each character.
You can "compile" the font by running bdftosnf (which comes with
the X11R[34] system):

    bdftosnf standard.bdf > standard.snf
    bdftosnf    xconq.bdf >    xconq.snf

Next you execute:

    mkfontdir <dir>

where <dir> is the directory where you installed the .snf files.
This command will create a file "fonts.dir" with information
about the fontname->filename mappings.

After that you add that very directory to your fontpath:

    xset fp+ <dir>

If the directory already was included in your fontpath you can
replace the above line with a:

    xset fp rehash

Finally, you can check to see if the fonts are known by the X-server
by executing:

    xlsfonts | more


	Jan van der Steen
-- 
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
     Jan van der Steen                 jansteen at cwi.nl
     Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI)
     Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
--
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
     Jan van der Steen                 jansteen at cwi.nl
     Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI)
     Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands