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FONTS-CONF(5)							 FONTS-CONF(5)

NAME
       fonts.conf - Font configuration files

SYNOPSIS
	  /etc/fonts/fonts.conf
	  /etc/fonts/fonts.dtd
	  /etc/fonts/conf.d
	  ~/.fonts.conf

DESCRIPTION
       Fontconfig is a library designed to provide system-wide font configura‐
       tion, customization and application access.

FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW
       Fontconfig contains two essential  modules,  the	 configuration	module
       which  builds an internal configuration from XML files and the matching
       module which accepts font patterns and  returns	the  nearest  matching
       font.

   FONT CONFIGURATION
       The  configuration  module  consists of the FcConfig datatype, libexpat
       and FcConfigParse which walks over an XML tree and amends a  configura‐
       tion  with data found within.  From an external perspective, configura‐
       tion of the library consists of generating a valid XML tree and feeding
       that  to	 FcConfigParse.	 The only other mechanism provided to applica‐
       tions for changing the running configuration is to add fonts and direc‐
       tories to the list of application-provided font files.

       The intent is to make font configurations relatively static, and shared
       by as many applications as possible.  It is hoped that this  will  lead
       to  more	 stable font selection when passing names from one application
       to another.  XML was chosen as a configuration file format  because  it
       provides	 a  format  which  is  easy  for external agents to edit while
       retaining the correct structure and syntax.

       Font configuration is separate from font matching; applications needing
       to  do  their  own  matching  can  access  the available fonts from the
       library and perform private matching.  The intent is to permit applica‐
       tions  to  pick	and  choose appropriate functionality from the library
       instead of forcing them to choose between this library  and  a  private
       configuration  mechanism.   The hope is that this will ensure that con‐
       figuration of fonts for all applications	 can  be  centralized  in  one
       place.	Centralizing  font  configuration will simplify and regularize
       font installation and customization.

   FONT PROPERTIES
       While font patterns may contain essentially any properties,  there  are
       some well known properties with associated types.  Fontconfig uses some
       of these properties for font matching and font completion.  Others  are
       provided as a convenience for the applications' rendering mechanism.

	 Property	 Type	 Description
	 --------------------------------------------------------------
	 family		 String	 Font family names
	 familylang	 String	 Languages corresponding to each family
	 style		 String	 Font style. Overrides weight and slant
	 stylelang	 String	 Languages corresponding to each style
	 fullname	 String	 Font full names (often includes style)
	 fullnamelang	 String	 Languages corresponding to each fullname
	 slant		 Int	 Italic, oblique or roman
	 weight		 Int	 Light, medium, demibold, bold or black
	 size		 Double	 Point size
	 width		 Int	 Condensed, normal or expanded
	 aspect		 Double	 Stretches glyphs horizontally before hinting
	 pixelsize	 Double	 Pixel size
	 spacing	 Int	 Proportional, dual-width, monospace or charcell
	 foundry	 String	 Font foundry name
	 antialias	 Bool	 Whether glyphs can be antialiased
	 hinting	 Bool	 Whether the rasterizer should use hinting
	 hintstyle	 Int	 Automatic hinting style
	 verticallayout	 Bool	 Use vertical layout
	 autohint	 Bool	 Use autohinter instead of normal hinter
	 globaladvance	 Bool	 Use font global advance data
	 file		 String	 The filename holding the font
	 index		 Int	 The index of the font within the file
	 ftface		 FT_Face Use the specified FreeType face object
	 rasterizer	 String	 Which rasterizer is in use
	 outline	 Bool	 Whether the glyphs are outlines
	 scalable	 Bool	 Whether glyphs can be scaled
	 scale		 Double	 Scale factor for point->pixel conversions
	 dpi		 Double	 Target dots per inch
	 rgba		 Int	 unknown, rgb, bgr, vrgb, vbgr,
				 none - subpixel geometry
	 minspace	 Bool	 Eliminate leading from line spacing
	 charset	 CharSet Unicode chars encoded by the font
	 lang		 String	 List of RFC-3066-style languages this
				 font supports
	 fontversion	 Int	 Version number of the font
	 capability	 String	 List of layout capabilities in the font
	 embolden	 Bool	 Rasterizer should synthetically embolden the font

   FONT MATCHING
       Fontconfig  performs matching by measuring the distance from a provided
       pattern to all of the available	fonts  in  the	system.	  The  closest
       matching	 font  is  selected.   This ensures that a font will always be
       returned, but doesn't ensure that it is	anything  like	the  requested
       pattern.

       Font  matching  starts  with  an	 application constructed pattern.  The
       desired attributes of the resulting font are collected  together	 in  a
       pattern.	  Each property of the pattern can contain one or more values;
       these are listed in priority order; matches earlier  in	the  list  are
       considered "closer" than matches later in the list.

       The  initial  pattern  is  modified  by	applying  the  list of editing
       instructions specific to patterns found in the configuration; each con‐
       sists  of  a match predicate and a set of editing operations.  They are
       executed in the order they appeared in the configuration.   Each	 match
       causes the associated sequence of editing operations to be applied.

       After  the pattern has been edited, a sequence of default substitutions
       are performed to canonicalize the set  of  available  properties;  this
       avoids the need for the lower layers to constantly provide default val‐
       ues for various font properties during rendering.

       The canonical font pattern is finally  matched  against	all  available
       fonts.	The distance from the pattern to the font is measured for each
       of several properties: foundry, charset, family, lang, spacing,	pixel‐
       size,  style,  slant,  weight, antialias, rasterizer and outline.  This
       list is in priority order -- results of comparing earlier  elements  of
       this list weigh more heavily than later elements.

       There is one special case to this rule; family names are split into two
       bindings; strong and weak.   Strong  family  names  are	given  greater
       precedence  in the match than lang elements while weak family names are
       given lower precedence than lang elements.  This permits	 the  document
       language	 to  drive  font selection when any document specified font is
       unavailable.

       The pattern representing that font is augmented to include any  proper‐
       ties  found  in the pattern but not found in the font itself; this per‐
       mits the application to pass rendering instructions or any  other  data
       through the matching system.  Finally, the list of editing instructions
       specific to fonts found in the configuration are applied	 to  the  pat‐
       tern.  This modified pattern is returned to the application.

       The  return value contains sufficient information to locate and raster‐
       ize the font, including the file name, pixel size and  other  rendering
       data.   As  none	 of  the information involved pertains to the FreeType
       library, applications are free to use any rasterization engine or  even
       to take the identified font file and access it directly.

       The  match/edit	sequences  in  the  configuration are performed in two
       passes because there are essentially two different operations necessary
       -- the first is to modify how fonts are selected; aliasing families and
       adding suitable defaults.  The second is to  modify  how	 the  selected
       fonts  are  rasterized.	Those must apply to the selected font, not the
       original pattern as false matches will often occur.

   FONT NAMES
       Fontconfig provides a textual  representation  for  patterns  that  the
       library	can  both accept and generate.	The representation is in three
       parts, first a list of family names, second a list of point  sizes  and
       finally a list of additional properties:

	    <families>-<point sizes>:<name1>=<values1>:<name2>=<values2>...

       Values  in  a list are separated with commas.  The name needn't include
       either families or point sizes; they can be elided.  In addition, there
       are  symbolic  constants that simultaneously indicate both a name and a
       value.  Here are some examples:

	 Name				 Meaning
	 ----------------------------------------------------------
	 Times-12			 12 point Times Roman
	 Times-12:bold			 12 point Times Bold
	 Courier:italic			 Courier Italic in the default size
	 Monospace:matrix=1 .1 0 1	 The users preferred monospace font
					 with artificial obliquing

       The '\', '-', ':' and ',' characters in family names must be  preceeded
       by a '\' character to avoid having them misinterpreted. Similarly, val‐
       ues containing '\', '=', '_', ':' and ',' must also have them preceeded
       by  a  '\' character. The '\' characters are stripped out of the family
       name and values as the font name is read.

DEBUGGING APPLICATIONS
       To help diagnose font and applications problems,	 fontconfig  is	 built
       with  a	large  amount  of  internal debugging left enabled. It is con‐
       trolled by means of the FC_DEBUG environment  variable.	The  value  of
       this  variable  is  interpreted	as  a number, and each bit within that
       value controls different debugging messages.

	 Name	      Value    Meaning
	 ---------------------------------------------------------
	 MATCH		  1    Brief information about font matching
	 MATCHV		  2    Extensive font matching information
	 EDIT		  4    Monitor match/test/edit execution
	 FONTSET	  8    Track loading of font information at startup
	 CACHE		 16    Watch cache files being written
	 CACHEV		 32    Extensive cache file writing information
	 PARSE		 64    (no longer in use)
	 SCAN		128    Watch font files being scanned to build caches
	 SCANV		256    Verbose font file scanning information
	 MEMORY		512    Monitor fontconfig memory usage
	 CONFIG	       1024    Monitor which config files are loaded
	 LANGSET       2048    Dump char sets used to construct lang values
	 OBJTYPES      4096    Display message when value typechecks fail

       Add the value of the desired debug levels together and assign that  (in
       base 10) to the FC_DEBUG environment variable before running the appli‐
       cation. Output from these statements is sent to stdout.

LANG TAGS
       Each font in the database contains a list  of  languages	 it  supports.
       This is computed by comparing the Unicode coverage of the font with the
       orthography of each language.  Languages are tagged using  an  RFC-3066
       compatible  naming  and	occur in two parts -- the ISO 639 language tag
       followed a hyphen and then by the ISO 3166 country  code.   The	hyphen
       and country code may be elided.

       Fontconfig  has	orthographies  for  several  languages	built into the
       library.	 No provision has been made for adding	new  ones  aside  from
       rebuilding the library.	It currently supports 122 of the 139 languages
       named in ISO 639-1, 141 of the languages with two-letter codes from ISO
       639-2 and another 30 languages with only three-letter codes.  Languages
       with both two and three letter codes are provided  with	only  the  two
       letter code.

       For  languages  used  in	 multiple territories with radically different
       character sets, fontconfig includes per-territory orthographies.	  This
       includes Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Pashto, Tigrinya and Chinese.

CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
       Configuration  files for fontconfig are stored in XML format; this for‐
       mat makes external configuration tools easier to write and ensures that
       they  will  generate syntactically correct configuration files.	As XML
       files are plain text, they can also be manipulated by the  expert  user
       using a text editor.

       The  fontconfig document type definition resides in the external entity
       "fonts.dtd"; this is normally stored in the default font	 configuration
       directory  (/etc/fonts).	  Each	configuration  file should contain the
       following structure:

	    <?xml version="1.0"?>
	    <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
	    <fontconfig>
	    ...
	    </fontconfig>

   <FONTCONFIG>
       This is the top level element for a font configuration and can  contain
       dir, cache, include, match and alias elements in any order.

   DIR
       This  element  contains a directory name which will be scanned for font
       files to include in the set of available fonts.

   CACHE
       This element contains a file name for the per-user cache of font infor‐
       mation.	 If  it starts with '~', it refers to a file in the users home
       directory.  This file is used to	 hold  information  about  fonts  that
       isn't  present  in  the per-directory cache files.  It is automatically
       maintained by the fontconfig library.  The default  for	this  file  is
       ``~/.fonts.cache-version'',  where  version  is	the font configuration
       file version number (currently 2).

   INCLUDE IGNORE_MISSING= NO""
       This element contains the name of an additional configuration  file  or
       directory.   If	a directory, every file within that directory starting
       with an ASCII digit (U+0030  -  U+0039)	and  ending  with  the	string
       ``.conf''  will be processed in sorted order.  When the XML datatype is
       traversed by FcConfigParse, the contents of the file(s)	will  also  be
       incorporated  into  the	configuration  by  passing  the filename(s) to
       FcConfigLoadAndParse.  If 'ignore_missing' is set to "yes"  instead  of
       the  default  "no",  a missing file or directory will elicit no warning
       message from the library.

   CONFIG
       This element provides a place to consolidate  additional	 configuration
       information.   config  can  contain  blank  and	rescan elements in any
       order.

   BLANK
       Fonts often include "broken" glyphs which appear in  the	 encoding  but
       are  drawn  as  blanks  on the screen.  Within the blank element, place
       each Unicode characters which is supposed to be blank in	 an  int  ele‐
       ment.   Characters outside of this set which are drawn as blank will be
       elided from the set of characters supported by the font.

   RESCAN
       The rescan element holds an int element	which  indicates  the  default
       interval	 between  automatic  checks  for  font	configuration changes.
       Fontconfig will validate all of the configuration files and directories
       and  automatically rebuild the internal datastructures when this inter‐
       val passes.

   SELECTFONT
       This element is used to black/white list fonts  from  being  listed  or
       matched against.	 It holds acceptfont and rejectfont elements.

   ACCEPTFONT
       Fonts  matched  by  an acceptfont element are "whitelisted"; such fonts
       are explicitly included in the set of fonts used to  resolve  list  and
       match  requests;	 including  them in this list protects them from being
       "blacklisted" by a rejectfont  element.	 Acceptfont  elements  include
       glob and pattern elements which are used to match fonts.

   REJECTFONT
       Fonts  matched  by  an rejectfont element are "blacklisted"; such fonts
       are excluded from the set of fonts  used	 to  resolve  list  and	 match
       requests	 as  if	 they didn't exist in the system.  Rejectfont elements
       include glob and pattern elements which are used to match fonts.

   GLOB
       Glob elements hold shell-style filename matching patterns (including  ?
       and  *)	which match fonts based on their complete pathnames.  This can
       be used to exclude a set of  directories	 (/usr/share/fonts/uglyfont*),
       or  particular  font  file  types  (*.pcf.gz), but the latter mechanism
       relies rather heavily on filenaming conventions which can't  be	relied
       upon.   Note  that  globs  only apply to directories, not to individual
       fonts.

   PATTERN
       Pattern elements perform list-style matching on	incoming  fonts;  that
       is,  they  hold	a  list	 of elements and associated values.  If all of
       those elements have a matching value,  then  the	 pattern  matches  the
       font.  This can be used to select fonts based on attributes of the font
       (scalable, bold, etc), which is a more reliable	mechanism  than	 using
       file extensions.	 Pattern elements include patelt elements.

   PATELT NAME= PROPERTY""
       Patelt elements hold a single pattern element and list of values.  They
       must have a 'name' attribute which indicates the pattern element	 name.
       Patelt  elements include int, double, string, matrix, bool, charset and
       const elements.

   MATCH TARGET= PATTERN""
       This element holds first a (possibly empty) list of test	 elements  and
       then  a	(possibly  empty) list of edit elements.  Patterns which match
       all of the tests are subjected to all the edits.	 If 'target' is set to
       "font"  instead	of the default "pattern", then this element applies to
       the font name resulting from a match rather than a font pattern	to  be
       matched.	 If  'target' is set to "scan", then this element applies when
       the font is scanned to build the fontconfig database.

   TEST QUAL= ANY" NAME="PROPERTY" TARGET="DEFAULT" COMPARE="EQ""
       This element contains a single value which is compared with the	target
       ('pattern',  'font',  'scan' or 'default') property "property" (substi‐
       tute any of the property names seen above). 'compare'  can  be  one  of
       "eq",  "not_eq",	 "less",  "less_eq", "more", or "more_eq".  'qual' may
       either be the default, "any", in which case the match succeeds  if  any
       value associated with the property matches the test value, or "all", in
       which case all of the values associated with the	 property  must	 match
       the test value.	When used in a <match target="font"> element, the tar‐
       get= attribute in the <test> element selects between matching the orig‐
       inal pattern or the font.  "default" selects whichever target the outer
       <match> element has selected.

   EDIT NAME= PROPERTY" MODE="ASSIGN" BINDING="WEAK""
       This element contains a list of expression elements (any of  the	 value
       or  operator  elements).	 The expression elements are evaluated at run-
       time and modify the property "property".	 The modification  depends  on
       whether	"property" was matched by one of the associated test elements,
       if so, the modification may affect the first matched value.  Any values
       inserted	 into  the property are given the indicated binding ("strong",
       "weak" or "same") with "same" binding using the value from the  matched
       pattern element.	 'mode' is one of:

	 Mode			 With Match		 Without Match
	 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
	 "assign"		 Replace matching value	 Replace all values
	 "assign_replace"	 Replace all values	 Replace all values
	 "prepend"		 Insert before matching	 Insert at head of list
	 "prepend_first"	 Insert at head of list	 Insert at head of list
	 "append"		 Append after matching	 Append at end of list
	 "append_last"		 Append at end of list	 Append at end of list

   INT, DOUBLE, STRING, BOOL
       These  elements	hold  a single value of the indicated type.  bool ele‐
       ments hold either true or false.	 An important limitation exists in the
       parsing	of floating point numbers -- fontconfig requires that the man‐
       tissa start with a digit, not a decimal point, so insert a leading zero
       for  purely  fractional	values	(e.g.  use  0.5 instead of .5 and -0.5
       instead of -.5).

   MATRIX
       This element holds the four double elements of  an  affine  transforma‐
       tion.

   NAME
       Holds  a property name.	Evaluates to the first value from the property
       of the font, not the pattern.

   CONST
       Holds the name of a constant; these are always integers	and  serve  as
       symbolic names for common font values:

	 Constant	 Property	 Value
	 -------------------------------------
	 thin		 weight		 0
	 extralight	 weight		 40
	 ultralight	 weight		 40
	 light		 weight		 50
	 book		 weight		 75
	 regular	 weight		 80
	 normal		 weight		 80
	 medium		 weight		 100
	 demibold	 weight		 180
	 semibold	 weight		 180
	 bold		 weight		 200
	 extrabold	 weight		 205
	 black		 weight		 210
	 heavy		 weight		 210
	 roman		 slant		 0
	 italic		 slant		 100
	 oblique	 slant		 110
	 ultracondensed	 width		 50
	 extracondensed	 width		 63
	 condensed	 width		 75
	 semicondensed	 width		 87
	 normal		 width		 100
	 semiexpanded	 width		 113
	 expanded	 width		 125
	 extraexpanded	 width		 150
	 ultraexpanded	 width		 200
	 proportional	 spacing	 0
	 dual		 spacing	 90
	 mono		 spacing	 100
	 charcell	 spacing	 110
	 unknown	 rgba		 0
	 rgb		 rgba		 1
	 bgr		 rgba		 2
	 vrgb		 rgba		 3
	 vbgr		 rgba		 4
	 none		 rgba		 5
	 hintnone	 hintstyle	 0
	 hintslight	 hintstyle	 1
	 hintmedium	 hintstyle	 2
	 hintfull	 hintstyle	 3

   OR, AND, PLUS, MINUS, TIMES, DIVIDE
       These  elements perform the specified operation on a list of expression
       elements.  or and and are boolean, not bitwise.

   EQ, NOT_EQ, LESS, LESS_EQ, MORE, MORE_EQ
       These elements compare two values, producing a boolean result.

   NOT
       Inverts the boolean sense of its one expression element

   IF
       This element takes three expression elements; if the value of the first
       is true, it produces the value of the second, otherwise it produces the
       value of the third.

   ALIAS
       Alias elements provide a shorthand notation for the set of common match
       operations needed to substitute one font family for another.  They con‐
       tain a family element followed by optional prefer, accept  and  default
       elements.   Fonts matching the family element are edited to prepend the
       list of prefered	 families  before  the	matching  family,  append  the
       acceptable  families  after  the matching family and append the default
       families to the end of the family list.

   FAMILY
       Holds a single font family name

   PREFER, ACCEPT, DEFAULT
       These hold a list of family elements to be used by the  alias  element.
       /article

EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION FILE
   SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FILE
       This is an example of a system-wide configuration file

       <?xml version="1.0"?>
       <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
       <!-- /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file to configure system font access -->
       <fontconfig>
       <!--
	    Find fonts in these directories
       -->
       <dir>/usr/share/fonts</dir>
       <dir>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</dir>

       <!--
	    Accept deprecated 'mono' alias, replacing it with 'monospace'
       -->
       <match target="pattern">
	    <test qual="any" name="family"><string>mono</string></test>
	    <edit name="family" mode="assign"><string>monospace</string></edit>
       </match>

       <!--
	    Names not including any well known alias are given 'sans'
       -->
       <match target="pattern">
	    <test qual="all" name="family" mode="not_eq">sans</test>
	    <test qual="all" name="family" mode="not_eq">serif</test>
	    <test qual="all" name="family" mode="not_eq">monospace</test>
	    <edit name="family" mode="append_last"><string>sans</string></edit>
       </match>

       <!--
	    Load per-user customization file, but don't complain
	    if it doesn't exist
       -->
       <include ignore_missing="yes">~/.fonts.conf</include>

       <!--
	    Load local customization files, but don't complain
	    if there aren't any
       -->
       <include ignore_missing="yes">conf.d</include>
       <include ignore_missing="yes">local.conf</include>

       <!--
	    Alias well known font names to available TrueType fonts.
	    These substitute TrueType faces for similar Type1
	    faces to improve screen appearance.
       -->
       <alias>
	    <family>Times</family>
	    <prefer><family>Times New Roman</family></prefer>
	    <default><family>serif</family></default>
       </alias>
       <alias>
	    <family>Helvetica</family>
	    <prefer><family>Arial</family></prefer>
	    <default><family>sans</family></default>
       </alias>
       <alias>
	    <family>Courier</family>
	    <prefer><family>Courier New</family></prefer>
	    <default><family>monospace</family></default>
       </alias>

       <!--
	    Provide required aliases for standard names
	    Do these after the users configuration file so that
	    any aliases there are used preferentially
       -->
       <alias>
	    <family>serif</family>
	    <prefer><family>Times New Roman</family></prefer>
       </alias>
       <alias>
	    <family>sans</family>
	    <prefer><family>Arial</family></prefer>
       </alias>
       <alias>
	    <family>monospace</family>
	    <prefer><family>Andale Mono</family></prefer>
       </alias>
       </fontconfig>

   USER CONFIGURATION FILE
       This  is	 an  example  of  a  per-user configuration file that lives in
       ~/.fonts.conf

       <?xml version="1.0"?>
       <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
       <!-- ~/.fonts.conf for per-user font configuration -->
       <fontconfig>

       <!--
	    Private font directory
       -->
       <dir>~/.fonts</dir>

       <!--
	    use rgb sub-pixel ordering to improve glyph appearance on
	    LCD screens.  Changes affecting rendering, but not matching
	    should always use target="font".
       -->
       <match target="font">
	    <edit name="rgba" mode="assign"><const>rgb</const></edit>
       </match>
       </fontconfig>

FILES
       fonts.conf  contains  configuration  information	 for  the   fontconfig
       library	consisting  of	directories to look at for font information as
       well as instructions on editing program specified font patterns	before
       attempting to match the available fonts.	 It is in xml format.

       conf.d  is the conventional name for a directory of additional configu‐
       ration files managed by external applications or the local  administra‐
       tor.   The filenames starting with decimal digits are sorted in lexico‐
       graphic order and used as additional configuration files.  All of these
       files  are  in  xml format.  The master fonts.conf file references this
       directory in an <include> directive.

       fonts.dtd is a DTD that	describes  the	format	of  the	 configuration
       files.

       ~/.fonts.conf is the conventional location for per-user font configura‐
       tion,  although	the  actual  location  is  specified  in  the	global
       fonts.conf file.

	~/.fonts.cache-*  is  the  conventional repository of font information
       that isn't found in the per-directory caches.  This file	 is  automati‐
       cally maintained by fontconfig.

SEE ALSO
       fc-cache(1), fc-match(1), fc-list(1)

VERSION
       Fontconfig version 2.4.1

			       15 September 2006		 FONTS-CONF(5)
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