[3019] | 1 | <HTML>
|
---|
| 2 | <HEAD>
|
---|
| 3 | <TITLE>
|
---|
| 4 | Installing the fonts in Netscape Navigator
|
---|
| 5 | </TITLE>
|
---|
| 6 | </HEAD>
|
---|
| 7 | <BODY>
|
---|
| 8 | <H2>
|
---|
| 9 | Installing the fonts in Netscape Navigator
|
---|
| 10 | </H2>
|
---|
| 11 |
|
---|
| 12 | <tt>
|
---|
| 13 | by Sergey Babkin
|
---|
| 14 | <babkin@bellatlantic.net>, <sab123@hotmail.com>
|
---|
| 15 | </tt>
|
---|
| 16 | <p>
|
---|
| 17 |
|
---|
| 18 | This is a collection of supplements to Netscape 4.x on
|
---|
| 19 | Unix. Probably they will also work with Netscape 3.x,
|
---|
| 20 | possilby with minor modifications.
|
---|
| 21 | <p>
|
---|
| 22 |
|
---|
| 23 | <h4><tt>
|
---|
| 24 | Makefile<br>
|
---|
| 25 | nsfix.c<br>
|
---|
| 26 | psfonts.cf
|
---|
| 27 | </tt></h4>
|
---|
| 28 | <p>
|
---|
| 29 |
|
---|
| 30 | This is a program that allows to substitute the font metrics
|
---|
| 31 | of any PostScript font in Netscape.
|
---|
| 32 | <p>
|
---|
| 33 |
|
---|
| 34 | When Netscape prints the files to PostScript format it uses a
|
---|
| 35 | built-in table of character widths. It prints all the fixed-width
|
---|
| 36 | characters in the typeface "Courier" and all the variable-width
|
---|
| 37 | characters in the typeface "Times". And if the PostScript printer
|
---|
| 38 | has these fonts by Adobe then everything goes fine because
|
---|
| 39 | the tables inside Netscape are generated from the Adobe fonts.
|
---|
| 40 | But if the fonts are different (say, those supplied with Ghostscripts
|
---|
| 41 | or the fonts with non-latin characters) then the result is quite
|
---|
| 42 | ugly. This program allows to replace the width tables inside
|
---|
| 43 | the Netscape executable with the tables for any given font.
|
---|
| 44 | The only problem is that Netscape can hold only one set of tables
|
---|
| 45 | at once. So if you want to print with different fonts (say,
|
---|
| 46 | for different languages or encodings) you will have to make
|
---|
| 47 | multiple copies of the executable, tune each of them for its
|
---|
| 48 | font and then run them separately.
|
---|
| 49 | <p>
|
---|
| 50 |
|
---|
| 51 | I tried to make the program as machine-independent as possible.
|
---|
| 52 | But because it patches the binary files it still has the dependencies
|
---|
| 53 | on hardware. The default version as supplied was designed for
|
---|
| 54 | Intel x86 machines but it should work OK on any machine
|
---|
| 55 | with 32-bit CPU and 4Kbyte (or less) page size. If it can't
|
---|
| 56 | find the tables matching the font names on some other architecture
|
---|
| 57 | the first thing to try would be reduce the `<tt>PAGEBITS</tt>' definition
|
---|
| 58 | in the source code. On the machines with non-page-aligned structure
|
---|
| 59 | of executables it won't work at all. I don't know whether would
|
---|
| 60 | it work on the 64-bit machines. This may depend on whether the
|
---|
| 61 | Netscape executable was compiled in 32-bit or 64-bit mode. For
|
---|
| 62 | the 64-bit executables it may be neccessary to change the definition
|
---|
| 63 | of the type `<tt>tptr</tt>' to an 8-byte integer type (probably `<tt>long</tt>'
|
---|
| 64 | or `<tt>long long</tt>'). Also must be re-compiled for patching of the
|
---|
| 65 | Netscape binary for each particular machine architecture because
|
---|
| 66 | it assumes the byte order of the current machine.
|
---|
| 67 | <p>
|
---|
| 68 |
|
---|
| 69 | It might be possible to create a program that would patch
|
---|
| 70 | a running Netscape binary on the fly, that would allow
|
---|
| 71 | changing the printing fonts as neccessary when Netscape is
|
---|
| 72 | running. But this would be even more platform-dependent,
|
---|
| 73 | so I don't feel any enthusiasm about doing that.
|
---|
| 74 | <p>
|
---|
| 75 |
|
---|
| 76 | I have tested the program on the Intel machines, Netscape
|
---|
| 77 | 4.08 and 4.7, OS FreeBSD (both a.out and ELF formats of the
|
---|
| 78 | Netscape binary) and UnixWare.
|
---|
| 79 | <p>
|
---|
| 80 |
|
---|
| 81 | After all these scary issues are resolved the compiling
|
---|
| 82 | is easy: just run `<tt>make</tt>'.
|
---|
| 83 | <p>
|
---|
| 84 |
|
---|
| 85 | To command to patch the Netscape is:
|
---|
| 86 | <p>
|
---|
| 87 | <tt>
|
---|
| 88 | ./nsfix <i><netscape-binary> <config-file></i>
|
---|
| 89 | </tt>
|
---|
| 90 | <p>
|
---|
| 91 |
|
---|
| 92 | Please make a copy of the original Netscape binary before
|
---|
| 93 | patching in case anything goes wrong. Patch the copy, test
|
---|
| 94 | that it works OK and only then install it. The configuration
|
---|
| 95 | file describes the fonts that are to be used. An example
|
---|
| 96 | is provided in the file psfonts.cf.
|
---|
| 97 | <p>
|
---|
| 98 |
|
---|
| 99 | Each line in the configuration file consists of 4
|
---|
| 100 | columns:
|
---|
| 101 | <p>
|
---|
| 102 |
|
---|
| 103 | <tt><i>
|
---|
| 104 | <PS_font_name> <font_base_file> <suffix_afm> <suffix_font>
|
---|
| 105 | </i></tt>
|
---|
| 106 | <p>
|
---|
| 107 |
|
---|
| 108 | For example, the following line from my configuration file:
|
---|
| 109 | <p>
|
---|
| 110 |
|
---|
| 111 | <tt>
|
---|
| 112 | Courier /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ttf/cokoi8n.koi8-r .afm .pfa
|
---|
| 113 | </tt>
|
---|
| 114 | <p>
|
---|
| 115 |
|
---|
| 116 | says that the font `Courier' will be replaced with the
|
---|
| 117 | font taken from the file `<tt>/usr/lib/X11/fonts/ttf/cokoi8n.koi8-r.pfa</tt>'
|
---|
| 118 | and the metrics for that font will be taken from the file
|
---|
| 119 | `<tt>/usr/lib/X11/fonts/ttf/cokoi8n.koi8-r.afm</tt>' .
|
---|
| 120 | <p>
|
---|
| 121 |
|
---|
| 122 | One more caveat: the new font must have a proper encoding
|
---|
| 123 | table. Some fonts contain characters for multiple encodings
|
---|
| 124 | hoping that the program wil re-encode them as neccessary.
|
---|
| 125 | This won't work in this case, only the primary encoding table
|
---|
| 126 | of the font will be used.
|
---|
| 127 | <p>
|
---|
| 128 |
|
---|
| 129 | <h4><tt>
|
---|
| 130 | nsfilter<br>
|
---|
| 131 | nsprint<br>
|
---|
| 132 | psfonts.cf
|
---|
| 133 | </tt></h4>
|
---|
| 134 | <p>
|
---|
| 135 |
|
---|
| 136 | These are the filters for printing from Netscape.
|
---|
| 137 | <p>
|
---|
| 138 |
|
---|
| 139 | Changing the metrics is not the end of the story. This will
|
---|
| 140 | provide proper placement of the characters but not the
|
---|
| 141 | characters themselves. There are a few ways to provide
|
---|
| 142 | the characters:
|
---|
| 143 | <p>
|
---|
| 144 |
|
---|
| 145 | First, if you use GhostScript you may configure proper
|
---|
| 146 | aliases in the GhostScript configuration file. We will
|
---|
| 147 | consider this variant trivial and won't discuss it furter
|
---|
| 148 | except for one caveat: Netscape tries to re-encode the
|
---|
| 149 | fonts per the ISO Latin-1 encoding. If the primary encoding
|
---|
| 150 | of the font is different this cause unexpected effects.
|
---|
| 151 | So you still may consider using the filters (at least in a
|
---|
| 152 | simplified form) to solve this problem.
|
---|
| 153 | <p>
|
---|
| 154 |
|
---|
| 155 | Second, load the fonts right into your printer. This is
|
---|
| 156 | very much like configuring GhostScript.
|
---|
| 157 | <p>
|
---|
| 158 |
|
---|
| 159 | Third, use the provided filters. The script `<tt>nsfilter</tt>'
|
---|
| 160 | reads the output of Netscape on its standard input and
|
---|
| 161 | puts the result to its standard output. It uses the same
|
---|
| 162 | configuration file `<tt>psfonts.cf</tt>' as `<tt>nsfix</tt>'. First it
|
---|
| 163 | looks for the configuration file in the user's home
|
---|
| 164 | directory (<tt>$HOME/.netscape/psfonts.cf</tt>) and if the
|
---|
| 165 | file it not there then the second guess is the system-wide
|
---|
| 166 | configuration file <tt>/usr/local/etc/psfonts.cf</tt>. The
|
---|
| 167 | script inserts the fonts into the output and also
|
---|
| 168 | removes the Netscape's experiments with the encodings.
|
---|
| 169 | <p>
|
---|
| 170 |
|
---|
| 171 | `<tt>nsfilter</tt>' is generally intended to be ran by user, not by the
|
---|
| 172 | printing subsystem. The reason is that the user may have
|
---|
| 173 | changed fonts in his Netscape and the printing subsystem
|
---|
| 174 | would have no way to access user's configuration file.
|
---|
| 175 | But if all the users are using the same fonts then it
|
---|
| 176 | may be incorporated into the printing subsystem and use
|
---|
| 177 | the system-wide configuration file.
|
---|
| 178 | <p>
|
---|
| 179 |
|
---|
| 180 | The script `<tt>nsprint</tt>' is purely for convenience, to type it
|
---|
| 181 | as a printing command in the Netscape printing window.
|
---|
| 182 | It just pipelines the data through `<tt>nsfilter</tt>' to the
|
---|
| 183 | printing program which also gets all the arguments. Please
|
---|
| 184 | note that the SystemV-style and BSD-style systems use different
|
---|
| 185 | printing programs (although they commonly provide compatibility
|
---|
| 186 | with the other style too). The script tries to guess the
|
---|
| 187 | type of system and use its native print program, `<tt>lp</tt>' or
|
---|
| 188 | `<tt>lpr</tt>'. But in case it guesses wrong you may want
|
---|
| 189 | to change this in the script. Also if the printer does not support
|
---|
| 190 | PostScript directly this script may be a good place to
|
---|
| 191 | insert a call to GhostScript.
|
---|
| 192 | <p>
|
---|
| 193 |
|
---|
| 194 | <h4><tt>
|
---|
| 195 | notscape<br>
|
---|
| 196 | fontsz.cf
|
---|
| 197 | </tt></h4>
|
---|
| 198 | <p>
|
---|
| 199 |
|
---|
| 200 | Netscape on Unix has a very annoying "feature", it does
|
---|
| 201 | not remember the desired base size of the scalable screen
|
---|
| 202 | fonts and always resets it to 12.0 points. Even if the size
|
---|
| 203 | is changed manually in its preferences file, Netscape
|
---|
| 204 | forgets it after it exits.
|
---|
| 205 | <p>
|
---|
| 206 |
|
---|
| 207 | So my solution was to write a program which would change
|
---|
| 208 | the size to my favorite one every time right before
|
---|
| 209 | starting Netscape. `<tt>notscape</tt>' is exactly such a program,
|
---|
| 210 | it sets the font sizes an then transparently executes
|
---|
| 211 | netscape. It takes the font sizes from the file
|
---|
| 212 | `<tt>$HOME/.netscape/fontsz.cf</tt>' . An example of such file
|
---|
| 213 | is provided. The format of the file is quite self-explanatory,
|
---|
| 214 | for example the lines
|
---|
| 215 | <p>
|
---|
| 216 |
|
---|
| 217 | <tt>
|
---|
| 218 | fixed-koi8-r 140<br>
|
---|
| 219 | prop-koi8-r 150
|
---|
| 220 | </tt>
|
---|
| 221 | <p>
|
---|
| 222 |
|
---|
| 223 | mean "set the size of the fixed-width screen font in the
|
---|
| 224 | encoding koi8-r to 14.0 points; set the size of the proportional
|
---|
| 225 | (variable-width) font in the encoding koi8-r to 15.0 points".
|
---|
| 226 | <p>
|
---|
| 227 |
|
---|
| 228 |
|
---|
| 229 | <h3><tt>
|
---|
| 230 | nspr
|
---|
| 231 | </tt><br>
|
---|
| 232 | by Zvezdan Petkovic</h3>
|
---|
| 233 | <p>
|
---|
| 234 |
|
---|
| 235 | To print from Netscape, I usually print to the Postscript file first.
|
---|
| 236 | Then I use this small script to change the names of Times and Courier fonts
|
---|
| 237 | in the file and remove `/Encoding' lines. After that the file can be
|
---|
| 238 | sent to printer.
|
---|
| 239 | <p>
|
---|
| 240 | </BODY>
|
---|
| 241 | </HTML>
|
---|
| 242 |
|
---|