XTerm font resource

[Dave Close]

Fedora 31
xterm-351-1.fc31.x86_64.rpm

If I open an xterm window and use the menu to select the "Small" 
font, I like the result. But I can't seem to find the proper
command options to get that result immediately, without the need
to use the menu. The font I find from "appres XTerm xterm | 
grep -i VT100.font3" is "6x10" but that is certainly not what
I see in the xterm window. Applying the result of "appres XTerm
xterm | grep -i VT100.utf8Fonts.font3" using the xterm option "-fa
'-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso10646-1'" gets
a smaller version of the font which appears when selecting "Small".
Adding the "-fs 9.0" option gets a font that appears to be identical
but isn't as crisp. Examining both with xmag shows that mine has a lot
of half-tones but the one that comes up with "Small" doesn't.

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here? What options can I use on a
command line to get the same font as selecting "Small" with the xterm
menu?

[Seth Kenlon]

I don't use xterm but I use rxvt and for that, I have to issue this command
to update my .Xdefaults settings (such as fonts, colours, and so on).

$ xrdb -merge .Xdefaults

It could be the same for xterm?

On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 2:51 PM Dave Close  wrote:
> Fedora 31
> xterm-351-1.fc31.x86_64.rpm
>
> If I open an xterm window and use the menu to select the "Small"
> font, I like the result. But I can't seem to find the proper
> command options to get that result immediately, without the need
> to use the menu. The font I find from "appres XTerm xterm |
> grep -i VT100.font3" is "6x10" but that is certainly not what
> I see in the xterm window. Applying the result of "appres XTerm
> xterm | grep -i VT100.utf8Fonts.font3" using the xterm option "-fa
> '-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso10646-1'" gets
> a smaller version of the font which appears when selecting "Small".
> Adding the "-fs 9.0" option gets a font that appears to be identical
> but isn't as crisp. Examining both with xmag shows that mine has a lot
> of half-tones but the one that comes up with "Small" doesn't.
>
> Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here? What options can I use on a
> command line to get the same font as selecting "Small" with the xterm
> menu?
> --
>         Dave Close
>
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct:

https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives:

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]

[Dave Close]

I wrote:
> Fedora 31
> xterm-351-1.fc31.x86_64.rpm
>
> If I open an xterm window and use the menu to select the "Small"
> font, I like the result. But I can't seem to find the proper
> command options to get that result immediately, without the need
> to use the menu. The font I find from "appres XTerm xterm |
> grep -i VT100.font3" is "6x10" but that is certainly not what
> I see in the xterm window. Applying the result of "appres XTerm
> xterm | grep -i VT100.utf8Fonts.font3" using the xterm option "-fa
> '-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso10646-1'" gets
> a smaller version of the font which appears when selecting "Small".
> Adding the "-fs 9.0" option gets a font that appears to be identical
> but isn't as crisp. Examining both with xmag shows that mine has a lot
> of half-tones but the one that comes up with "Small" doesn't.
>
> Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here? What options can I use on a
> command line to get the same font as selecting "Small" with the xterm
> menu?

Seth Kenlon answered:
> I don't use xterm but I use rxvt and for that, I have to issue this command
> to update my .Xdefaults settings (such as fonts, colours, and so on).
>
> $ xrdb -merge .Xdefaults
>
> It could be the same for xterm?

Thanks but I don't think that's the solution. I'm not trying to change
the default resources. I just want to discover the proper *command line*
options to get the same result I already get using CTRL-rightmouse.

[Andras Simon]

2020-02-27 7:01 GMT+01:00, Dave Close :
> > Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here? What options can I use on a
> > command line to get the same font as selecting "Small" with the xterm
> > menu?

Maybe this could help you locate the right font:

xfontsel - point and click selection of X11 font names

xfontsel is in the xorg-x11-apps package (at least on Fedora 30).

Andras

[Dave Close]

Andras Simon wrote:
> Maybe this could help you locate the right font:
>
> xfontsel - point and click selection of X11 font names
>
> xfontsel is in the xorg-x11-apps package (at least on Fedora 30).

I have the program. But I've already discovered the font which XTerm
claims to be using. Using appres I can see that it claims to be using
"-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso10646-1" and xfontsel
does show that font exists. But if I specify that font using the Xterm
"-fa" option, it doesn't render the same as selecting the "Small" font
using CTRL-rightmouse.

I can make rendering appear *almost* the same by adding the "-fs 9.0"
option to the command line. At first glance that seems identical but
examing with xmag shows a difference. Selecting "Small" gets a crisp
font but using "-fa" and "-fs" gets one with lots of half-tones.

It appears that XTerm must be getting its font in some non-standard way.
Any XTerm experts here?

[George N. White III]

On Thu, 27 Feb 2020 at 13:52, Dave Close  wrote:
> Andras Simon wrote:
> > Maybe this could help you locate the right font:
> >
> > xfontsel - point and click selection of X11 font names
> >
> > xfontsel is in the xorg-x11-apps package (at least on Fedora 30).
>
> I have the program. But I've already discovered the font which XTerm
> claims to be using. Using appres I can see that it claims to be using
> "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso10646-1" and xfontsel
> does show that font exists. But if I specify that font using the Xterm
> "-fa" option, it doesn't render the same as selecting the "Small" font
> using CTRL-rightmouse.
>
> I can make rendering appear *almost* the same by adding the "-fs 9.0"
> option to the command line. At first glance that seems identical but
> examing with xmag shows a difference. Selecting "Small" gets a crisp
> font but using "-fa" and "-fs" gets one with lots of half-tones.
>
> It appears that XTerm must be getting its font in some non-standard way.
> Any XTerm experts here?

No experts here.  I abandonded xterm for whatever my current distro calls
"terminal", in part due to the sort of font issues you encountered. I mostly
do my work in emacs shell buffers.

My guess is that the rendering differences you observe are the difference
between fontconfig and legacy X11 font support.   Fedora 31 xterm links
to fontconfig.

xterm -report-fonts lists both "XftFonts" wirh fontconfig style names and
"VTFonts" with legacy X11 style names.   If you look at e.g.,
/etc/fonts/conf.d/57-dejavu-sans-mono.conf you will see a comment:

<!-- /etc/fonts/conf.d/57-dejavu-sans-mono.conf

Define aliasing and other fontconfig settings for
     DejaVu Sans Mono.

© 2006-2008 Nicolas Mailhot <nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net>
-->

In the past, these files often needed tweaks to get things to look right
for a
a particular resolution, but these days I find the defaults are generally
good
enough.