slap/HOWTO/morefonts
====================
Edition 1.1, 09feb2001 by MJS


The slap distribution includes a few bitmapped fonts, in a custom
file-format.

A common question is how to use *other* fonts with slap. This document
describes when you can do it, what you need, and how to do it.


Fonts from an X Font Server
---------------------------

slap comes with tools to generate bitmapped versions of *scalable* fonts
served up by an X Font Server.

You will need a working copy of the X Window System (release X11R6 or later)
either on the machine where you build slap, or another machine reachable over
the network. You will also need the X Font Server to be configured to serve
up the font you desire, see your system manpages for "xfs" or "fs".

Most X Font Servers can be configured to use scalable PostScript fonts;
a few can also handle scalable TrueType fonts. If the font you want to use
is not included with your X Font Server, you will need to get a version of
it in a format that your X Font Server can handle, usually PostScript.

NOTE: you should avoid the X11R5 font-server, as it does not handle
"rectangular" resolutions such as 160x98 dpi.

REMINDER: the results of converting *non-scalable* fonts this way will be
utterly horrible.


The procedure is as follows:

(1) Build the "makefont" program that comes with slap:

        make sdk

(2) use the standard X "showfont" program to extract an ASCII-format
    bitmap of the font at the right resolution from the font-server. 
    The "generate" script in the "fonts" subdirectory of the slap
    distribution is the one I use to generate the standard fonts, and is
    well worth a look.

         showfont -fn "-acme-barcode39-*-*-*--0-120-203-203-*" >foo.pro
         showfont -fn "-acme-barcode39-*-*-*--0-120-160-98-*" >foo.plus

         # -120- gives a 12-point font, change as needed. Or even generate
         # font files for several point-sizes. Do not change the other numbers,
	 # they are the (two) inherent resolutions of the SLP printers.

(3) Feed the ASCII bitmap font into the "makefont" program (the second
    argument to makefont is the name of the output file):

         makefont foo.pro acme-12.pro
         makefont foo.plus acme-12.plus

(4) Install the created binary bitmap font file alongside the standard
    slap fonts.

         mv acme-12.* /usr/local/lib/slapfonts   # or whatever


Well done! You are now ready to print with your new font, eg:

        slap -o /dev/ttyS1 -m std -p pro -f acme-12 < the_input_file

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