Writing Programs That Need to Use Fonts

Writing Programs That Need to Use Fonts

You can write different types of programs for Silicon Graphics computers, for example, X, Display PostScript (DPS), IRIS GL, OpenGL®, and mixed-model programs. Some of your programs need fonts.

How a program accesses font files depends on the program type:

X programs access fonts by calling X font functions, such as XListFonts() and XLoadFont().
DPS programs access fonts by calling X and DPS functions, or by using PostScript.
IRIS GL and IRIS GL/X mixed-model programs usually access fonts by calling font management (fm) functions from the IRIS GL Font Manager library (fmenumerate() and fmfindfont(), for example).

Most fonts are installed when you install the X Window System (X11 Execution Environment). Some fonts are installed with other software components, such as DPS and IRIS Showcase(TM). Some bitmap fonts are installed when you install a language module, such as the Japanese Language Module (JLM). Some outline fonts are installed when you install a font module, such as the Japanese Font Module (JFM). However, most fonts are shared by the X Window System, DPS (which is an extension of the X Window System), IRIS GL Font Manager, Impressario(TM), and other software components.

To maintain compatibility and portability, it is best not to access font files directly from an application program because font formats, font names, font contents, and the location of font directories may change. Your program should use the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) specified for the X Window System, DPS, and IRIS GL Font Manager, or call even higher level functions for the 2D and 3D text available from toolkits such as IRIS Inventor(TM) and IRIS Performer(TM).