This chapter describes how to set up face mappings for screen and PostScript fonts via preferences (see Preferences). The font-configuration system is overkill; it was designed to handle especially complex X font mappings (before fontconfig/Xft solved the problem).
An implementor for a MrEd-based program may find it easier to use the
set-screen-name and
set-post-script-name methods
provided by the-font-name-directory. As a user of a
MrEd-based program, preferences provide a mechanism for setting
default mappings.
Whether a programmer or a user, see font-name-directory<%> for
an overview of the font mapping system.
To find a font name for a family, MrEd looks for a preference name by
concatenating "MrEd:", a dest string, a type
string, a weight string, and a style string where
dest is either "Screen" or "PostScript".
type is either "Default", "Decorative", "Roman", "Script",
"Swiss", "Modern", "System", or "Symbol" for a mapping
defining the default font for a family. Otherwise, it is a
face name prefixed with "@".
weight is either "Medium", "Bold", or "Light".
style is either "Straight", "Italic", or "Slant".
Furthermore, any of the latter three parts can be wildcarded with
"_", as described below. The concatenated string is converted
to a symbol (preserving case), and the associated preference value
must be a string.
The value of the preference is parsed as described in
font-name-directory<%> for parsing face names, except that
the string can contain references and other tricks described below.
Building items names by concatenating dest, type,
weight, and style can create a large number of preference
entires, and the weight and style parts are useful only
for X screen fonts. To avoid an explosion of preferences, MrEd finds
preferences via a wildcarding search.
The type, weight, and style parts of a preference name
can be wildcarded by using "_". Thus, to set the default font
in X for all types, weights, and styles, use the following preference
entry:
(|MrEd:Screen___| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
Wildcarded preference entires are used only when un-wildcarded values cannot be found. If two preference names both match for some search, then the one with the ``earliest'' (i.e., closest to the beginning of the preference name) non-wildcarded part will prevail.
The default MrEd preferences for Windows uses wildcarding to specify the basic font mapping, as if written as:
(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "MS Sans Serif") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times New Roman") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Modern") ...
Wildcarding in the preference name naturally leads to references, parameterizations, and wildcarding references in the preference value. These features are described in the following few sections.
Suppose we define the mapping for variants of "Default", and
then we want "Roman" to use this setting, too. We could copy
the preference entry, as in the following example:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
but the MrEd font-reading system provides a better syntax for
referencing another preference entry. When a preference value contains
"${x}", then the "${x}" fragment is replaced by the
preference value of "x". Thus, the above can be re-written:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault__}")
A mini-language of "${x}" is used within the string (instead
of an S-expression format) for historical reasons.
Parameterization can be used with referencing to parameterize default
values based on the weight and style that is needed. When a preference
value contains "$[weight]", then "$[weight]" is
replaced with a string for the desired font weight. Similarly,
"$[style]" is replaced with the desired style. Parameterizing
expressions can be embedded within referencing expressions, as in the
following example:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-${Def$[weight]}-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:DefMedium| "medium") (|MrEd:DefBold| "bold") (|MrEd:DefLight| "medium")
Now, when the '|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| preference is used for different
weights, it will return different values; the
"${Def$[weight]}" expression will turn into
"${DefMedium}" for a medium-weight lookup, or
"${DefBold}" for a bold-weight lookup. These references
will in turn give either "medium" or "bold".
Consider the following preference configuration:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBold_| "+-*-*-bold-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault__}")
The effect of this statement is probably not what was intended; when a
bold version of the "Roman" font is needed, the
'|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| preference references the
'|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| preference, which does not specify a bold font. We
could try to remedy the situation as follows:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBold_| "+-*-*-bold-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault$[weight]_}")
but this does not work either. It works fine for bold "Roman",
now, but medium "Roman" will cause a reference to the
'|MrEd:ScreenDefaultMedium_| preference, which doesn't exist. The problem is
that our reference does not use wildcarding like the original medium
"Roman" lookup did.
Wildcarding can be specified in a reference by separating each wildcardable field with a comma. The following preference specification does what we want:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBold_| "+-*-*-bold-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault,$[weight],_}")
Since "$[weight]" is between commas, it can be wildcarded if
no name exactly matching "SchemeDefault$[weight]_" is
found. In this case "SchemeDefault" and "_" can also be
wildcarded, but this will have no effect.
The wildcarding used in references need not reflect the wildcarding MrEd initial uses for finding fonts. In other words, an number of comma-separated selects can appear between the curly braces.
The initial font setup is built into MrEd through a built-in preference table. The table is shown at the end of this section. When font information is computed, it is almost as if this table were installed into your preferences file; the difference is that preference specifications in your file override specifications in the built-in table, even when the wildcarding of your preference provides a weaker match.
When no information is available for mapping a face name to a font,
MrEd falls back to the system described in
font-name-directory<%>. (Since a mapping is built into MrEd
for every family, information is always available for the default
font of a family.)
Internal preferences for all platforms:
(|MrEd:PostScriptMediumStraight| "") (|MrEd:PostScriptMediumItalic| "-Oblique") (|MrEd:PostScriptMediumSlant| "-Oblique") (|MrEd:PostScriptLightStraight| "") (|MrEd:PostScriptLightItalic| "-Oblique") (|MrEd:PostScriptLightSlant| "-Oblique") (|MrEd:PostScriptBoldStraight| "-Bold") (|MrEd:PostScriptBoldItalic| "-BoldOblique") (|MrEd:PostScriptBoldSlant| "-BoldOblique") (|MrEd:PostScript___| "${PostScript$[family],$[weight],$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptSystem__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptDefault__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptRoman__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptDecorative__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptScript__| "ZapfChancery-MediumItalic") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimesMedium| "") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimesLight| "") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimesBold| "Bold") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimes__| "Times${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimesMediumStraight| "Times-Roman") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimesLightStraight| "Times-Roman") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimes_Slant| "Times-${PostScriptTimes$[weight]}Italic") (|MrEd:PostScriptTimes_Italic| "Times-${PostScriptTimes$[weight]}Italic") (|MrEd:PostScriptSwiss__| "Helvetica${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptModern__| "Courier${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}") (|MrEd:PostScriptSymbol__| "Symbol")
Internal preferences for X with fontconfig/Xft/RENDER only:
(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| " Sans") (|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| " Sans") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| " Serif") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| " Nimbus Sans L") (|MrEd:ScreenModern__| " Monospace") (|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| " Nimbus Sans L") (|MrEd:ScreenScript__| " URW Chancery L") (|MrEd:ScreenSymbolBase| " Standard Symbols L,Nimbus Sans L")
Internal preferences for X only (except those overridden for fontconfig/Xft/RENDER):
(|MrEd:ScreenMedium| "medium") (|MrEd:ScreenBold| "bold") (|MrEd:ScreenLight| "light") (|MrEd:ScreenStraight| "r") (|MrEd:ScreenItalic| "i") (|MrEd:ScreenSlant| "o") (|MrEd:ScreenSystemBase| "*-lucida") (|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBase| "*-lucida") (|MrEd:ScreenRomanBase| "*-times") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorativeBase| "*-helvetica") (|MrEd:ScreenModernBase| "*-courier") (|MrEd:ScreenSwissBase| "*-lucida") (|MrEd:ScreenScriptBase| "*-zapfchancery") (|MrEd:ScreenSymbolBase| "*-symbol") (|MrEd:ScreenStdSuffix| "-${Screen$[weight]}-${Screen$[style]}-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*") (|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "+-${ScreenSystemBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-${ScreenDefaultBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "+-${ScreenRomanBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "+-${ScreenDecorativeBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "+-${ScreenModernBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "+-${ScreenSwissBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "+-${ScreenScriptBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}") (|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "+-${ScreenSymbolBase}-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
Internal preferences for Windows only:
(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "MS Sans Serif") (|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "MS Sans Serif") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times New Roman") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Arial") (|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "Courier New") (|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "Arial") (|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "Arial") (|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "Symbol")
Internal preferences for Mac OS Classic only:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "applicationfont") (|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "systemfont") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Geneva") (|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "Monaco") (|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "Helvetica") (|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "Zaph Chancery") (|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "Symbol")
Internal preferences for Mac OS X only:
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "Lucida Grande") (|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "Lucida Grande") (|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times") (|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Arial") (|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "Courier New") (|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "Helvetica") (|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "Apple Chancery") (|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "Symbol")