problem with auto-preview/use of new font settings in control-center

[Simos Xenitellis]

Dear All,
	I would like to thank
		Fatih Demir <kabalak at gtranslator.org> and
		Emese Kovacs <emese at sunserv.itp.hu>
	for their responses.

	The following act as a workaround to the affected languages.
Please will still not be able to change the basic font from the
control-panel "dynamically". Changing it from /etc/gtk/gtkrc.LL causes all
newly run applications to adopt the new font.

	The problem appears to be triggered by the /etc/gtk/gtkrc.LL
files that are provided by the default installation of
gtk+-1.2.10-ximian.10 or the most recent gtk+ distribution. Around a year
ago, there was no such problem with the default installation.
It is typical for languages not served by iso-8859-1 not to have their own
encoding for font families like
	-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-X
However, by manually selecting specific suitable fonts, fonts can be
changed.
For the Greek language, one can use the following /etc/gtk/gtkrc.el file:
==== /etc/gtk/gtkrc.el ====
style "gtk-default-el" {
       fontset = "-greek-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1,\
		  -grinet-greekarial-medium-r-normal-*-13-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1,\
		  -greek-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-7,\
		  -grinet-greekarial-medium-r-normal-*-13-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-7,*-r-*"
}
class "GtkWidget" style "gtk-default-el"
===========================

Similarly, suitable fonts should be able to be selected for other
languages.

To find a suitable font, you can run "gfontsel" and choose two types of
fonts that have both iso8859-1 and iso8859-X encodings. (I am not sure
whether this is compulsory, I just follow the format of the existing
file). When you click "Apply", the full font description appears on the
top text box; you copy it to /etc/gtk/gtkrc.LL

By running a new application, you can manually preview the new settings.

I am also filing a bugzilla report.

Thanks,
Simos Xenitellis

On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Simos Xenitellis wrote:

>
> Short description: The Control Center allows to change the font used in
> GNOME applications. This does not work in specific locales like
> el_GR, ru_RU, tr_TR. However, it works with C, es_ES, fr_FR, it_IT, zh_TW
> and so on.
>
> I am using the latest GNOME environment by Red Carpet.
>
> To verify which locales are problematic
>
> 	% setenv LANG C
> 	% setenv LC_CTYPE el_GR
> 		(we use LANG=C and LC_CTYPE=el_GR because if all were
> 		el_GR, you would be confronted with Greek fonts.
> 		If you are brave enough, "setenv LANG el_GR". Same result.
> 	% gnomecc   	(GNOME Control Center)
> 	From here choose
> 		Desktop/Theme Selector/User Font
> 		Activate: Use custom font.
> 		Activate: Auto Preview
> 		Choose another font, for example arial with font size
> 		18.
>
> 		As you will see, the preview window does not show the
> 		newly selected font.
>
> 		Ctrl-Q to exit.
> 	% setenv LC_CTYPE C
> 	% gnomecc
>
> 		Try as above, it works ok.
>
>
> 	To sum up, I found that
> 		el_GR
> 		tr_TR
> 		ru_RU
>
> 		are problematic
>
> 	while
> 		C
> 		es_ES
> 		zh_TW
> 		it_IT
> 		fr_FR
>
> 		are ok.
>
> 	I did not try more locale variables.
>
> I would like some initial comments before submitting a bug report to
> bugzilla.gnome.org.