Re: missing font with jdk1.2.2

[Jeff Stern <jstern eclectic ss uci edu>]

Dear Hugo, Redhat, Sun, and Blackdown:

I found a kludge to the missing zapf/dingbats font problem with Java
1.2.2 and Redhat
Linux 6.2 (and probably other Linuxes):

NOTE to Redhat/Sun/Blackdown: Would you all be so kind as to please
include this solution (or a
better one) in your FAQ's (I see this question posted everywhere and it
does appear to be wasting peoples' time.) Also, it would be nice if you
could please work together with each other on a font-naming convention,
which is the *real* solution to this problem.

The problem (as far as I can tell) is a disagreement between the various
vendors Sun, Redhat (what I'm using), and other Linux's etc. over the
Adobe / URW font-naming conventions. I'm sure there's a history to it,
of which I am ignorant. Something about "original font names"..

The problem is not getting the fonts. You can get the URW/Adobe fonts
from either Redhat's urw-fonts-2.0-4 rpm, or from the Gimp Resources
Fonts page (http://www.gimp.org/fonts.html).

Each of these packages includes the URW/Adobe fonts and an associated
fonts.dir file. The required font is apparently "d050000l.pfb". 

Redhat's fonts.dir file refers to it this way:

  d050000l.pfb
-URW-Dingbats-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-urw-fontspecific

while the Gimp Resources/Fonts dist. fonts.dir file refers to it this
way:

  d050000l.pfb -Adobe-Zapf
Dingbats-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-adobe-fontspecific

Now, as the error you are getting from your Java Swing program will most
likely look more like this..

  Font specified in font.properties not found \
  [--zapf dingbats-medium-r-normal--*-%d-*-*-p-*-adobe-fontspecific]

..you can see how the JRE will never find this font using EITHER
package. To wit, a naming standards problem.

Until then, kludge through it this way:

Assuming you've installed your URW fonts one way or the other and that,
if you are not using Redhat, you have modified your XF86Config
appropriately, as detailed on the Gimp Resources/Fonts page mentioned
above:

1) Back up your fonts.dir and fonts.scale files. Then,

2) Change the appropriate line in the fonts.dir file to read:

  d050000l.pfb --zapf
dingbats-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-adobe-fontspecific

3) Copy your fonts.dir file to fonts.scale, as well.

3) Restart your xfs font server. If using redhat, it's:

   /etc/rc.d/init/xfs restart

4) You may need to restart X, too ( I don't know, I'm not a guru :)

I hope this helps anyone who's dealing with this problem until the
powers-that-be come together for a solution.

Jeff Stern <jstern eclectic ss uci edu>