Enable Bitmap Fonts on Ubuntu Jaunty

I like to use tiny bitmap fonts like MonteCarlo for programming, but by default Ubuntu has bitmap font support turned off.  From (at least) Gutsy through to Intrepid, this method worked for enabling bitmap font support, but after installing the Jaunty beta I found this no longer works.

Luckily, after a brief look in /etc/fonts, I found that font configuration now follows the nice pattern of a conf.avail directory containing all the available configuration parts, and conf.d containing symlinks to these parts.  This makes enabling bitmap fonts even simpler now:

# "Un-disable" bitmap fonts
$ sudo rm /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf
# Clear the font cache
$ sudo fc-cache -f -v

Now you should be able to drop bitmap (i.e. PCF) fonts into ~/.fonts as you would with TTF fonts and be able to use them with no extra hassle.

8 Responses to “Enable Bitmap Fonts on Ubuntu Jaunty”

  1. Mikee says:

    Thank you, this worked perfectly! :)

  2. Thomas Mittelstaedt says:

    Thanks, man. I started to get nervous at this upgrade from intrepid to jaunty!!

  3. Brad says:

    THANK YOU! I can get my MiscFixed back in Jaunty now! ^_^ My terminal felt so strange without it…

  4. Happy says:

    Works perfect on Ubuntu 9.04, thank you very much!!! You’re great! I was looking for this for hours…

  5. brandon says:

    Much thanks!! I can’t breathe without my Dina bitmap font…

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  7. falen says:

    Man…I still can’t believe how easy it was. I spent hours yesterday looking for a solution on how to install that damn fonts and all it took was removing one file. Your solution puts all those so called HOW TOs to shame. Cheers, buddy.

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