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HOWTO: Ubuntu, ProFont, Emacs

Submitted by Duncan Bayne on Mon, 2008-03-31 13:26

Here's how to install ProFont on Ubuntu, and change it to be the default font in Emacs. This should work on all flavours of Ubuntu, but I've only tested it on Xubuntu 8.04 and Ubuntu 8.10.

  1. Download profont-x11.tar.gz from here and save it in your home directory.
  2. From your home directory, run the following shell commands:
    tar -zxvf profont-x11.tar.gz
    cd profont-x11
    gzip *
    sudo cp *.gz /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc
    cd /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc
    sudo mkfontdir .
  3. Log out and then restart the X server with Ctrl + Alt + Backspace.
  4. Log in and run Emacs.
  5. Choose Options -> Customize Emacs -> Browse Customization Groups.
  6. Expand Emacs -> Faces -> Basic Faces.
  7. Click the Face link to the left of Default.
  8. Scroll down in the second buffer until you see Font Family, and enter nil-profont in the text field.
  9. In the height field, enter 89.
  10. C-x C-s to save, and your font should immediately change to 9 point ProFont.
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Thanks!

Submitted by Duncan Bayne on Mon, 2008-11-10 22:52.

Thanks - I've corrected the typo.

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Minor Typo, Major Difference !

Submitted by kanat on Mon, 2008-11-10 14:04.

Font Family is profont or nil-profont; not "profont-nil". Using profont-nil causes emacs' default font family to be used instead; just compare the W; ProFont has the side walls of W vertical rather than slanted (see it with xfontsel). On my Ubuntu, default emacs font has slanted walls on W (as do most non-profont fonts).

Using "profont-nil" selects a font that you could also pick with a shift-click on an emacs frame/window. This is not ProFont.

For ProFont, height=90 and height=89 are the same, and they use ptSz 120 (x 72/100 = 8.64 pixels high), a small-yet-readable font size with pattern and matching font:

-*-profont-*-*-*-*-*-120-*-72-*-*-*-*

-nil-profont-medium-r-normal--12-120-72-72-c-60-iso8859-1

or you can use height=80 for the tiny-bit-shorter-but-just-as-wide ptSz=110 profont that is just as readable (110 * 72/100 = 7.92 pixels high):

-nil-profont-medium-r-normal--11-110-72-72-c-60-iso8859-1

I'm just learning about these X font name fields.

.Kanat.

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