Sample Usage

Here's a small sample:

>>> import xlibconf
>>> xlibconf.init(x11lib='/usr/lib/X11')
# I only want iso8859-1 fonts.
>>> xlibconf.setFontDefaults(registry='iso8859', encoding='1')
# give me bold italic arial.
>>> print xlibconf.getFont(family='arial',weight='bold',slant='i')
ImmutableSet([('-monotype-Arial-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1',
'/usr/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/Arialbi.TTF')])
>>> print xlibconf.getColor("red")
(255, 0, 0)
>>> print xlibconf.getColor("#eeddbb")
(238, 221, 187)

Simple API

xlibconf.init(x11lib='/usr/lib/X11', fontsdotdir='/path/to/ttf/fonts.dir', rgbdottxt='/path/to/rgb.txt')

load the databases. By default, it loads x11lib/rgb.txt for colors, and x11lib/fonts/TrueType/fonts.dir for fonts. Other locations known to work:

/usr/share/fonts/default/TrueType/fonts.dir
/usr/share/fonts/ja/TrueType/fonts.dir

xlibconf.loadFonts(fontsdotdir)

load a different fonts.dir file into the global font registry. This can be called multiple times with different fonts.dir files, it will merge them together.

xlibconf.loadColors(rgbdottxt)

load a different rgb.txt file into the global color registry

xlibconf.getColor(color)

return an RGB triple for the specified color, which is either a color name as in rgb.txt, #rrggbb, or #rgb (where r,g,b are hex digits).

xlibconf.getFont(key=value,...)

return a list of (fontname, fontfile) for fonts that match the specified keywords. See the later section on Font selectors for more. The fontname is a full -dash-seperated--fontname-

xlibconf.listFontAttribute(keyword, key=value,...)

return a list of valid values of 'keyword' for the given font spec. Can be used to see what values are valid. For instance:

>>> xlibconf.listFontAttribute('weight', family='arial')
Set(['medium', 'bold'])

xlibconf.PyGameFont(selectors)

returns a (wrapped) pygame.font.Font object matching the supplied selectors. You must also supply an additional keyword argument 'size'. This object supports all the usual font methods, plus one additional method: getFont(). This method takes one or more selectors and returns the current font, modified by the selectors. So, for instance:

>>> normal = xlibfont.PyGameFont(family='arial', weight='medium', slant='r', size=12)
>>> bold = normal.getFont(weight='bold')
>>> italic = normal.getFont(slant='i')
>>> bolditalic = normal.getFont(weight='bold', slant='i')

Note that fonts retrieved with PyGameFont.getFont() are likely to produce much higher quality output than using the font.set_bold()/set_italic() &c methods. See this font screenshot - it shows the difference between, say, arial-bold, and the arial font, with the 'set_bold()' method called.

For more examples of the API, read the source, or install the package and run:

pydoc xlibconf

Font selectors

Font selection keywords are lifted from the X Logical Font Description format, see either this XLFD info page or this XLFD PDF file for full details. The short and simple list that's supported by default are:

foundry

The font foundry, e.g. 'adobe', 'b&h'

family

The font family, e.g. 'arial', 'helvetica',

weight

The font weight, e.g. 'medium', 'bold', 'semibold'

slant

The posture of the font, e.g 'i' (italic), 'o' (oblique), 'r' (roman)

swidth

The width of the font, e.g 'normal', 'semicondensed', 'wide'

adstyle

Additional style name - e.g 'decorated', 'sans', ...

registry

The character set registry - e.g. 'iso8859', 'ascii'

encoding

The character set encoding - e.g. '1', '15',

The registry and encoding are normally specified together - e.g. 'registry="iso8859", encoding="1"' will give a Western European font.

Values for these keywords can either be a string, or a sequence of strings. If the latter, the resulting set contains all fonts that match any of the values in the sequence.

Since these are true-type fonts, the various size options are not supported.

Note that there's a lot of options, true, but you can set the common ones using the xlibconf.setFontDefaults(...) function.

Availability

Version 0.2 released 18th Feb, 2003

• added PyGameFont class.
• font lookup can now pass a sequence of strings as a value. Any that match are returned.

Feedback

Feedback to me at anthony@interlink.com.au

License

This code is released under a Python-style license, and is (c) 2003 Anthony Baxter and ekit.com, Inc.