I noticed, when editing a a .odt file created on my desktop machine
(running 12.3), that my laptop (running 11.4) did not display some cells
correctly. It turns out that the Arial Narrow font is missing in this
laptop.
I ran again the fetchmsttfonts script, to no avail.
So the question is whether this is normal, you people also have the
Arial Narrow Windows fonts missing or it is only me.
I have copied the fonts from the Windows side, run SuSEconfig, and now I
have Arial Narrow in LibreOffice. But maybe this font does not have the
same license as the other Arial fonts :-?
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 2013-10-09 10:26, tannington wrote:
>
> These are the arial fonts I have installed:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial.ttf
> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial_Bold.ttf
> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial_Italic.ttf
> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial_Bold_Italic.ttf
> --------------------
>
>
> Named differently and in another location, but the same four fonts you
> had listed.
Yes… Arial Narrow is not there, too. So it must be out of the
permissive agreement that allows people to freely copy them.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 2013-10-09, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Yes… Arial Narrow is not there, too. So it must be out of the
> permissive agreement that allows people to freely copy them.
This of course in no way answers your question :).
I say boycott Arial. Its popularity is only a result of Microsoft’s desire to avoid paying license fees for Helvetica.
There’s nothing wrong with basing one font on another; for example Helvetica is based on Grotesk. I do however find it
reprehensible to rip-off of fonts purely for licensing rather than artistic reasons.
On 2013-10-09 12:04, flymail wrote:
> On 2013-10-09, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>> Yes… Arial Narrow is not there, too. So it must be out of the
>> permissive agreement that allows people to freely copy them.
>
> This of course in no way answers your question :).
>
> I say boycott Arial. Its popularity is only a result of Microsoft’s desire to avoid paying license fees for Helvetica.
> There’s nothing wrong with basing one font on another; for example Helvetica is based on Grotesk. I do however find it
> reprehensible to rip-off of fonts purely for licensing rather than artistic reasons.
Actually, I agree.
But it happens that the arial narrow font is useful for spreadsheets, to
keep the cells smaller, so that I can view more cells without shifting
left-right all the time. I did try other narrow fonts, but this seemed
best. If you know a freely available equivalent to it, I’ll try.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
> But it happens that the arial narrow font is useful for spreadsheets, to
> keep the cells smaller, so that I can view more cells without shifting
> left-right all the time. I did try other narrow fonts, but this seemed
> best. If you know a freely available equivalent to it, I’ll try.
I believe the `free’ version of Arial is called Liberation Sans. Since the free version is designed to be metrically
identical, there should be a Liberation Sans Narrow font if there’s one for Arial.
On 2013-10-09 12:40, flymail wrote:
> On 2013-10-09, Carlos E. R. <> wrote:
>> best. If you know a freely available equivalent to it, I’ll try.
>
> I believe the `free’ version of Arial is called Liberation Sans. Since the free version is designed to be metrically
> identical, there should be a Liberation Sans Narrow font if there’s one for Arial.
Thanks. The problem for many people like me is knowing the equivalents.
Yes, I wrote two lines in LO write and they are terribly similar.
However, in LO calc, the zero is different. Sizes are the same, anyhow.
I’ll switch my entire calc sheet to Liberation Sans later.
Another issue why people may want to keep using Arial is sharing the
files with Windows users. It is probably easier for us to have Arial
installed, than it is for them to have the free equivalent.
On the other hand, when I write a document to be emailed as PDF, I try
to use the native postscript fonts - which I always forget which they
are. These fonts are native to all PDF viewers; different fonts have to
be included in the PDF file making them larger.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
Courier
Courier Bold
Courier Bold Italic
Courier Italic
Helvetica
Helvetica Bold
Helvetica Bold Italic
Helvetica Italic
Symbol
Times New Roman
Times New Roman Bold
Times New Roman Bold Italic
Times New Roman Italic
Zapf Dingbats
>
> The PDF Core fonts are:
>
> Courier
> Courier Bold
> Courier Bold Italic
> Courier Italic
> Helvetica
> Helvetica Bold
> Helvetica Bold Italic
> Helvetica Italic
> Symbol
> Times New Roman
> Times New Roman Bold
> Times New Roman Bold Italic
> Times New Roman Italic
> Zapf Dingbats
Those, thanks.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 2013-10-09, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> On 2013-10-09 20:06, tannington wrote:
>
>>
>> The PDF Core fonts are:
>>
>> Courier
>> Courier Bold
>> Courier Bold Italic
>> Courier Italic
>> Helvetica
>> Helvetica Bold
>> Helvetica Bold Italic
>> Helvetica Italic
>> Symbol
>> Times New Roman
>> Times New Roman Bold
>> Times New Roman Bold Italic
>> Times New Roman Italic
>> Zapf Dingbats
>
> Those, thanks.
From those fonts, I don’t see a potential alternative for Arial Narrow. It’s at least reassuring to see Helvetica
included in the list :). However instead of Times New Roman, I’d prefer CM Roman :D.
On 2013-10-10 10:45, flymail wrote:
> On 2013-10-09, Carlos E. R. <> wrote:
>> On 2013-10-09 20:06, tannington wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> The PDF Core fonts are:
> From those fonts, I don’t see a potential alternative for Arial Narrow. It’s at least reassuring to see Helvetica
> included in the list :). However instead of Times New Roman, I’d prefer CM Roman :D.
No, you miss the point, it is not a question of preferences.
If you create a document with just the text “hello” in Helvetica, it
will have a certain size, and much bigger with CM Roman.
Quick test:
With Courier, hello.pdf has 1394 bytes.
With Courier new it has 10221 bytes.
The difference is that Courier New has to be embedded in the pdf,
whereas Courier hasn’t: it is used the font of the target machine (in
the viewer). See in adobe reader the properties/fonts tab. There is a
CLI command to see it as well.
(I have not tried with helvetica, because for some unknown reason, my
libreoffice does not have it).
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))
On 2013-10-10, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> On 2013-10-10 17:51, john hudson wrote:
>>
>> Another genuinely free alternative to Arial Narrow is TeXGyreHerosCn.
>
> What a weird name…
The TeXGyre range of fonts can be useful when trying to convert a LaTeX document to an ODT file (e.g. via htlatex). For
instance, I believe the closest to CM Roman is TeXGyreSchola. Technically the Heros family is supposed to replace
emulate TeX’s Helvetica, but I haven’t had much experience with this range.
I’ve used a number of the Tex Gyre collection with LibreOffice Writer and Impress and also in Inkscape. The Times Roman alternative (Termes) looks the most different because it has book style spacing rather than the column style spacing of Times Roman (which was after all designed for a columnar format!). So I wouldn’t recommend it as a direct replacement for Times Roman but the others work well as replacements. Heros looks very good in the banner of a web PDF journal.
