xfontsel(X)                     19 June 1992                     xfontsel(X)


 Name

    xfontsel - point and click interface for selecting X11 font names

 Syntax

    xfontsel [-toolkitoption...]  [-pattern fontname] [-print] [-sample text]

 Description

    The xfontsel application provides a simple way to display the fonts known
    to your X server, examine samples of each, and retrieve the X Logical
    Font Description (XLFD) full name for a font.

    If -pattern is not specified, all fonts with XLFD 14-part names will be
    selectable.  To work with only a subset of the fonts, specify -pattern
    followed by a partially or fully qualified font name; for example, -
    pattern *medium* will select that subset of fonts which contain the
    string ``medium'' somewhere in their font name.  Be careful about escap-
    ing wildcard characters in your shell.

    If -print is specified on the command line the selected font specifier
    will be written to standard output when the quit button is activated.
    Regardless of whether or not -print was specified, the font specifier may
    be made the PRIMARY (text) selection by activating the select button.

    The -sample option specifies the sample text to be used to display the
    selected font, overriding the default.

 Interactions

    Clicking any pointer button in one of the XLFD field names will pop up a
    menu of the currently-known possibilities for that field.  If previous
    choices of other fields were made, only values for fonts which matched
    the previously selected fields will be selectable; to make other values
    selectable, you must deselect some other field(s) by choosing the ``*''
    entry in that field.  Unselectable values may be omitted from the menu
    entirely as a configuration option; see the ShowUnselectable resource,
    below.  Whenever any change is made to a field value, xfontsel will
    assert ownership of the PRIMARYFONT selection.  Other applications (see,
    for example, xterm) may then retrieve the selected font specification.

    Clicking the left pointer button in the select widget will cause the
    currently selected font name to become the PRIMARY text selection as well
    as the PRIMARYFONT selection.  This then allows you to paste the string
    into other applications.  The select button remains highlighted to remind
    you of this fact, and de-highlights when some other application takes the
    PRIMARY selection away.  The select widget is a toggle; pressing it when
    it is highlighted will cause xfontsel to release the selection ownership
    and de-highlight the widget.  Activating the select widget twice is the
    only way to cause xfontsel to release the PRIMARYFONT selection.

 Resources

    The application class is XFontSel.  Most of the user-interface is config-
    ured in the app-defaults file; if this file is missing a warning message
    will be printed to standard output and the resulting window will be
    nearly incomprehensible.

    Most of the significant parts of the widget hierarchy are documented in
    the app-defaults file (normally /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XFontSel).

    Application specific resources:

    cursor class (Cursor)
         Specifies the cursor for the application window.

    pattern class (Pattern)
         Specifies the font name pattern for selecting a subset of available
         fonts.  Equivalent to the -pattern option.  Most useful patterns
         will contain at least one field delimiter; for example, ``*-m-*''
         for monospaced fonts.

    printOnQuit class (PrintOnQuit)
         If ``True'' the currently selected font name is printed to standard
         output when the quit button is activated.  Equivalent to the -print
         option.

    Widget specific resources:


    showUnselectable (class ShowUnselectable)
         Specifies, for each field menu, whether or not to show values that
         are not currently selectable, based upon previous field selections.
         If shown, the unselectable values are clearly identified as such and
         do not highlight when the pointer is moved down the menu.  The full
         name of this resource is fieldN.menu.options.showUnselectable, class
         MenuButton.SimpleMenu.Options.ShowUnselectable; where N is replaced
         with the field number (starting with the left-most field numbered
         0).  The default is ``True'' for all but field 11 (average width of
         characters in font) and ``False'' for field 11.  If you never want
         to see unselectable entries, `*menu.options.showUnselectable:False'
         is a reasonable thing to specify in a resource file.


 Files

    $XFILESEARCHPATH /XFontSel

 Known limitations

    Sufficiently ambiguous patterns can be misinterpreted and lead to an ini-
    tial selection string which may not correspond to what the user intended
    and which may cause the initial sample text output to fail to match the
    proffered string.  Selecting any new field value will correct the sample
    output, though possibly resulting in no matching font.

    Should be able to return a FONT for the PRIMARY selection, not just a
    STRING.

    Any change in a field value will cause xfontsel to assert ownership of
    the PRIMARYFONT selection.  Perhaps this should be parameterized.

    When running on a slow machine, it is possible for the user to request a
    field menu before the font names have been completely parsed.  An error
    message indicating a missing menu is printed to stderr but otherwise
    nothing bad (or good) happens.

 See also

    xrdb(X)