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List:       kde-bugs-dist
Subject:    [Bug 105102] Font installation is incredibly slow
From:       Craig Drummond <craig () kde ! org>
Date:       2005-05-09 9:57:27
Message-ID: 20050509095727.28688.qmail () ktown ! kde ! org
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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105102         




------- Additional Comments From craig kde org  2005-05-09 11:57 -------
Just to clarify:

When installing a font via the KControl center, you open the KDE file dialog to \
select the list of fonts to install. After these have been selected, for each Type1 \
font (.pfa or .pfb) kcmfontinst checks to see whther a corresponding .afm file \
exists. If a .afm file for a font does not exist (and you have stated they do not), \
it then tries to see whether a corresponding .pfm file exists. If it finds a .afm or \
.pfm then this is added to the list of files to install.

This list of .pfa, .pfb, .afm, and .pfm files is then iterated through and copied to \
the fonts io-slave. When the io-slave detects that a Type1 font, or .pfm file, is \
being installed, it tries to check if an existing .afm is installed. If it does not \
find a .afm, it tries to create one by calling ghostscript with the pf2afm script \
(which is part of ghostscript). (See bug report 86660 for the reason as to why this \
feature was implemented.)

So, if you are installing 4,000 Type1 fonts that have no .afm file, but do have .pfm \
files - then ghoscript is being called for each and every Type1 font being installed. \
This would explain, to a degree, the slow speed.

One way to check this would be to move any .pfm files out of the folder containing \
your Type1 fonts to install. e.g

1. /home/wibble/SomeType1Fonts/ contains your .pfa, or .pfb, and .pfm files
3. Create a tmp sub folder
2. Move /home/wibble/SomeType1Fonts/*.pfm to /home/wibble/SomeType1Fonts/tmp/
3. Use the font installer to install your Type1 fonts from \
/home/wibble/SomeType1Fonts/

This would then force kcmfontinst to ignore the .pfm files - as it does not look in \
sub-folders. If this improves the installation speed, then it would appear that the \
calling of ghostscript is what is so slow.

[ In case your interested; afm = Adobe Font Metrics, and contains metrics about each \
character in the font, its size, kerning information, etc. pfm = Printer Font \
Metrics, these are usually only found on Windows systems, and are not used on \
unix/linux - which use afm files. Ghostscript is able to create valid afm files by \
combining the information in pfa/b and pfm files. ]

Is it possible for you to email me a selection of the fonts you are tyring to \
install? If you have 200 fonts that are taking 2.5 hours to install (as you indicate) \
- then send me these, and I'll see if I can reproduce the error. (But I'd need the \
*exact* same files - and any .pfm or .afm associated.)

----------

Ignore the progress bar - there's something wrong there, and I will try to fix this. \
(If it bugs you that much, then please create another bug report - but I am aware of \
the issue).


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