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How do I configure Mathematica to find the fonts on a Unix-based X server?

This information is available in Sections 3.12 and 4.5 of the Mathematica 3.0 System Adminstrator’s Guide.

Most UNIX terminals running X will be displaying applications that are running on other machines back to the terminal. When starting Mathematica, the shell script mathematica attempts to set the font path on the machine on which it is being run, not necessarily on the machine on which the X server is being run. Therefore, when the X server tries to access the fonts and the fonts are not installed locally, it cannot find them.

You can make fonts accessible by copying or mounting the fonts to the machine displaying Mathematica. You can also use a font server to distribute access to the fonts.

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/unix/interface/server.html

Given this, it will be necessary for you to run the xset commands manually on the machine on which the X server is running, provided that the Mathematica directory is visible to the machine that is running the X server, prior to starting Mathematica.

xset fp+ /usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts/Type1 xset fp+ /usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts/X xset fp rehash

The X server should be able to find the fonts and display them to the terminal now, provided that the X server understands the format in which our fonts were created, which are Type1 and BDF. At this point, you can do the following.

1.	Log into the machine that is to run the Mathematica front end.

2.	Set the `DISPLAY` variable to the machine that is to display the Mathematica front end through the X server.

# setenv DISPLAY myMachine:0

3.	Launch Mathematica.

If your X server complains about not finding the fonts, then you should check your documentation on your X server software to find out what types of font formats it understands. The odds are that it will understand PCF fonts. See the following page for more information about the PCF version of the Mathematica fonts.

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/unix/interface/pcf.html

You will need to place these fonts in a directory that is visible on your font path on your X server. By doing this, you will not have to modify your font path. To find out what your current font path is, enter at a UNIX prompt xset -q.

If you are using an NCD terminal, see this page.

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/unix/interface/ncd.html

If you are using SunOS 4.1.3 (or earlier) and you are running OpenWindows, see this page.

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/unix/sparc/newsfonts.html

If you get xset errors when using HP-UX, see this page.

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/systems/unix/hpux/xset.html

If you are still having problems, please contact Technical Support.

Download this FAQ as a Mathematica 5.2 Notebook

Questions or comments? Send email to support@wolfram.com.