GNUplot adding font for pdfcairo output

Question

I need to use a symbol font called Moon Fonts TTF in the PDF output from GNUplot. GNUplot finds it with no problem in the Aqua terminal.

I've tried:

set fontpath "/Users/house/Library/Fonts/MoonPhases.ttf"

and other add font suggestions from the gnuplot help pages with no luck.

I have also tried a series of .ttf, .otf, postscript and unicode-mapped fonts with some support from a typography expert, with no luck at all: pdfcairo, postscript or epscairo cannot seem to find it.

GNUplot's 'show fontpath' gives:

system fontpath is "/System/Library/Fonts" "/Library/Fonts" "/Users/house/Library/Fonts"

and the fonts are there in one of those paths. I also tried placing them directly in GN's working directory.

If anyone has suggestions about how to make this work it would be much appreciated.

OSX Snow Leopard
GNUplot 4.6.1

Probably fontpath should be the directory, the actual font is "font" or "fontname". Just a bit of a WAG based on the postscript driver - i dont know if pdfcairo is the same or not. — agentp
Show fontpath, before doing a set fontpath is: system fontpath is "/System/Library/Fonts" "/Library/Fonts" "/Users/house/Library/Fonts" so that director is already available to GNUplot. — Dan

dpzz dpzz · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-30T22:21:15

I have gnuplot installed via MacPorts. The folder /opt/local/etc/fonts contains the file fonts.conf. In there you'll find a section "Font directory list". However, even though ~/Library/Fonts is part of the gnuplot fontlist variable by default (and therefore aquaterm is able to use them), it is not listed in here (and therefore pdfcairo can't use them).

A quick fix is to create the following symbolic link:

cd ${HOME}
ln -s Library/Fonts .fonts

Then your pdfcairo output should pick up the fonts that are installed at the user level on your Mac. I have tested this with gnuplot 4.6 on Mavericks (10.9.5), and it seems to work fine.

GNUplot adding font for pdfcairo output

1 Answers