New font for Oracle reports server on HP-UX 11.23

[PM Srividhya]

Hello,

One of the Oracle Reports (Oracle Forms/Reports) installed on a HP-UX 11.23 requires Trebuchet font for generating a PDF.

Is it to be done on the OS level or on the Oracle APPS server level?

Could some one point me to a document which explains correct sequence of steps to be followed to add a new font for the Oracle Reports on HP-UX 11.23?

Thanks,

Srividhya

P.S. this thread has been moved from HP-UX > System Administration to HP-UX > databases - HP Forums moderator

[Matti_Kurkela]

Oracle documentation: "Managing Fonts in Oracle Reports":

http://docs.oracle.com/html/B14048_02/pbr_font.htm

In Unix, the font issue can be complicated because the fonts on the display (X fonts) can be different from the fonts available on the printer (PostScript or PCL fonts).

See 4.2 "Adding Fonts" in the above document.

This was the first hit on Google search for "oracle reports font". Is Google broken for you?

[PM Srividhya]

Hi MK,

I too landed in the page suggested by you.  But inspite of doing all the steps mentioned in that page apps team was unable to see the required font in the reports.

So was not sure if something has to be done from the OS side as xlsfonts is not displaying the new font.

I have asked the APPS team to verify the reports once again.  Will check and update.

Thanks,

Vidhya

[Matti_Kurkela]

When you are running xlsfonts, are you using Reflection/X or similar Windows-based X server to display it?

If so, pay attention to the font path settings of Reflection/X. By default, it may look for X fonts only locally on the Windows system, typically in directory C:\Program Files\Attachmate\Reflection\X\Fonts or similar. If the Reflection X does not have the font available, it won't be able to display it.

In this case, your options are:

• install the X font on all Windows systems that are going to use Reports Builder (note: this is different from installing a regular Windows TrueType font, see Reflection/X documentation), or
• install the font on the HP-UX, make sure its X Font Server is running and connectable by the Reflection X users, and add the font server on HP-UX to Reflection's font path settings. (Don't replace the entire font path with the font server, as this might make Reflection/X slow. Just add the font server as another possible source of fonts.)

Either of the above should enable xlsfonts to show the new font. Once the font is visible in xlsfonts, then Reports Builder should be able to display it too.

The Oracle Reports process running on the HP-UX does not actually need to know the actual shapes of the letters in the font. It only needs to know the size of the letters, so that it can position them accurately within the display window. It then sends a X11 protocol message to Reflection/X, in effect telling it to "draw this text here, using a font named like this, with this size." It can get the letter size information from Reflection/X.

When printing the report, the situation is similar: Oracle Reports reads the AFM file to know the sizes of the letters, then generates a print job that tells the printer: "print these letters here using this font." If the font is not available in the printer, then the printer cannot produce the report as specified.