fonts: what is a "point" in Linux/Gnome?

[Richmond Mathewson]

On 01/03/2010 18:22, J. Landman Gay wrote:
> Since I know little about any of this, I'll just add the info as it 
> was passed to me:
>
> Rev needs X11 fonts. It only works with those. Tiny fonts are caused 
> by the font server in use. A customer who had the same issue wrote: 
> "It was my font server, xfs. Somewhere in a recent reconfiguration to 
> support xfstt, I pooched it. I reinstalled/reconfigured xfs, and it's 
> all ducky."
>
The problem, and it is a real problem, is that end-users (and folks like 
me) don't know their X11 fonts from
their other fonts.

This makes it well-nigh impossible for a developer to deploy a 
stand-alone that requires a custom font
to be installed.

This may make things "all ducky" to those whom Linux is a clear pond; 
but as far as I am concerned
I have a really hard time telling my Mallard from my Shovellers:

http://animal.discovery.com/guides/wild-birds/gallery/mallard_duck.jpg

http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007/10/24/northernShoveler.jpg

or, as I mentioned a while back: the duck eggs are blue and the drake 
eggs are green . . .  :)

And before you mention 'it' - fonts don't have beaks.