[Xastir] Labels in Tiger 2003 shape maps

[Tom Russo]

On Tue, Sep 21, 2004 at 01:56:01PM -0600, a Mr. Richard Feyler of Fort Lee, New Jersey <russo at bogodyn.org> writes 'Dear Rosanne Rosannadanna':
> On Tue, Sep 21, 2004 at 02:03:24PM -0400, a Mr. Richard Feyler of Fort Lee, New Jersey <gdwrbw at ftc-i.net> writes 'Dear Rosanne Rosannadanna':
> > How do you change the font, etc for the street names and other labels in 
> > the Tiger 2003 Shape files?  The font that is standard is basically 
> > unreadable.  I tried the map/configure/map labels font to try a 
> > different size, but did not see any change.
> 
> Are you using pcre and dbfawk in your build?  If so, there are several different
> fonts that are used depending on feature type and zoom level.

I should have added that if you're not using dbfawk (perhaps because you didn't
install pcre before configuring xastir) then only one of the five font 
settings is used, the "medium" one (called font_size=2 in dbfawk files).  

As Curt says, you could edit the dbfawk file to change the font size for
different types of features.  It would be necessary to do that if you wanted,
for example, to use different font sizes/styles to distinguish 
unseparated interstate highways from separated highways and such, but it is 
not necessary if you just want to bump everything up a notch or two.  That can 
be done with the font selection dialog, which establishes a link between
the font size numbers (0,1,2,3,4) used in the dbfawk file and the actual
X11 font used to display the labels 

One caveat: you have to be sure that the font you request actually exists on 
your system (which you can determine by using xfontsel, which will only allow 
you to select valid combinations of fonts and sizes).  The fonts I gave in my 
last mail exist are standard ones that would be in XFree86.  If you were to 
pick a font that wasn't actually present you'd probably have your request 
ignored (which might be what's going on for you).

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY     SAR502  DM64ux         http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://www.qsl.net/~km5vy/
(1) Ignorance of your profession is best concealed by solemnity and silence,
which pass for profound knowledge upon the generality of mankind.
                -------"Advice to Officers of the British Army", 1783