Re: fonts on xboard

I don't think the Xaw build of XBoard still is an X-Application. This 
version should be considered obsolete, and has not been maintained for 
years.

Cloning git should not be necessary for building XBoard from source. You 
should be able to download a source package of XBoard, and unzip that. 
If you cannot find one, you can download a 'snapshot' from one of the 
on-line source repositories, such as mine at 
http://winboard.nl/cgi-bin?p=xboard.git;a=summary (master or v4.9.x 
branch). In that case you would have to run ./autogen.sh while in the 
directory where you unpacked the source code, before doing the usual 
configure, make, make install commands. You might need to load some 
devel packages for compilers and libraries for this to work, though.

I don't know why the Debian maintainers reverted to packaging the Xaw 
build; it could be that this is because the GTK version uses GTK 2. But 
I understood GTK 2 is still supported even on modern Debian systems 
because of GIMP.


peter schreef op 15-12-2025 08:45:
> Hi,
> 
> I am delighted with xboard except for one thing.  I usually use it with 
> the engine output pane on one side and the board on the other, in 
> analysis mode.  The problem I have is that the moves in the engine 
> output pane are almost impossible for me to read.  I need to change the 
> font and also the size, but cannot figure out how to do it.  I have 
> tried editing .Xresources and all the other files I can think of, with 
> zero result.  I am on debian testing, the built-in fonts menu item 
> doesn't work, as my version is not gtk.  I haven't found a .deb gtk 
> version anywhere.
> 
> I also tried downloading the source with a view to compiling it myself 
> - yes, that is how unreadable it is for me!  That seems to involve a 
> bunch of stuff I don't understand at all, like setting up SSH or doing 
> something called cloning github repositories, and that is only to get 
> the source code to compile!
> 
> This surely cannot be right?  Making the font larger and more readable 
> is such a simple thing in every other application I use.
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I cannot be alone in having 
> this problem.
> 
> Peter