The X Font Service Protocol

X Consortium Standard

Jim Fulton

Network Computing Devices, Inc.

X Version 11, Release 7.7

Version 2.0

Copyright © 1991 Network Computing Devices, Inc.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this documentation for
any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright
notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. Network Computing
Devices, Inc. makes no representations about the suitability for any purpose of
the information in this document. This documentation is provided “as is”
without express or implied warranty.

Copyright © 1994 X Consortium

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies
of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do
so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE X
CONSORTIUM BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Except as contained in this notice, the name of the X Consortium shall not be
used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in
this Software without prior written authorization from the X Consortium.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Architectural Model
3. Font Server Naming
    TCP/IP Names
    DECnet Names
4. Protocol
    Data Types
        ACCESSCONTEXT
        ALTERNATESERVER
        AUTH
        BITMAPFORMAT
        BITMAPFORMATMASK
        BOOL
        BYTE
        CARD8, CARD16, CARD32
        CHAR2B
        EVENTMASK
        FONTID
        ID
        INT8, INT16, INT32
        OFFSET32
        PROPINFO
        PROPOFFSET
        RANGE
        RESOLUTION
        STRING8
        TIMESTAMP
        XCHARINFO
        XFONTINFO
    Requests
        open connection
         
        NoOp
        ListExtensions
        QueryExtension
        ListCatalogues
        SetCatalogues
        GetCatalogues
        SetEventMask
        GetEventMask
        CreateAC
        FreeAC
        SetAuthorization
        SetResolution
        GetResolution
        ListFonts
        ListFontsWithXInfo
        OpenBitmapFont
        QueryXInfo
        QueryXExtents8
        QueryXExtents16
        QueryXBitmaps8
        QueryXBitmaps16
        CloseFont
        close connection
    Errors
        Request
        Format
        Font
        Range
        EventMask
        AccessContext
        IDChoice
        Name
        Resolution
        Alloc
        Length
        Implementation
        Extensions
    Events
        KeepAlive
        CatalogueListNotify
        FontListNotify
        Extensions
5. Protocol Encoding
    Data Types
    Requests
    Errors
    Events
6. Acknowledgements
References
A. Suggested Licensing Policies
B. Implementation Suggestions
Index

List of Figures

2.1. Connecting to a Font Server
2.2. Where Font Data Comes From

Chapter 1. Introduction

The management of fonts in large, heterogeneous environments is one of the
hardest aspects of using the X Window System ^[1] . Multiple formats and the
lack of a consistent mechanism for exporting font data to all displays on a
network prevent the transparent use of applications across different display
platforms. The X Font Service protocol is designed to address this and other
issues, with specific emphasis on the needs of the core X protocol.
Upward-compatible changes (typically in the form of new requests) are expected
as consensus is reached on new features (particularly outline font support).

Currently, most X displays use network file protocols such as NFS and TFTP to
obtain raw font data which they parse directly. Since a common binary format
for this data doesn't exist, displays must be able to interpret a variety of
formats if they are to be used with different application hosts. This leads to
wasted code and data space and a loss of interoperability as displays are used
in unforeseen environments.

By moving the interpretation of font data out of the X server into a separate
service on the network, these problems can be greatly reduced. In addition, new
technologies, such as dynamically generating bitmaps from scaled or outline
fonts, can be provided to all displays transparently. For horizontal text,
caching techniques and increased processor power can potentially make
rasterization more efficient on large, centralized hosts than on individual
displays.

Each font server provides sets of fonts that may be listed and queried for
header, property, glyph extents, and bitmap information. This data is
transmitted over the network using a binary format (with variations to support
different bit- and byte-orders) designed to minimize the amount of processing
required by the display. Since the font server, rather than the display, is
responsible for parsing the raw font data, new formats can be used by all
displays by modifying a single font server.

From the user's point of view, font servers are simply a new type of name in
the X font path. Network name services allow descriptive names (such as
DEPARTMENT-FONTS or APPLICATION-FONTS) to be translated into proper network
addresses. X displays send requests to and read replies from the font server
rather than reading directly from files. Since the X Font Service protocol is
designed to allow subsets of the font data to be requested, displays may easily
implement a variety of strategies for fine-grained demand-loading of glyphs.


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^[1] X Window System™ is a trademark of The Open Group.

Chapter 2. Architectural Model

In this document, the words client and server refer to the consumer and
provider of a font, respectively, unless otherwise indicated. It is important
to note that in this context, the X server is also a font client.

The X Font Service protocol does not require any changes to the core X protocol
or to any applications. To the user, font servers are simply additional types
of font path elements. As such, X servers may connect to multiple font servers,
as shown in Figure 2.1. Although the font protocol is geared towards the X
Window System, it may be also used by other consumers of font data (such as
printer drivers).

Figure 2.1. Connecting to a Font Server

 ┌────────┐              ┌───────────────┐
 │   X1   ├──────────────┤               │
 │ Server │              │  Font Server  │
 └────────┘      ┌───────┤      1        │
                 │       └───────────────┘
 ┌────────┐      │
 │   X2   ├──────┘       ┌───────────────┐
 │ Server ├──────────────┤               │
 └────────┘              │  Font Server  │
                 ┌───────┤      2        │
┌─────────┐      │       └───────────────┘
│  other  │      │
│ clients ├──────┘
└─────────┘


Clients communicate with the font server using the request/reply/event model
over any mutually-understood virtual stream connection (such as TCP/IP, DECnet,
^[2] etc.). Font servers are responsible for providing data in the bit and byte
orders requested by the client. The set of requests and events provided in the
first version of the X Font Service protocol is limited to supporting the needs
of the bitmap-oriented core X Window System protocol. Extensions are expected
as new needs evolve.

A font server reads raw font data from a variety of sources (possibly including
other font servers) and converts it into a common format that is transmitted to
the client using the protocol described in Section 4. New font formats are
handled by adding new converters to a font server, as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2. Where Font Data Comes From

                ┌────────────┐
                │   client   │
                │ (X server) │
                └─────┬──────┘
                      │
                   network
                      │
┌─────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐
│                                            │
│                font server 1               │
│                                            │
├─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬────┬─────┬───┬─────┤
│ bdf │ snf │ pcf │ atm │ f3 │ dwf │ │ │ ... │
└─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴────┴─────┴─│─┴─────┘
                                     │
                                  network
                                     │
                               ┌─────┴────┐
                               │   font   │
                               │ server 2 │
                               └──────────┘


The server may choose to provide named sets of fonts called catalogues. Clients
may specify which of the sets should be used in listing or opening a font.

An event mechanism similar to that used in the X protocol is provided for
asynchronous notification of clients by the server.

Clients may provide authorization data for the server to be used in determining
(according to the server's licensing policy) whether or not access should be
granted to particular fonts. This is particularly useful for clients whose
authorization changes over time (such as an X server that can verify the
identity of the user).

Implementations that wish to provide additional requests or events may use the
extension mechanism. Adding to the core font service protocol (with the
accompanying change in the major or minor version numbers) is reserved to the X
Consortium.


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^[2] DECnet™ is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.

Chapter 3. Font Server Naming

Table of Contents

TCP/IP Names
DECnet Names

Font clients that expose font server names to the user are encouraged to
provide ways of naming font servers symbolically (e.g. DEPARTMENT-FONTS).
However, for environments that lack appropriate name services
transport-specific names are necessary. Since these names do occur in the
protocol, clients and servers should support at least the applicable formats
described below. Formats for additional transports may be registered with the X
Consortium.

TCP/IP Names

The following syntax should be used for TCP/IP names:

    TCP name  ::=  tcp/ hostname : ipportnumber [/ cataloguelist]

where hostname is either symbolic (such as expo.lcs.mit.edu) or numeric decimal
(such as 18.30.0.212). The ipportnumber is the port on which the font server is
listening for connections. The cataloguelist string at the end is optional and
specifies a plus-separated list of catalogues that may be requested. For
example:

     tcp/expo.lcs.mit.edu:8012/available+special
     tcp/18.30.0.212:7890

DECnet Names

The following syntax should be used for DECnet names:

    DECnet name  ::=  decnet/ nodename ::font$ objname [/ cataloguelist]

where nodename is either symbolic (such as SRVNOD) or the numeric decimal form
of the DECnet address (such as 44.70). The objname is normal, case-insensitive
DECnet object name. The cataloguelist string at the end is optional and
specifies a plus-separated list of catalogues that may be requested. For
example:

     DECNET/SRVNOD::FONT$DEFAULT/AVAILABLE
     decnet/44.70::font$other

Chapter 4. Protocol

Table of Contents

Data Types
    ACCESSCONTEXT
    ALTERNATESERVER
    AUTH
    BITMAPFORMAT
    BITMAPFORMATMASK
    BOOL
    BYTE
    CARD8, CARD16, CARD32
    CHAR2B
    EVENTMASK
    FONTID
    ID
    INT8, INT16, INT32
    OFFSET32
    PROPINFO
    PROPOFFSET
    RANGE
    RESOLUTION
    STRING8
    TIMESTAMP
    XCHARINFO
    XFONTINFO
Requests
    open connection
     
    NoOp
    ListExtensions
    QueryExtension
    ListCatalogues
    SetCatalogues
    GetCatalogues
    SetEventMask
    GetEventMask
    CreateAC
    FreeAC
    SetAuthorization
    SetResolution
    GetResolution
    ListFonts
    ListFontsWithXInfo
    OpenBitmapFont
    QueryXInfo
    QueryXExtents8
    QueryXExtents16
    QueryXBitmaps8
    QueryXBitmaps16
    CloseFont
    close connection
Errors
    Request
    Format
    Font
    Range
    EventMask
    AccessContext
    IDChoice
    Name
    Resolution
    Alloc
    Length
    Implementation
    Extensions
Events
    KeepAlive
    CatalogueListNotify
    FontListNotify
    Extensions

The protocol described below uses the request/reply/error model and is
specified using the same conventions outlined in Section 2 of the core X Window
System protocol [1]:

  • Data type names are spelled in upper case with no word separators, as in:
    FONTID

  • Alternate values are capitalized with no word separators, as in: MaxWidth

  • Structure element declarations are in lower case with hyphens as word
    separators, as in: byte-order-msb

    Note

    Structure element names are referred to in upper case (e.g. BYTE-ORDER-MSB)
    when used in descriptions to set them off from the surrounding text. When
    this document is typeset they will be printed in lower case in a distinct
    font.

  • Type declarations have the form “name: type”, as in: CARD8: 8-bit byte

  • Comma-separated lists of alternate values are enclosed in braces, as in: {
    Min, MaxWidth, Max }

  • Comma-separated lists of structure elements are enclosed in brackets, as
    in: [ byte1: CARD8, byte2: CARD8 ]

A type with a prefix “LISTof” represents a counted list of elements of that
type, as in: LISTofCARD8

Data Types

The following data types are used in the core X Font Server protocol:

ACCESSCONTEXT

ACCESSCONTEXT:  ID  

This value is specified in the CreateAC request as the identifier to be used
when referring to a particular AccessContext resource within the server. These
resources are used by the server to store client-specified authorization
information. This information may be used by the server to determine whether or
not the client should be granted access to particular font data.

In order to preserve the integrity of font licensing being performed by the
font server, care must be taken by a client to properly represent the identity
of the true user of the font. Some font clients will in fact be servers (for
example, X servers) requesting fonts for their own clients. Other font clients
may be doing work on behalf of a number of different users over time (for
example, print spoolers).

AccessContexts must be created (with CreateAC) and switched among (with
SetAuthorization) to represent all of these “font users” properly.

ALTERNATESERVER

ALTERNATESERVER: [ name:  STRING8,
                  subset: BOOL ]

This structure specifies the NAME, encoded in ISO 8859-1 according to Section 3
, of another font server that may be useful as a substitute for this font
server. The SUBSET field indicates whether or not the alternate server is
likely to only contain a subset of the fonts available from this font server.
This information is returned during the initial connection setup and may be
used by the client to find a backup server in case of failure.

AUTH

AUTH: [ name: STRING8,
       data:  LISTofBYTE ]

This structure specifies the name of an authorization protocol and initial data
for that protocol. It is used in the authorization negotiation in the initial
connection setup and in the CreateAC request.

BITMAPFORMAT

BITMAPFORMAT:  CARD32  

CARD32 containing the following fields defined by the sets of values given
further below

[                         
 byte-order-msb: 1 bit,   
 bit-order-msb:  1 bit,   
 image-rect:     2 bits  { Min, MaxWidth, Max },
 zero-pad:       4 bits,  
 scanline-pad:   2 bits  { ScanlinePad8, ScanlinePad16, ScanlinePad32,
                         ScanlinePad64 },
 zero-pad:       2 bits,  
 scanline-unit:  2 bits  { ScanlineUnit8, ScanlineUnit16, ScanlineUnit32,
                         ScanlineUnit64 },
 zero-pad:       2 bits,  
 zero-pad:       16       
                 bits,
]                         

This structure specifies how glyph images are transmitted in response to
QueryXBitmaps8 and QueryXBitmaps16 requests.

If the BYTE-ORDER-MSB bit (1 << 0) is set, the Most Significant Byte of each
scanline unit is returned first. Otherwise, the Least Significant Byte is
returned first.

If the BIT-ORDER-MSB bit (1 << 1) is set, the left-most bit in each glyph
scanline unit is stored in the Most Significant Bit of each transmitted
scanline unit. Otherwise, the left-most bit is stored in the Least Significant
Bit.

The IMAGE-RECT field specifies a rectangle of pixels within the glyph image. It
contains one of the following alternate values:

ImageRectMin       (0 << 2)
ImageRectMaxWidth  (1 << 2)
ImageRectMax       (2 << 2)

For a glyph with extents XCHARINFO in a font with header information XFONTINFO,
the IMAGE-RECT values have the following meanings:

                  This refers to the minimal bounding rectangle surrounding the
                  inked pixels in the glyph. This is the most compact
                  representation. The edges of the rectangle are:
ImageRectMin
                           left:     XCHARINFO.LBEARING
                           right:    XCHARINFO.RBEARING
                           top:      XCHARINFO.ASCENT
                           bottom:   XCHARINFO.DESCENT

                  This refers to the scanlines between the glyph's ascent and
                  descent, padded on the left to the minimum left-bearing (or
                  0, whichever is less) and on the right to the maximum
                  right-bearing (or logical-width, whichever is greater). All
                  glyph images share a common horizontal origin. This is a
                  combination of ImageRectMax in the horizontal direction and
ImageRectMaxWidth ImageRectMin in the vertical direction. The edges of the
                  rectangle are:

                  left:         min (XFONTINFO.MIN-BOUNDS.LBEARING, 0)
                  right:        max (XFONTINFO.MAX-BOUNDS.RBEARING,
                                     XFONTINFO.MAX-BOUNDS.WIDTH)
                  top:               XCHARINFO.ASCENT
                  bottom:            XCHARINFO.DESCENT

                  This refers to all scanlines, from the maximum ascent (or the
                  font ascent, whichever is greater) to the maximum descent (or
                  the font descent, whichever is greater), padded to the same
                  horizontal extents as MaxWidth. All glyph images have the
                  same sized bitmap and share a common origin. This is the
                  least compact representation, but may be the easiest or most
                  efficient (particularly for character cell fonts) for some
ImageRectMax      clients to use. The edges of the rectangle are:

                  left:         min (XFONTINFO.MIN-BOUNDS.LBEARING, 0)
                  right:        max (XFONTINFO.MAX-BOUNDS.RBEARING,
                                     XFONTINFO.MAX-BOUNDS.WIDTH)
                  top:          max (XFONTINFO.FONT-ASCENT,
                                     XFONTINFO.MAX-BOUNDS.ASCENT)
                  bottom:       max (XFONTINFO.FONT-DESCENT,
                                     XFONTINFO.MAX-BOUNDS.DESCENT)

The SCANLINE-PAD field specifies the number of bits (8, 16, 32, or 64) to which
each glyph scanline is padded before transmitting. It contains one of the
following alternate values:

ScanlinePad8   (0 << 8)
ScanlinePad16  (1 << 8)
ScanlinePad32  (2 << 8)
ScanlinePad64  (3 << 8)

The SCANLINE-UNIT field specifies the number of bits (8, 16, 32, or 64) that
should be treated as a unit for swapping. This value must be less than or equal
to the number of bits specified by the SCANLINE-PAD. It contains one of the
following alternate values:

ScanlineUnit8   (0 << 12)
ScanlineUnit16  (1 << 12)
ScanlineUnit32  (2 << 12)
ScanlineUnit64  (3 << 12)

BITMAPFORMATs are byte-swapped as CARD32s. All unspecified bits must be zero.

Use of an invalid BITMAPFORMAT causes a Format error to be returned.

BITMAPFORMATMASK

BITMAPFORMATMASK:  CARD32 mask  

This is a mask of bits representing the fields in a BITMAPFORMAT:

ByteOrderMask     (1 << 0)
BitOrderMask      (1 << 1)
ImageRectMask     (1 << 2)
ScanlinePadMask   (1 << 3)
ScanlineUnitMask  (1 << 4)

Unspecified bits are required to be zero or else a Format error is returned.

BOOL

BOOL: CARD8  

This is a boolean value containing one of the following alternate values:

False  0
True   1

BYTE

BYTE: 8-bit value   

This is an unsigned byte of data whose encoding is determined by the context in
which it is used.

CARD8, CARD16, CARD32

CARD8:  8-bit unsigned integer   
CARD16: 16-bit unsigned integer  
CARD32: 32-bit unsigned integer  

These are unsigned numbers. The latter two are byte-swapped when the server and
client have different byte orders.

CHAR2B

CHAR2B: [ byte1, byte2:  CARD8 ]

This structure specifies an individual character code within either a
2-dimensional matrix (using BYTE1 and BYTE2 as the row and column indices,
respectively) or a vector (using BYTE1 and BYTE2 as most- and least-significant
bytes, respectively). This data type is treated as a pair of 8-bit values and
is never byte-swapped. Therefore, the client should always transmit BYTE1
first.

EVENTMASK

EVENTMASK: CARD32 mask   

This is a mask of bits indicating which of an extension's (or the core's)
maskable events the client would like to receive. Each bit indicates one or
more events, and a bit value of one indicates interest in a corresponding set
of events. The following bits are defined for event masks specified for the
core protocol (i.e. an EXTENSION-OPCODE of zero in SetEventMask and
GetEventMask requests):

CatalogueListChangeMask (1 << 0)
FontListChangeMask      (1 << 1)

If CatalogueListChangeMask is set, client is interested in receiving
CatalogueListNotify events. If FontListChangeMask is set, the client is
interested in receiving FontListNotify events.

Extensions that provide additional events may define their own event masks.
These event masks have their own scope and may use the same bit values as the
core or other extensions.

All unused bits must be set to zero. In SetEventMask requests, if any bits are
set that are not defined for the extension (or core) for which this EVENTMASK
is intended (according to the EXTENSION-OPCODE given in the SetEventMask
request), an EventMask error is generated.

This value is swapped as a CARD32.

FONTID

FONTID:  ID  

This is specified by the client in the request OpenBitmapFont as the identifier
to be used when referring to a particular open font.

ID

ID: CARD32   

This is a 32-bit value in which the top 3 bits must be clear, and at least 1
other bit must be set (yielding a range of 1 through 2^29-1). It is specified
by the client to represent objects in the server. Identifiers are scoped
according to their type are private to the client; thus, the same identifier
may be used for both a FONTID and an ACCESSCONTEXT as well as by multiple
clients.

An ID of zero is referred to as None.

INT8, INT16, INT32

INT8:  8-bit signed integer    
INT16: 16-bit signed integer   
INT32: 32-bit signed integer   

These are signed numbers. The latter two are byte-swapped when the client and
server have different byte orders.

OFFSET32

OFFSET32: [ position:  CARD32,
           length:     CARD32 ]

This structure indicates a position and length within a block of data.

PROPINFO

PROPINFO: [ offsets: LISTofPROPOFFSET,
           data:     LISTofBYTE ]

This structure describes the list of properties provided by a font. Strings for
all of the properties names and values are stored within the data block and are
located using a table of offsets and lengths.

This structure is padded to 32-bit alignment.

PROPOFFSET

            [ name:     OFFSET32,
PROPOFFSET:  value:     OFFSET32,
             type:      CARD8,
             zero-pad3: BYTE, BYTE, BYTE ]

This structure specifies the position, length, and type of of data for a
property.

The NAME field specifies the position and length (which must be greater than
zero) of the property name relative to the beginning of the PROPINFO.DATA block
for this font. The interpretation of the position and length of the VALUE field
is determined by the TYPE field, which contains one of the following alternate
values:

String    0
Unsigned  1
Signed    2

which have the following meanings:

         This property contains a counted string of bytes. The data is stored
String   in the PROPINFO.DATA block beginning at relative byte VALUE.POSITION
         (beginning with zero), extending for VALUE.LENGTH (at least zero)
         bytes.

Unsigned This property contains a unsigned, 32-bit number stored as a CARD32 in
         VALUE.POSITION (VALUE.LENGTH is zero).

Signed   This property contains a signed, 32-bit number stored as an INT32 in
         VALUE.POSITION (VALUE.LENGTH is zero).

This structure is zero-padded to 32-bit alignment.

RANGE

RANGE: [ min-char, max-char: CHAR2B ]

This structure specifies a range of character codes. A single character is
represented by MIN-CHAR equals MAX-CHAR. If the linear interpretation of
MAX-CHAR is less than that of MIN-CHAR, or if MIN-CHAR is less than the font's
XFONTINFO.CHAR-RANGE.MIN-CHAR, or if MAX-CHAR is greater than the font's
XFONTINFO.CHAR-RANGE.MAX-CHAR, the range is invalid.

RESOLUTION

            [ x-resolution:  CARD16,
RESOLUTION:  y-resolution:   CARD16,
             decipoint-size: CARD16 ]

This structure specifies resolution and point size to be used in resolving
partially-specified scaled font names. The X-RESOLUTION and Y-RESOLUTION are
measured in pixels-per-inch and must be greater than zero. The DECIPOINT-SIZE
is the preferred font size, measured in tenths of a point, and must be greater
than zero.

STRING8

STRING8: LISTofCARD8   

This is a counted list of 1-byte character codes, typically encoded in ISO
8859-1. A character code “c” is equivalent to a CHAR2B structure whose BYTE1 is
zero and whose BYTE2 is “c”.

TIMESTAMP

TIMESTAMP:  CARD32  

This is the number of milliseconds that have passed since a server-dependent
origin. It is provided in errors and events and is permitted to wrap.

XCHARINFO

           [ lbearing, rbearing: INT16,
XCHARINFO:  width:               INT16,
            ascent, descent:     INT16,
            attributes:          CARD16 ]

This structure specifies the ink extents and horizontal escapement (also known
as the set- or logical width) of an individual character. The first five values
represent directed distances in a coordinate system whose origin is aligned
with the lower-left edge of the left-most pixel of the glyph baseline (i.e. the
baseline falls between two pixels as shown in Figure 3-1 of the Bitmap
Distribution Format 2.1 Consortium standard [2]).

The LBEARING field specifies the directed distance measured to the right from
the origin to the left edge of the left-most inked pixel in the glyph.

The RBEARING field specifies the directed distance (measured to the right) from
the origin to the right edge of the right-most inked pixel in the glyph.

The WIDTH field specifies the directed distance (measured to the right) from
the origin to the position where the next character should appear (called the
escapement point). This distance includes any whitespace used for
intercharacter padding and is also referred to as the logical width or
horizontal escapement.

The ASCENT field specifies the directed distance (measured up) from the
baseline to the top edge of the top-most inked pixel in the glyph.

The DESCENT field specifies the directed distance (measured down) from the
baseline to the bottom edge of the bottom-most inked pixel.

The ATTRIBUTES field specifies glyph-specific information that is passed
through the application. If this value is not being used, it should be zero.

The ink bounding box of a glyph is defined to be the smallest rectangle that
encloses all of the inked pixels. This box has a width of RBEARING − LBEARING
pixels and a height of ASCENT + DESCENT pixels.

XFONTINFO

           [ flags:            CARD32,
            drawing-direction: { LeftToRight, RightToLeft }
            char-range:        RANGE,
            default-char:      CHAR2B,
XFONTINFO:  min-bounds:        XCHARINFO,
            max-bounds:        XCHARINFO,
            font-ascent:       INT16,
            font-descent:      INT16,
            properties:        PROPINFO ]

This structure specifies attributes related to the font as a whole.

The FLAGS field is a bit mask containing zero or more of the following boolean
values (unspecified bits must be zero):

AllCharactersExist  (1 << 0)
InkInside           (1 << 1)
HorizontalOverlap   (1 << 2)

which have the following meanings:

                   If this bit is set, all of the characters in the range given
AllCharactersExist by CHAR-RANGE have glyphs encoded in the font. If this bit
                   is clear, some of the characters may not have encoded
                   glyphs.

                   If this bit is set, the inked pixels of each glyph fall
                   within the rectangle described by the font's ascent,
InkInside          descent, origin, and the glyph's escapement point. If this
                   bit is clear, there may be glyphs whose ink extends outside
                   this rectangle.

                   If this bit is set, the two ink bounding boxes (smallest
                   rectangle enclosing the inked pixels) of some pairs of
                   glyphs in the font may overlap when displayed side-by-side
HorizontalOverlap  (i.e. the second character is imaged at the escapement point
                   of the first) on a common baseline. If this bit is clear,
                   there are no pairs of glyphs whose ink bounding boxes
                   overlap.

The DRAWING-DIRECTION field contains a hint indicating whether most of the
character metrics have a positive (or “LeftToRight”) logical width or a
negative (“RightToLeft”) logical width. It contains the following alternate
values:

LeftToRight  0
RightToLeft  1

The CHAR-RANGE.MIN-CHAR and CHAR-RANGE.MAX-CHAR fields specify the first and
last character codes that have glyphs encoded in this font. All fonts must have
at least one encoded glyph (in which case the MIN-CHAR and MAX-CHAR are equal),
but are not required to have glyphs encoded at all positions between the first
and last characters.

The DEFAULT-CHAR field specifies the character code of the glyph that the
client should substitute for unencoded characters. Requests for extents or
bitmaps for an unencoded character generate zero-filled metrics and a
zero-length glyph bitmap, respectively.

The MIN-BOUNDS and MAX-BOUNDS fields contain the minimum and maximum values of
each of the extents field of all encoded characters in the font (i.e.
non-existent characters are ignored).

The FONT-ASCENT and FONT-DESCENT fields specify the font designer's logical
height of the font, above and below the baseline, respectively. The sum of the
two values is often used as the vertical line spacing of the font. Individual
glyphs are permitted to have ascents and descents that are greater than these
values.

The PROPERTIES field contains the property data associated with this font.

This structure is padded to 32-bit alignment.

Requests

This section describes the requests that may be sent by the client and the
replies or errors that are generated in response. Versions of the protocol with
the same major version are required to be upward-compatible.

Every request on a given connection is implicitly assigned a sequence number,
starting with 1, that is used in replies, error, and events. Servers are
required to generate replies and errors in the order in which the corresponding
requests are received. Servers are permitted to add or remove fonts to the list
visible to the client between any two requests, but requests must be processed
atomically. Each request packet is at least 4 bytes long and contains the
following fields:

major-opcode:  CARD8   
minor-opcode:  CARD8   
length:        CARD16  

The MAJOR-OPCODE specifies which core request or extension package this packet
represents. If the MAJOR-OPCODE corresponds to a core request, the MINOR-OPCODE
contains 8 bits of request-specific data. Otherwise, the MINOR-OPCODE specifies
which extension request this packet represents. The LENGTH field specifies the
number of 4-byte units contained within the packet and must be at least one. If
this field contains a value greater than one it is followed by (LENGTH - 1) * 4
bytes of request-specific data. Unless otherwise specified, unused bytes are
not required to be zero.

If a request packet contains too little or too much data, the server returns a
Length error. If the server runs out of internal resources (such as memory)
while processing a request, it returns an Alloc error. If a server is deficient
(and therefore non-compliant) and is unable to process a request, it may return
an Implementation error. If a client uses an extension request without
previously having issued a QueryExtension request for that extension, the
server responds with a Request error. If the server encounters a request with
an unknown MAJOR-OPCODE or MINOR-OPCODE, it responds with a Request error. At
most one error is generated per request. If more than one error condition is
encountered in processing a requests, the choice of which error is returned is
server-dependent.

Core requests have MAJOR-OPCODE values between 0 and 127, inclusive. Extension
requests have MAJOR-OPCODE values between 128 and 255, inclusive, that are
assigned by by the server. All MINOR-OPCODE values in extension requests are
between 0 and 255, inclusive.

Each reply is at least 8 bytes long and contains the following fields:

type:            CARD8  value of 0
data-or-unused:  CARD8   
sequence-number: CARD16  
length:          CARD32  

The TYPE field has a value of zero. The DATA-OR-UNUSED field may be used to
encode one byte of reply-specific data (see Section 5.2 on request encoding).
The least-significant 16 bits of the sequence number of the request that
generated the reply are stored in the SEQUENCE-NUMBER field. The LENGTH field
specifies the number of 4-byte units in this reply packet, including the fields
described above, and must be at least two. If LENGTH is greater than two, the
fields described above are followed by (LENGTH - 2) * 4 bytes of additional
data.

Requests that have replies are described using the following syntax:

    RequestName

    arg1:    type1
    arg2:    type2
    ...       
    argN:    typeN
    ▶         
    result1: type1
    result2: type2
    ...       
    resultM: typeM
    Errors:  kind1, kind2 ..., kindK

    Description

If a request does not generate a reply, the ▶ and result lines are omitted. If
a request may generate multiple replies, the ▶ is replaced by a ▶+. In the
authorization data exchanges in the initial connection setup and the CreateAC
request, ◀ indicates data sent by the client in response to data sent by the
server.

The protocol begins with the establishment of a connection over a
mutually-understood virtual stream:

open connection

byte-order:                    BYTE
client-major-protocol-version: CARD16
client-minor-protocol-version: CARD16
authorization-protocols:       LISTofAUTH

The initial byte of the connection specifies the BYTE-ORDER in which subsequent
16-bit and 32-bit numeric values are to be transmitted. The octal value 102 (
ASCII uppercase “B”) indicates that the most-significant byte is to be
transmitted first; the octal value 154 (ASCII lowercase “l”) indicates that the
least-significant byte is to be transmitted first. If any other value is
encountered the server closes the connection without any response.

The CLIENT-MAJOR-PROTOCOL-VERSION and CLIENT-MINOR-PROTOCOL-VERSION specify
which version of the font service protocol the client would like to use. If the
client can support multiple versions, the highest version should be given. This
version of the protocol has a major version of 2 and a minor version of 0.

The AUTHORIZATION-PROTOCOLS contains a list of protocol names and optional
initial data for which the client can provide information. The server may use
this to determine which protocol to use or as part of the initial exchange of
authorization data.

▶                               
status:                        { Success, Continue, Busy, Denied }
server-major-protocol-version: CARD16
server-minor-protocol-version: CARD16
alternate-servers-hint:        LISTofALTERNATESERVER
authorization-index:           CARD8
authorization-data:            LISTofBYTE

The SERVER-MAJOR-PROTOCOL-VERSION and SERVER-MINOR-PROTOCOL-VERSION specify the
version of the font service protocol that the server expects from the client.
If the server supports the version specified by the client, this version number
should be returned. If the client has requested a higher version than is
supported by the server, the server's highest version should be returned.
Otherwise, if the client has requested a lower version than is supported by the
server, the server's lowest version should be returned. It is the client's
responsibility to decide whether or not it can match this version of the
protocol.

The ALTERNATE-SERVERS-HINT is a list of other font servers that may have
related sets of fonts (determined by means outside this protocol, typically by
the system administrator). Clients may choose to contact these font servers if
the connection is rejected or lost.

The STATUS field indicates whether the server accepted, rejected, or would like
more information about the connection. It has one of the following alternate
values:

Success   0
Continue  1
Busy      2
Denied    3

If STATUS is Denied, the server has rejected the client's authorization
information. If STATUS is Busy, the server has simply decided that it cannot
provide fonts to this client at this time (it may be able to at a later time).
In both cases, AUTHORIZATION-INDEX is set to zero, no authorization-data is
returned, and the server closes the connection after sending the data described
so far.

Otherwise the AUTHORIZATION-INDEX is set to the index (beginning with 1) into
the AUTHORIZATION-PROTOCOLS list of the protocol that the server will use for
this connection. If the server does not want to use any of the given protocols,
this value is set to zero. The AUTHORIZATION-DATA field is used to send back
authorization protocol-dependent data to the client (such as a challenge,
authentication of the server, etc.).

If STATUS is Success, the following section of protocol is omitted. Otherwise,
if STATUS is Continue, the server expects more authorization data from the
client (i.e. the connection setup is not finished, so no requests or events may
be sent):

◀                         
more-authorization-data: STRING8
▶                         
status:                  { Success, Continue, Busy, Denied }
more-authorization-data: LISTofBYTE

The values in STATUS have the same meanings as described above. This section of
protocol is repeated until the server either accepts (sets STATUS to Success)
or rejects (sets STATUS to Denied or Busy) the connection.

Once the connection has been accepted and STATUS is Success, an implicit
AccessContext is created for the authorization data and the protocol continues
with the following data sent from the server:

▶                        
remaining-length:       CARD32
maximum-request-length: CARD16
release-number:         CARD32
vendor:                 STRING8

The REMAINING-LENGTH specifies the length in 4-byte units of the remaining data
to be transmitted to the client. The MAXIMUM-REQUEST-LENGTH specifies the
largest request size in 4-byte units that is accepted by the server and must
have a value of at least 4096. Requests with a length field larger than this
value are ignored and a Length error is returned. The VENDOR string specifies
the name of the manufacturer of the font server. The RELEASE-NUMBER specifies
the particular release of the server in a manufacturer-dependent manner.

After the connection is established and the setup information has been
exchanged, the client may issue any of requests described below:

NoOp

Errors:  Alloc

This request does nothing. It is typically used in response to a KeepAlive
event.

ListExtensions

▶        
names:  LISTofSTRING8
Errors: Alloc

This request returns the names of the extension packages that are supported by
the server. Extension names are case-sensitive and are encoded in ISO 8859-1.

QueryExtension

name:           STRING8
▶                
present:        BOOL
major-version:  CARD16
minor-version:  CARD16
major-opcode:   CARD8
first-event:    CARD8
number-events:  CARD8
first-error:    CARD8
number-errors:  CARD8
Errors:         Alloc

This request determines whether or not the extension package specified by NAME
(encoded in ISO 8859-1) is supported by the server and that there is sufficient
number of major opcode, event, and error codes available. If so, then PRESENT
is set to True, MAJOR-VERSION and MINOR-VERSION are set to the respective major
and minor version numbers of the protocol that the server would prefer;
MAJOR-OPCODE is set to the value to use in extension requests; FIRST-EVENT is
set to the value of the first extension-specific event code or zero if the
extension does not have any events; NUMBER-EVENTS is set to the number of new
events that the event defines; FIRST-ERROR is set to the value of the first
extension-specific error code or zero if the extension does not define any new
errors; and NUMBER-ERRORS is set to the number of new errors the extension
defines.

Otherwise, PRESENT is set to False and the remaining fields are set to zero.

The server is free to return different values to different clients. Therefore,
clients must use this request before issuing any of the requests in the named
extension package or using the SetEventMask request to express interest in any
of this extension's events. Otherwise, a Request error is returned.

ListCatalogues

pattern:                STRING8
max-names:              CARD32
▶+                       
replies-following-hint: CARD32
names:                  LISTofSTRING8
Errors:                 Alloc

This request returns a list of at most MAX-NAMES names of collections (called
catalogues) of fonts that match the specified PATTERN. In the pattern (which is
encoded in ISO 8859-1), the “?” character (octal 77) matches any single
character; the “*” character (octal 52) matches any series of zero or more
characters; and alphabetic characters match either upper- or lowercase. The
returned NAMES are encoded in ISO 8859-1 and may contain mixed character cases.

If PATTERN is of zero length or MAX-NAMES is equal to zero, one reply
containing a zero-length list of names is returned. This may be used to
synchronize the client with the server.

Servers are free to add or remove catalogues to the set returned by
ListCatalogues between any two requests. This request is not cumulative;
repeated uses are processed in isolation and do result in an iteration through
the list.

To reduce the amount of buffering needed by the server, the list of names may
be split across several reply packets, so long as the names arrive in the same
order that they would have appeared had they been in a single packet. The
REPLIES-FOLLOWING-HINT field in all but the last reply contains a positive
value that specifies the number of replies that are likely, but not required,
to follow. In the last reply, which may contain zero or more names, this field
is set to zero.

SetCatalogues

names:  LISTofSTRING8
Errors: Alloc, Name

This request sets the list of catalogues whose fonts should be visible to the
client. The union of the fonts provided by each of the named catalogues forms
the set of fonts whose names match patterns in ListFonts, ListFontsWithXInfo,
and OpenBitmapFont requests. The catalogue names are case-insensitive and are
encoded in ISO 8859-1. A zero-length list resets the client's catalogue list to
the server-dependent default.

If any of the catalogue names are invalid, a Name error is returned and the
request is ignored.

GetCatalogues

▶        
names:  LISTofSTRING8
Errors: Alloc

This request returns the current list of catalogue names (encoded in ISO
8859-1) associated with the client. These catalogues determine the set of fonts
that are visible to ListFonts, ListFontsWithXInfo, and OpenBitmapFont. A
zero-length list indicates the server's default set of fonts. Catalogue names
are case-insensitive and may be returned in mixed case.

SetEventMask

extension-opcode: CARD8
event-mask:       EVENTMASK
Errors:           EventMask, Request

This request specifies the set of maskable events that the extension indicated
by EXTENSION-OPCODE (or zero for the core) should generate for the client.
Event masks are limited in scope to the extension (or core) for which they are
defined, so expressing interest in events from one or more extensions requires
multiple uses of this request.

The default event mask if SetEventMask has not been called is zero, indicating
no interest in any maskable events. Some events are not maskable and cannot be
blocked.

If EXTENSION-OPCODE is not a valid extension opcode previously returned by
QueryExtension or zero, a Request error is returned. If EVENT-MASK contains any
bits that do not correspond to valid events for the specified extension (or
core), an EventMask error is returned and the request is ignored.

GetEventMask

extension-opcode:  CARD8
▶                   
event-mask:        EVENTMASK
Errors:            Request

This request returns the set of maskable core events the extension indicated by
EXTENSION-OPCODE (or the core if zero) should generate for the client.
Non-maskable events are always sent to the client.

If EXTENSION-OPCODE is not a valid extension opcode previously returned by
QueryExtension or zero, a Request error is returned.

CreateAC

ac:                      ACCESSCONTEXT
authorization-protocols: LISTofAUTH
▶                         
status:                  { Success, Continue, Denied }
authorization-index:     CARD8
authorization-data:      LISTofBYTE
Errors:                  IDChoice

This request creates a new AccessContext object within the server containing
the specified authorization data. When this AccessContext is selected by the
client using the SetAuthorization request, the data may be used by the server
to determine whether or not the client should be granted access to particular
font information.

If STATUS is Denied, the server rejects the client's authorization information
and does not associate AC with any valid AccessContext. In this case,
AUTHORIZATION-INDEX is set to zero, and zero bytes of AUTHORIZATION-DATA is
returned.

Otherwise, AUTHORIZATION-INDEX is set to the index (beginning with 1) into the
AUTHORIZATION-PROTOCOLS list of the protocol that the server will use for this
connection. If the server does not want to use any of the given protocols, this
value is set to zero. The AUTHORIZATION-DATA field is used to send back
authorization protocol-dependent data to the client (such as a challenge,
authentication of the server, etc.).

If STATUS is Continue, the client is expected to continue the request by
sending the following protocol and receiving the indicated response from the
server. This continues until STATUS is set to either Success or Denied.

◀                         
more-authorization-data: STRING8
▶                         
status:                  { Success, Continue, Denied }
more-authorization-data: LISTofBYTE

Once the connection has been accepted and STATUS is Success, the request is
complete.

If AC is not in the range [1..2^29-1] or is already associated with an access
context, an IDChoice error is returned.

FreeAC

ac:     ACCESSCONTEXT
Errors: AccessContext, Alloc

This request indicates that the specified AC should no longer be associated
with a valid access context. If AC is also the current AccessContext (as set by
the SetAuthorization request), an implicit SetAuthorization of None is done to
restore the AccessContext established for the initial connection setup.
Operations on fonts that were opened under AC are not affected. The client may
reuse the value of AC in a subsequent CreateAC request.

If AC isn't associated with any valid authorization previously created by
CreateAC, an AccessContext error is returned.

SetAuthorization

ac:     ACCESSCONTEXT
Errors: AccessContext

This request sets the AccessContext to be used for subsequent requests (except
for QueryXInfo, QueryXExtents8, QueryXExtents16, QueryXBitmaps8,
QueryXBitmaps16 and CloseFont which are done under the AccessContext of the
corresponding OpenBitmapFont ). An AC of None restores the AccessContext
established for the initial connection setup.

If AC is neither None nor a value associated with a valid AccessContext
previously created by CreateAC, an AccessContext error is returned.

SetResolution

resolutions: LISTofRESOLUTION
Errors:      Resolution, Alloc

This request provides a hint as to the resolution and preferred point size of
the drawing surfaces for which the client will be requesting fonts. The server
may use this information to set the RESOLUTION_X and RESOLUTION_Y fields of
scalable XLFD font names, to order sets of names based on their resolutions,
and to choose the server-dependent instance that is used when a
partially-specified scalable fontname is opened.

If a zero-length list of RESOLUTIONs is given, the server-dependent default
value is restored. Otherwise, if elements of all of the specified RESOLUTIONs
are non-zero, the default resolutions for this client are changed.

If a RESOLUTION entry contains a zero, a Resolution error is returned and the
default resolutions are not changed.

GetResolution

▶             
resolutions: LISTofRESOLUTION
Errors:      Alloc

This request returns the current list of default resolutions. If a client has
not performed a SetResolution, a server-dependent default value is returned.

ListFonts

pattern:                STRING8
max-names:              CARD32
▶+                       
replies-following-hint: CARD32
names:                  LISTofSTRING8
Errors:                 Alloc

This request returns a list of at most MAX-NAMES font names that match the
specified PATTERN, according to matching rules of the X Logical Font
Description Conventions [3]. In the pattern (which is encoded in ISO 8859-1)
the “?” character (octal 77) matches any single character; the “*” character
(octal 52) matches any series of zero or more characters; and alphabetic
characters match either upper- or lowercase. The returned NAMES are encoded in 
ISO 8859-1 and may contain mixed character cases. Font names are not required
to be in XLFD format.

If PATTERN is of zero length or MAX-NAMES is equal to zero, one reply
containing a zero-length list of names is returned. This may be used to
synchronize the client with the server.

Servers are free to add or remove fonts to the set returned by ListFonts
between any two requests. This request is not cumulative; repeated uses are
processed in isolation and do result in an iteration through the list.

To reduce the amount of buffering needed by the server, the list of names may
be split across several reply packets, so long as the names arrive in the same
order that they would have appeared had they been in a single packet. The
REPLIES-FOLLOWING-HINT field in all but the last reply contains a positive
value that specifies the number of replies that are likely, but not required,
to follow. In the last reply, which may contain zero or more names, this field
is set to zero.

ListFontsWithXInfo

pattern:                STRING8
pattern:                STRING8
pattern:                STRING8
max-names:              CARD32
▶+                       
replies-following-hint: CARD32
info:                   XFONTINFO
name:                   STRING8
Errors:                 Alloc

This request is similar to ListFonts except that a separate reply containing
the name, header, and property data is generated for each matching font name.
Following these replies, if any, a final reply containing a zero-length NAME
and no INFO is sent.

The REPLIES-FOLLOWING-HINT field in all but the last reply contains a positive
value that specifies the number of replies that are likely, but not required,
to follow. In the last reply, this field is set to zero.

If PATTERN is of zero length or if MAX-NAMES is equal to zero, only the final
reply containing a zero-length NAME and no INFO is returned. This may be used
to synchronize the client with the server.

OpenBitmapFont

fontid:        FONTID
pattern:       STRING8
format-mask:   BITMAPFORMATMASK
format-hint:   BITMAPFORMAT
▶               
otherid:       FONTID or None
otherid-valid: BOOL
cachable:      BOOL
Errors:        IDChoice, Name, Format, AccessContext, Alloc

This request looks for a server-dependent choice of the font names that match
the specified PATTERN according to the rules described for ListFonts. If no
matches are found, a Name error is returned. Otherwise, the server attempts to
open the font associated with the chosen name.

Permission to access the font is determined by the server according the
licensing policy used for this font. The server may use the client's current 
AccessContext (as set by the most recent SetAuthorization request or the
original connection setup) to determine any client-specific sets of
permissions. After the font has been opened, the client is allowed to specify a
new AccessContext with SetAuthorization or release the AccessContext using
FreeAC . Subsequent QueryXInfo, QueryXExtents8, QueryXExtents16, QueryXBitmaps8
, QueryXBitmaps16 and CloseFont requests on this FONTID are performed according
to permissions granted at the time of the OpenBitmapFont request.

If the server is willing and able to detect that the client has already opened
the font successfully (possibly under a different name), the OTHERID field may
be set to one of the identifiers previously used to open the font. The
OTHERID-VALID field indicates whether or not OTHERID is still associated with
an open font: if it is True, the client may use OTHERID as an alternative to
FONTID. Otherwise, if OTHERID-VALID is False, OTHERID is no longer open but has
not been reused by a subsequent OpenBitmapFont request.

If OTHERID is set to None, then OTHERID-VALID should be set to False.

The FORMAT-MASK indicates which fields in FORMAT-HINT the client is likely to
use in subsequent GetXBitmaps8 and GetXBitmaps16 requests. Servers may wish to
use this information to precompute certain values.

If CACHABLE is set to True, the client may cache the font (so that redundant
opens of the same font may be avoided) and use it with all AccessContexts
during the life of the client without violating the font's licensing policy.
This flag is typically set whenever a font is unlicensed or is licensed on a
per-display basis. If CACHABLE is False, the client should reopen the font for
each AccessContext.

The server is permitted to add to or remove from the set of fonts returned by
ListFonts between any two requests, though mechanisms outside the protocol.
Therefore, it is possible for this request (which is atomic) to return a
different font than would result from separate a ListFonts followed by an
OpenBitmapFont with a non-wildcarded font name.

If FONTID is not in the range [1..2^29-1] or if it is already associated with
an open font, an IDChoice error is returned. If no font is available that
matches the specified PATTERN, a Name error is returned. If the font is present
but the client is not permitted access, an AccessContext error is returned. If
FORMAT-MASK has any unspecified bits set or if any of the fields in FORMAT-HINT
indicated by FORMAT-MASK are invalid, a Format error is returned.

QueryXInfo

fontid: FONTID
▶        
info:   XFONTINFO
Errors: Font, Alloc

This request returns the font header and property information for the open font
associated with FONTID.

If FONTID is not associated with any open fonts, a Font error is returned.

QueryXExtents8

fontid:  FONTID
range:   BOOL
chars:   STRING8
▶         
extents: LISTofXCHARINFO
Errors:  Font, Range, Alloc

This request is equivalent to QueryXExtents16 except that it uses 1-byte
character codes.

QueryXExtents16

fontid:  FONTID
range:   BOOL
chars:   LISTofCHAR2B
▶         
extents: LISTofXCHARINFO
Errors:  Font, Range, Alloc

This request returns a list of glyph extents from the open font associated with
FONTID for the series of characters specified by RANGE and CHARS.

If RANGE is True, each succeeding pair of elements in CHARS is treated as a
range of characters for which extents should be returned. If CHARS contains an
odd number of elements, the font's XFONTINFO.CHAR-RANGE.MAX-CHAR is implicitly
appended to the list. If CHARS contains no elements, the list is implicitly
replaced with the font's XFONTINFO.CHAR-RANGE. If any of the resulting
character ranges are invalid, a Range error is returned. Otherwise, the
character ranges are concatenated in the order given by CHARS to produce a set
of character codes for which extents are returned.

If RANGE is False, then CHARS specifies the set of character codes for which
extents are returned. If CHARS is of zero length, then a zero-length list of
extents is returned.

The extents for each character code in the resulting set (which may contain
duplicates) are returned in the order in which the character codes appear in
the set. At least one metric for each character shall be non-zero unless the
character is not encoded in the font, in which case all-zero metrics are
returned. A blank, zero-width character can be encoded with non-zero but equal
left and right bearings.

If FONTID is not associated with any open fonts, a Font error is returned. If
RANGE is True and CHARS contains any invalid ranges, a Range error is returned.

QueryXBitmaps8

fontid:                 FONTID
range:                  BOOL
chars:                  STRING8
format:                 BITMAPFORMAT
▶+                       
replies-following-hint: CARD32
offsets:                LISTofOFFSET32
bitmaps:                LISTofBYTE
Errors:                 Font, Range, Format, Alloc

This request is equivalent to QueryXBitmaps16 except that it uses 1-byte
character codes.

QueryXBitmaps16

fontid:                 FONTID
range:                  BOOL
chars:                  LISTofCHAR2B
format:                 BITMAPFORMAT
▶+                       
replies-following-hint: CARD32
offsets:                LISTofOFFSET32
bitmaps:                LISTofBYTE
Errors:                 Font, Range, Format, Alloc

This request returns a list of glyph bitmaps from the open font associated with
FONTID for the series of characters specified by RANGE and CHARS.

If RANGE is True, each succeeding pair of elements in CHARS is treated as a
range of characters for which bitmaps should be returned. If CHARS contains an
odd number of elements, the font's XFONTINFO.CHAR-RANGE.MAX-CHAR is implicitly
appended to the list. If CHARS contains no elements, the list is implicitly
replaced with the font's XFONTINFO.CHAR-RANGE. If any of the resulting
character ranges are invalid, a Range error is returned. Otherwise, the
character ranges are concatenated in the order given by CHARS to produce a set
of character codes for which bitmaps are returned.

If RANGE is False, then CHARS specifies the set of character codes for which
bitmaps are returned. If CHARS is of zero length, then a single reply
containing a zero-length list of offsets and bitmaps is returned.

If any of the resulting character ranges are invalid, a Range error is
returned. Otherwise, the resulting character ranges are concatenated in the
order given by CHARS to produce a set of character codes for which bitmaps are
returned.

The server is free to return the glyph bitmaps in multiple replies to reduce
the amount of buffering that is necessary. In this situation, the set of
characters obtained above is partitioned into an implementation-dependent
number of ordered, non-overlapping subsets containing runs of one or more
consecutive characters. The global ordering of characters must be maintained
such that concatenating the subsets in order that they were produced yields the
original set. A reply is generated for each subset, in the order that it was
produced.

For each character in a subset, an image of that character's glyph is described
by a rectangle of bits corresponding to the pixels specified by
FORMAT.IMAGE-RECT. Within the image, set and clear bits represent inked and
non-inked pixels, respectively.

Each scanline of a glyph image, from top to bottom, is zero-padded on the right
to a multiple of the number of bits specified by FORMAT.SCANLINE-PAD. The
scanline is then divided from left to right into a sequence of
FORMAT.SCANLINE-UNIT bits. The bits of each unit are then arranged such that
the left-most pixel is stored in the most- or least-significant bit, according
to FORMAT.BIT-ORDER-MSB. The bytes of each unit are then arranged such that the
most- or least-significant byte, according to FORMAT.BYTE-ORDER-MSB, is
transmitted first. Finally, the units are arranged such that the left-most is
transmitted first and the right-most is transmitted last.

The individual images within a subset are then concatenated in a
server-dependent order to form the BITMAPS data of the reply. If a glyph image
is duplicated within a reply, the server is free to return fewer (but at least
one) copies of the image. If a character is not encoded within the font, a
zero-length bitmap is substituted for this character. Each glyph image must
begin at a bit position that is a multiple of the FORMAT.SCANLINE-UNIT.

The OFFSETS array in a reply contains one entry for each character in the
subset being returned, in the order that the characters appear in the subset.
Each entry specifies the starting location in bytes and size in bytes of the
corresponding glyph image in the BITMAPS data of that reply (i.e. an offset may
not refer to data in another reply).

The REPLIES-FOLLOWING-HINT field in all but the last reply contains a positive
value that specifies the number of replies that are likely, but not required,
to follow. In the last reply, which may contain data for zero or more
characters, this field is set to zero.

If FONTID is not associated with any open fonts, a Font error is returned. If
RANGE is True and CHARS contains any invalid ranges, a Range error is returned.
If FORMAT is invalid, a Format error is returned.

CloseFont

fontid: FONTID
Errors: Font, Alloc

This request indicates that the specified FONTID should no longer be associated
with an open font. The server is free to release any client-specific storage or
licenses allocated for the font. The client may reuse the value of FONTID in a
subsequent OpenBitmapFont request.

If FONTID is not associated with any open fonts, a Font error is returned.

close connection

When a connection is closed, a CloseFont is done on all fonts that are open on
the connection. In addition, the server is free to release any storage or
licenses allocated on behalf of the client that made the connection.

Errors

All errors are at least 16 bytes long and contain the following fields:

type:            CARD8     value of 1
error-code:      CARD8      
sequence-number: CARD16     
length:          CARD32     
timestamp:       TIMESTAMP  
major-opcode:    CARD8      
minor-opcode:    CARD8      
data-or-unused:  CARD16     

The TYPE field has a value of one. The ERROR-CODE field specifies which error
occurred. Core errors codes are in the range 0 through 127, extension error
codes are in the range 128 through 255. The SEQUENCE-NUMBER field contains the
least significant 16 bits of the sequence number of the request that caused the
error. The LENGTH field specifies the length of the error packet in 4-byte
units and must have a value of at least 4. The TIMESTAMP specifies the server
time when the error occurred. The MAJOR-OPCODE and MINOR-OPCODE (zero for core
requests) fields specify the type of request that generated the error. The
DATA-OR-UNUSED field may be used for 16 bits of error-specific information. If
LENGTH is greater than four, these fields are followed by (LENGTH - 4) * 4
bytes of extra data.

The following errors are defined for the core protocol:

Request

data-or-unused:  CARD16 unused

This error is generated by any request that has an unknown combination of major
and minor request numbers, or by any extension request that is issued before a
QueryExtension of that extension.

Format

data-or-unused: CARD16       unused
format:         BITMAPFORMAT bad format value

This error is generated by the use of an invalid BITMAPFORMAT in the
OpenBitmapFont, QueryXBitmaps8, and QueryXBitmaps16 requests. The value that
caused the error is included as extra data.

Font

data-or-unused: CARD16 unused
fontid:         FONTID bad font identifier

This error is generated by an invalid FONTID in the QueryXInfo, QueryXExtents8,
QueryXExtents16, QueryXBitmaps8, QueryXBitmaps16 and CloseFont requests. The
value that caused the error is included as extra data.

Range

data-or-unused: CARD16 unused
range:          RANGE  bad range

This error is generated by an invalid RANGE in the QueryXExtents8,
QueryXExtents16, QueryXBitmaps8 and QueryXBitmaps16 requests. The value that
caused the error is included as extra data.

EventMask

data-or-unused: CARD16    unused
event-mask:     EVENTMASK bad event mask

This error is generated by an invalid EVENTMASK in the SetEventMask request.
The value that caused the error is included as extra data.

AccessContext

data-or-unused: CARD16        unused
ac:             ACCESSCONTEXT unaccepted AccessContext

This error is generated by an invalid ACCESSCONTEXT in the FreeAC or
SetAuthorization request or by an OpenBitmapFont request performed without
sufficient authorization. In the first two cases, the ACCESSCONTEXT of the
errant request is returned as extra data. In the third case, the current
ACCESSCONTEXT is returned as extra data.

IDChoice

data-or-unused: CARD16 unused
id:             ID     bad identifier

This error is generated by an invalid or already associated ACCESSCONTEXT
identifier in a CreateAC request or FONTID identifier in an OpenBitmapFont
request. The value that caused the error is included as extra data.

Name

data-or-unused:  CARD16 unused

This error is generated by a font name pattern that matches no fonts in an
OpenBitmapFont request or no catalogue names in a SetCatalogues request.

Resolution

data-or-unused: CARD16 X value of errant resolution
y-resolution:   CARD16 Y value of errant resolution
point-size:     CARD16 point size of errant resolution

This error is generated in response to an invalid RESOLUTION structure in a
SetResolution request. The value that caused the error is included in the
DATA-OR-UNUSED field and as extra data.

Alloc

data-or-unused:  CARD16 unused

This error is generated by any request for which the server lacks sufficient
resources (especially memory).

Length

data-or-unused: CARD16 unused
length:         CARD32 bad length value

This error is generated by any request that has a length field greater than
(MAXIMUM-REQUEST-LENGTH * 4) bytes. The value that caused the error is included
as extra data.

Implementation

data-or-unused:  CARD16 unused

This error may be generated in response to any request that the server is
unable to process because it is deficient. Use of this error is highly
discouraged and indicates lack of conformance to the protocol.

Extensions

Additional errors may be defined by extensions.

Events

Events may be generated in response to requests or at the server's discretion
after the initial connection setup information has been exchanged. Each event
is at least 12 bytes long and contains the following fields:

type:            CARD8     value of 2
event-code:      CARD8      
sequence-number: CARD16     
length:          CARD32     
timestamp:       TIMESTAMP  

The TYPE field contains the value 2. The EVENT-CODE field specifies the number
of the event and is in the range 0-127 for core events or the range 128-255 for
extensions. The SEQUENCE-NUMBER field specifies the least significant 16 bits
of the sequence number of the last request to have been processed by the
server. The LENGTH field specifies the number of 4-byte units in this event
packet and must always have a value of at least 3. The TIMESTAMP field
specifies the server time when the event occurred. If LENGTH is greater than
three, these fields are followed by (LENGTH - 3) * 4 bytes of additional data.

Events are described using the following syntax:

    EventName

    arg1: type1
    ...    
    argN: typeN

    Description

If an event does not provide any extra arguments, the arg1...argN lines are
omitted from the description.

The core X Font Service protocol defines the following events:

KeepAlive

This unsolicited, nonmaskable event may be sent by the server to verify that
the connection has not been broken (for transports that do not provide this
information). Clients should acknowledge receipt of this request by sending any
request (such as NoOp ).

CatalogueListNotify

added:    BOOL
deleted:  BOOL

This event is sent to clients that have included CatalogueListChangeMask in
their core event mask whenever the list of catalogues that are available has
changed. The ADDED field is True if new catalogues have been added to the
server, otherwise it is False. The DELETED field is True if any existing
catalogues have been removed from the server, otherwise it is False.

FontListNotify

added:    BOOL
deleted:  BOOL

This event is sent to clients that have included FontListChangeMask in their
event mask whenever the list of fonts that are provided by the currently
selected catalogues has changed. The ADDED field is True if new fonts have been
added to any of the catalogues currently used by the client, otherwise it is
False. The DELETED field is True if any existing fonts have been removed from
any of catalogues used by the client, otherwise it is False.

Extensions

Additional events may be defined by extensions.

Chapter 5. Protocol Encoding

Table of Contents

Data Types
Requests
Errors
Events

Numbers that are prefixed with “#x” are in hexadecimal (base 16). All other
numbers are in decimal. Requests, replies, errors, events, and compound types
are described using the syntax:


    Name
     count          contents     name
     ...
     count          contents     name

where COUNT is the number of bytes in the data stream occupied by this field,
CONTENTS is the name of the type as given in Section 4 or the value if this
field contains a constant, and NAME is a description of this field.

Objects containing counted lists use a lowercase single-letter variable (whose
scope is limited to the request, reply, event, or error in which it is found)
to represent the number of objects in the list. These variables, and any
expressions in which they are used, should be treated as unsigned integers.
Multiple copies of an object are indicated by CONTENTS prefix “LISTof”.

Unused bytes (whose value is undefined) will have a blank CONTENTS field and a
NAME field of “unused”. Zeroed bytes (whose value must be zero) will have a
blank CONTENTS field and a NAME field of “zero”. The expression pad(e) refers
to the number of bytes needed to round a value “e” up to the closed multiple of
four:


     pad(e) = (4 - (e mod 4)) mod 4

Data Types

ACCESSCONTEXT
4     CARD32                 access context

      with at least one of the following bits set:

        #x1fffffff

      but none of the following bits set:

        #xe0000000        zero


ALTERNATESERVER
1     BOOL                   subset
1     n                      length of name
n     STRING8                name
p                            unused, p=pad(n+2)

AUTH
2     n                      length of name
2     d                      length of data
n     STRING8                name
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
d     STRING8                data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)


BITMAPFORMAT
4     CARD32                 value, union of the following bits:

        #x00000001        ByteOrderMSB
        #x00000002        BitOrderMSB
        #x00000000        ImageRectMin
        #x00000004        ImageRectMaxWidth
        #x00000008        ImageRectMax
        #x00000000        ScanlinePad8
        #x00000100        ScanlinePad16
        #x00000200        ScanlinePad32
        #x00000300        ScanlinePad64
        #x00000000        ScanlineUnit8
        #x00001000        ScanlineUnit16
        #x00002000        ScanlineUnit32
        #x00003000        ScanlineUnit64

      except for the following bits which must be zero:

        #xffffccf0        zero

      and the following of which at most one bit may be set:

        #x0000000c        at most one bit can be set


BITMAPFORMATMASK
4     CARD32                 value, mask of the following bits:

        #x00000001        ByteOrderMask
        #x00000002        BitOrderMask
        #x00000004        ImageRectMask
        #x00000008        ScanlinePadMask
        #x00000010        ScanlineUnitMask

      except for the following bits which must be zero:

        #xffffffe0        zero

BOOL
1     BOOL                   boolean, one of the following values:
        0                 False
        1                 True

BYTE
1     BYTE                   unsigned byte of data

CARD8
1     CARD8                  8-bit unsigned integer

CARD16
2     CARD16                 16-bit unsigned integer

CARD32
4     CARD32                 32-bit unsigned integer

CHAR2B
1     CARD8                  byte1
1     CARD8                  byte2

EVENTMASK
4     CARD32                 event mask

      for core events, this is union of the following bits:

        #00000001         CatalogueListChangeMask
        #00000002         FontListChangeMask

      but none of the following bits set:

        #fffffffc

      extensions define their own sets of bits

FONTID
4     CARD32                 font identifier

      with at least one of the following bits set:

        #x1fffffff

      but none of the following bits set:

        #xe0000000        zero

INT8
1     INT8                   8-bit signed integer

INT16
2     INT16                  16-bit signed integer

INT32
4     INT32                  32-bit signed integer

OFFSET32
4     CARD32                 position (or integer value)
4     CARD32                 length

PROPINFO
4     n                      number of PROPOFFSET components
4     m                      number of bytes of property data
20*n  PROPOFFSET             property offsets into data block
m     LISTofBYTE             property data block

PROPOFFSET
8     OFFSET32               name in data block
8     OFFSET32               value in data block
1     CARD8                  type, one of the following values:
        0                 String
        1                 Unsigned
        2                 Signed
        3                 zero

RANGE
2     CHAR2B                 minimum character code
2     CHAR2B                 maximum character code

RESOLUTION
2     CARD16                 x resolution in pixels per inch
2     CARD16                 y resolution in pixels per inch
2     CARD16                 point size in decipoints

STRNAME
1     n                      length of name
n     STRING8                name

STRING8
n     LISTofBYTE             array of 8-bit character values

TIMESTAMP
4     CARD32                 milliseconds since server time origin

XCHARINFO
2     INT16                  left bearing
2     INT16                  right bearing
2     INT16                  width
2     INT16                  ascent
2     INT16                  descent
2     CARD16                 attributes

XFONTINFO
4     CARD32                 flags, union of the following bits:

        #x00000001        AllCharactersExist
        #x00000002        InkInside
        #x00000004        HorizontalOverlap

      but none of the following bits set:

        #xfffffff8        zero

4     RANGE                  range of characters in font
1     CARD8                  drawing direction
        0                 LeftToRight
        1                 RightToLeft
1                            unused
2     CHAR2B                 default character
12    XCHARINFO              minimum bounds
12    XCHARINFO              maximum bounds
2     INT16                  font ascent
2     INT16                  font descent
n     PROPINFO               property data

Requests

open connection

1     BYTE                   byteorder, one of the values:
        #x42              MostSignificant Byte first
        #x6c              LeastSignificant Byte first
1     CARD8                  numberof auth in auth-data
2     2                      client-major-protocol-version
2     0                      client-minor-protocol-version
2     a/4 lengthof           auth-data
a     LISTofAUTH             auth-data
▶
2     CARD16                 status
        0                 Success
        1                 Continue
        2                 Busy
        3                 Denied
2     2                      major version
2     0                      version
1     CARD8                  numberof alternate-servers-hint
1     CARD8                  authorization-index
2     a/4                    lengthof alternate-servers-hint
2     (d+q)/4                lengthof authorization-data
a     LISTofALTERNATESERVER  alternate-servers-hint
d     LISTofBYTE             authorization-data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)

If STATUS is Busy or Denied, the protocol stops and the connection is closed.
If STATUS is Continue, the client is expected to respond with additional data,
to which the server responds with a new status value and more data. This dialog
continues until the status is set to Success, or until the server sets STATUS
to Busy or Denied and closes the connection:

◀
4     1+(d+q)/4              length
d     LISTofBYTE             more-authorization-data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)
▶
4     2+(d+q)/4              length
2     CARD16                 status
        0                 Success
        1                 Continue
        2                 Busy
        3                 Denied
2                            unused
d     LISTofBYTE             more-authorization-data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)

When STATUS is Success, the protocol resumes with the following sent by the
server:

4     3+(v+w)/4              length of rest of data
2     CARD16                 maximum-request-length
2     v                      length of vendor string
4     CARD32                 release-number
v     STRING8                vendor-string
w                            unused, w=pad(v)

Once the connection has been established, the client may send the following
requests:

NoOp
1   0                        major-opcode
1                            unused
2   1                        length

ListExtensions
1   1                        major-opcode
1                            unused
2   1                        length
▶
1   0                        type reply
1   CARD8                    numberof names
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   2+(n+p)/4                length
n   LISTofSTRNAME            names
p                            unused, p=pad(n)

QueryExtension
1   2                        major-opcode
1   n                        length of name
2   1+(n+p)/4                length
n   STRING8                  name
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶
1   0                        type reply
1   BOOL                     present
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
2   CARD16                   major-version
2   CARD16                   minor-version
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    first-event
1   CARD8                    number-events
1   CARD8                    first-error
1   CARD8                    number-errors
3                            unused

ListCatalogues
1   3                        major-opcode
1                            unused
2   3+(n+p)/4                length
4   CARD32                   max-names
2   n                        length of pattern
2                            unused
n   STRING8                  pattern
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶+
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4+(n+p)/4                length
4   CARD32                   replies-following-hint
4   CARD32                   numberof catalogue-names
n   LISTofSTRNAME            catalogue-names
p                            unused, p=pad(n)

SetCatalogues
1   4                        major-opcode
1   CARD8                    numberof catalogue-names
2   1+(n+p)/4                length
n   LISTofSTRNAME            catalogue-names
p                            unused, p=pad(n)

GetCatalogues
1   5                        major-opcode
1                            unused
2   1                        length
▶
1   0                        type reply
1   CARD8                    numberof catalogue-names
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   2+(n+p)/4                length
n   LISTofSTRNAME            catalogue-names
p                            unused, p=pad(n)

SetEventMask
1   6                        major-opcode
1   CARD8                    extension-opcode
2   2                        length
4   EVENTMASK                event-mask

GetEventMask
1   7                        major-opcode
1   CARD8                    extension-opcode
2   1                        length
▶
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   3                        length
4   EVENTMASK                event-mask

CreateAC
1   8                        major-opcode
1   CARD8                    numberof authorization-protocols
2   2+a/4                    length
4   ACCESSCONTEXT            ac
a   LISTofAUTH               authorization-protocols
▶
1   0                        type reply
1   CARD8                    authorization-index
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   3+(d+q)/4                length
2   CARD16                   status
        0                    Success
        1                    Continue
        2                    Busy
        3                    Denied
2                            unused
d   LISTofBYTE               authorization-data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)

If STATUS is Continue, the client is expected to respond with additional data,
to which the server responds with a new status value and more data. This dialog
continues until the status is set to Success, Busy, or Denied at which point
the request is finished.

◀
4   1+(d+q)/4                length
d   LISTofBYTE               more-authorization-data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)
▶
4   2+(d+q)/4                length
2   CARD16                   status
        0                    Success
        1                    Continue
        2                    Busy
        3                    Denied
2                            unused
d   LISTofBYTE               authorization-data
q                            unused, q=pad(d)

FreeAC
1   9                        major-opcode
1                            unused
2   2                        length
4   ACCESSCONTEXT            ac

SetAuthorization
1   10                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   2                        length
4   ACCESSCONTEXT            ac

SetResolution
1   11                       major-opcode
1   n                        number of resolutions
2   1+(6*n+p)/4              length
6*n LISTofRESOLUTION         resolutions
p   p=pad(6*n)

GetResolution
1   12                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   1                        length
▶
1   0                        type reply
1   n                        number of resolutions
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   2+(6*n+p)/4              length
6*n LISTofRESOLUTION         resolutions
p   p=pad(6*n)

ListFonts
1   13                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   3+(n+p)/4                length
4   CARD32                   max-names
2   n                        length of pattern
2                            unused
n   STRING8                  pattern
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶+
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4+(n+p)/4                length
4   CARD32                   replies-following-hint
4   CARD32                   numberof font-names
n   LISTofSTRNAME            font-names
p                            unused, p=pad(n)

ListFontsWithXInfo
1   14                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   3+(n+p)/4                length
4   CARD32                   max-names
2   n                        length of pattern
2                            unused
n   STRING8                  pattern
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶+ (except for last in series)
1   0                        type reply
1   n                        length of name
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   3+(n+p+f)/4              length
4   CARD32                   replies-hint
f   XFONTINFO                fontinfo
n   STRING8                  name
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶ (last in series)
1   0                        type reply
1   0                        last-reply indicator
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   2                        reply length

OpenBitmapFont
1   15                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   4+(n+p)/4                length
4   FONTID                   fontid
4   BITMAPFORMATMASK         format-mask
4   BITMAPFORMAT             format
n   STRNAME                  pattern
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶
1   0                        type reply
1   BOOL                     otherid-valid
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   FONTID                   otherid
1   BOOL                     cachable
3                            unused

QueryXInfo
1   16                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   2                        length
4   FONTID                   fontid
▶
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   2+f/4                    length
f   XFONTINFO                fontinfo
p                            unused, p=pad(f)

QueryXExtents8
1   17                       major-opcode
1   BOOL                     range
2   3+(n+p)/4                length
4   FONTID                   fontid
4   n                        number chars entries
n   STRING8                  chars
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   3+3*n                    length
4   n                        number of extents
12*n LISTofXCHARINFO         extents

QueryXExtents16
1   18                       major-opcode
1   BOOL                     range
2   3+(2*n+p)/4              length
4   FONTID                   fontid
4   n                        number chars entries
2*n                          LISTofCHAR2B chars
p                            unused, p=pad(2*n)
▶
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   3+3*n                    length
4   n                        number of extents
12*n LISTofXCHARINFO         extents

QueryXBitmaps8
1   19                       major-opcode
1   BOOL                     range
2   4+(n+p)/4                length
4   FONTID                   fontid
4   BITMAPFORMAT             format
4   n                        number of chars entries
n   STRING8                  chars
p                            unused, p=pad(n)
▶+
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5+2*n+(m+p)/4            length
4   CARD32                   replies-following-hint
4   n                        number of offsets
4   m                        number of bytes of glyph images
8*n LISTofOFFSET32           offsets
m   LISTofBYTE               glyphimages
p                            unused, p=pad(m)

QueryXBitmaps16
1   20                       major-opcode
1   BOOL                     range
2   4+(2*n+p)/4              length
4   FONTID                   fontid
4   BITMAPFORMAT             format
4   n                        number of chars entries
2*n LISTofCHAR2B             chars
p                            unused, p=pad(2*n)
▶
1   0                        type reply
1                            unused
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5+2*n+(m+p)/4            length
4   CARD32                   replies-following-hint
4   n                        number of offsets
4   m                        number of bytes of glyph images
8*n LISTofOFFSET32           offsets
m   LISTofBYTE               glyphimages
p                            unused, p=pad(m)

CloseFont
1   21                       major-opcode
1                            unused
2   2                        length
4   FONTID                   fontid

Errors


Request
1   1                        type error
1   0                        Request
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused

Format
1   1                        type error
1   1                        Format
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   BITMAPFORMAT             bad-format

Font
1   1                        type error
1   2                        Font
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   FONTID                   bad-fontid

Range
1   1                        type error
1   3                        Range
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   RANGE                    bad-range

EventMask
1   1                        type error
1   4                        EventMask
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   EVENTMASK                event-mask

AccessContext
1   1                        type error
1   5                        AccessContext
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   ACCESSCONTEXT            access context

IDChoice
1   1                        type error
1   6                        IDChoice
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   FONTID                   bad-fontid

Name
1   1                        type error
1   7                        Name
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused

Resolution
1   1                        type error
1   8                        Resolution
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
6   RESOLUTION               resolution

Alloc
1   1                        type error
1   9                        Alloc
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused

Length
1   1                        type error
1   10                       Length
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   5                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused
4   CARD32                   bad-length

Implementation
1   1                        type error
1   11                       Implementation
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   CARD8                    major-opcode
1   CARD8                    minor-opcode
2                            unused


Events

KeepAlive
1   2                        type event
1   0                        event KeepAlive
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   3                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp

CatalogueListNotify
1   2                        type event
1   1                        event CatalogueListNotify
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   BOOL                     added
1   BOOL                     deleted
2                            unused

FontListNotify
1   2                        type event
1   2                        event FontListNotify
2   CARD16                   sequence-number
4   4                        length
4   TIMESTAMP                timestamp
1   BOOL                     added
1   BOOL                     deleted
2                            unused


Chapter 6. Acknowledgements

This document represents the culmination of several years of debate and
experiments done under the auspices of the MIT X Consortium font working group.
Although this was a group effort, the author remains responsible for any errors
or omissions. The protocol presented here was primarily designed by Jim Fulton,
Keith Packard, and Bob Scheifler. Special thanks goes to Ned Batchelder, Jim 
Flowers, and Axel Deininger for their invigorating comments which never failed
to make this a better document. Stephen Gildea edited version 2 of this
document. Finally, David Lemke deserves great credit for designing and coding
the sample implementation.

References

All of the following documents are X Consortium standards available from the X
Consortium.

[1] X Window System Protocol Version 11. Robert W. Scheifler.

[2] Adobe Systems. Bitmap Distribution Format 2.1.

[3] X Consortium. X Logical Font Description Conventions, Version 1.5.

Appendix A. Suggested Licensing Policies

The authorization data passed by the client in the initial connection setup
information may be used by the font server to implement restrictions on which
fonts may be accessed. Furthermore, the font server is free to refuse new
connections at any time.

Configuration or management of the license restrictions is outside the scope of
the font service protocol and is done in a server-dependent manner. Possible
policies might include, but are not limited to, combinations of the following:

No restrictions

    anyone may access any fonts. The server neither refuses any connections nor
    generates AccessContext errors on any fonts. For environments without
    specially-licensed fonts, this is sufficient.

Per-machine

    only those clients connecting from a known set of machines are permitted
    access. The server could get the address of the connection and look in a
    list of allowed machines.

Per-user

    only a known set of users may access the fonts. The server can use the
    authorization data (such as a Kerberos ticket or a Secure RPC credential)
    to verify the identity of the user and then look in a list of allowed
    users.

Simultaneous Use

    only a certain number of clients may use a given font at any one time.
    Additional clients would receive AccessContext errors if they attempt to
    open the font. This is only effective if the initial clients keep the font
    open for the entire time that it is being used (even if all of the data has
    been transmitted and is being cached).

Postage Meter

    a particular font may only be accessed a limited number of times before its
    license must be renewed. Each time the font is opened, the server
    decrements a counter. When the counter reaches zero, all further attempts
    to open the font return an AccessContext error.

It should be noted that chaining of font servers (obtaining font data from
other font servers) may conflict with certain license policies.

Appendix B. Implementation Suggestions

Font server implementations will probably wish to use techniques such as the
following to avoid limits on the number of simultaneous connections:

  • The initial connection information returned by the font server contains the
    names of other font servers that may be used as substitutes. A font server
    may refuse to accept a connection, indicating that the client should try
    one of the alternatives instead.

  • On operating systems that support processing forking, font servers might
    choose to fork so that the child can continue processing the existing
    connections and the parent can accept new connections. Such implementations
    are encouraged to use shared memory so that in-memory font databases can be
    shared.

  • On operating systems that support passing stream file descriptors between
    processes, cooperating font servers could collect connections in a single
    process when there are few connections and spread them among several
    processes as the load increases.

  • If a font client is unable to connect to a server (as opposed to having the
    connection terminated), it should retry for an implementation-dependent
    length of time (see Xlib's handling of ECONNREFUSED in XConnDis.c).

Index

A

ACCESSCONTEXT, ACCESSCONTEXT
AllCharactersExist, XFONTINFO
ALTERNATESERVER, ALTERNATESERVER
AUTH, AUTH

B

BITMAPFORMAT, BITMAPFORMAT
BITMAPFORMATMASK, BITMAPFORMATMASK
BOOL, BOOL
BYTE, BYTE

C

CARD16, CARD8, CARD16, CARD32
CARD32, CARD8, CARD16, CARD32
CARD8, CARD8, CARD16, CARD32
CatalogueListNotify, CatalogueListNotify
CHAR2B, CHAR2B
close connection, close connection
CloseFont, CloseFont
CreateAC, CreateAC

E

Error Codes
    AccessContext, AccessContext
    Alloc, Length
    EventMask, EventMask
    Font, Font
    Format, Format
    IDChoice, IDChoice
    Implementation, Implementation
    Length, Length
    Name, Name
    Range, Range
    Request, Request
    Resolution, Resolution
EVENTMASK, EVENTMASK

F

FONTID, FONTID
FontListNotify, FontListNotify
FreeAC, FreeAC

G

GetCatalogues, GetCatalogues
GetEventMask, GetEventMask
GetResolution, GetResolution

H

horizontal escapement, XCHARINFO
HorizontalOverlap, XFONTINFO

I

ID, ID
ImageRectMax, BITMAPFORMAT
ImageRectMaxWidth, BITMAPFORMAT
ImageRectMin, BITMAPFORMAT
InkInside, XFONTINFO
INT16, INT8, INT16, INT32
INT32, INT8, INT16, INT32
INT8, INT8, INT16, INT32

K

KeepAlive, KeepAlive

L

LeftToRight, XFONTINFO
ListCatalogues, ListCatalogues
ListExtensions, ListExtensions
ListFonts, ListFonts
ListFontsWithXInfo, ListFontsWithXInfo

N

NoOp, NoOp

O

OFFSET32, OFFSET32
open connection, open connection
OpenBitmapFont, OpenBitmapFont

P

PROPINFO, PROPINFO
PROPOFFSET, PROPOFFSET

Q

QueryExtension, QueryExtension
QueryXBitmaps16, QueryXBitmaps16
QueryXBitmaps8, QueryXBitmaps8
QueryXExtents16, QueryXExtents16
QueryXExtents8, QueryXExtents8
QueryXInfo, QueryXInfo

R

RANGE, RANGE
RESOLUTION, RESOLUTION
RightToLeft, XFONTINFO

S

SetAuthorization, SetAuthorization
SetCatalogues, SetCatalogues
SetEventMask, SetEventMask
SetResolution, SetResolution
Signed, PROPOFFSET
String, PROPOFFSET
STRING8, STRING8

T

TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP

U

Unsigned, PROPOFFSET

X

XCHARINFO, XCHARINFO
XFONTINFO, XFONTINFO

