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<p><strong>UPDATE 2019-06-24.</strong> I created <a href="https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/lemonbar-xft">my own
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fork</a> for this very
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purpose. See <a href="https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2019-06-24-lemonbar-xft-howto/">how I forked
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lemonbar-xft</a>.</p>
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<hr />
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<p>Lemonbar is a lightweight program that draws a panel on the viewport.
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The information on display is whatever is pipped to it.</p>
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<h2>The problem: upstream only works with bitmap fonts</h2>
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<p>Upstream <code>lemonbar</code> lacks support for proportional fonts and the
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corresponding interface with <code>fontconfig</code>.</p>
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<p>This is a disappointment because fixed/bitmap typefaces leave much to be
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desired:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>support for Greek glyphs is limited to a handful of typefaces such as
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<code>terminus</code>, <code>fixed</code>, <code>times</code>;</li>
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<li>the quality of bold variants can be lower than the regular ones;</li>
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<li>only specific point sizes work well;</li>
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<li>colours are less distinct on a light background.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>The solution: compile lemonbar-xft (my fork)</h2>
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<p>There is a popular alternative by GitHub user <em>krypt-n</em> that provides
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Xft support, but seems to <a href="https://github.com/krypt-n/bar/pull/37#issuecomment-473265449">have been
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discontinued</a>.
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So I have decided to pick it up and maintain it. To make sure it syncs
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with upstream’s <code>master</code> branch and builds correctly.</p>
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<p>So let us get going. First we need to get the build dependencies for
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Debian 10 Buster:</p>
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<pre><code>sudo apt install build-essential libx11-dev libxft-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev
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</code></pre>
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<p>Now clone my <code>lemonbar-xft</code> fork:</p>
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<pre><code>git clone https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/lemonbar-xft.git
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</code></pre>
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<p>Switch to that directory:</p>
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<pre><code>cd lemonbar-xft
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</code></pre>
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<p>Compile it and install it system-wide:</p>
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<pre><code>make
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sudo make install
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</code></pre>
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<p>Or if you are like me, compile it just for your current user, by placing
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the artifacts in your home directory. This assumes you have configured
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<code>$HOME/bin</code> to be part of <code>PATH</code>.</p>
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<pre><code>make PREFIX="$HOME" install
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</code></pre>
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<p>Uninstalling it requires the same steps, except you just pass the
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<code>uninstall</code> argument.</p>
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<p>Done! Now <code>lemonbar</code> can use any typeface supported by <code>fontconfig</code>.
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Make sure you <code>apt remove lemonbar</code> in case you had the upstream
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package.</p>
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<h2>Closing thoughts</h2>
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<p>I generally stick to the packages provided by Debian. This is an
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exception because:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Lemonbar is developed at a slow pace, so I can afford to inspect all
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commits.</li>
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<li>It is a small program that compiles in virtually no time. I am
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fairly confident that combined with the above, the compilation
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process will not become more complex in the foreseeable future.</li>
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<li>Upstream does not offer any good reason why it does not consider Xft
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support (see <a href="https://github.com/LemonBoy/bar/issues/188">#188</a>).
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This leads me to believe that there will be no progress on this
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front, at least not with how things currently stand.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>The above granted, I am still not sure whether I will make changes to my
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<a href="https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/dotfiles">custom desktop session</a>, which
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still uses upstream <code>lemonbar</code>. I might just add a reference in my
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<a href="https://protesilaos.com/pdfd/">Prot’s Dots For Debian</a> for users that
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want to follow the instruction documented herein.</p>
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