A path with heart

jeffpflueger has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Any ideas why the following path doesn't seem to point Image Magick to the TTF font there?

$x = $image -> [$count] -> Annotate (font=>'@/home/jeff/wildernessfrin
+ge-fonts/VERDANA.TTF', pointsize=>'10', gravity=>'Center', y=>"$yloca
+tion", x=>'100', fill=>'white', text=>"© $global::firstname $global::
+lastname\nWildernessFringe.com");
            die "$x" if "$x";
[download]

It used to work fine before the powers that be updated Perl on my server....and then all hell broke loose..... The path from root to my TTF file is: /home/jeff/wildernessfringe-fonts/VERDANA.TTF Here's the error I'm getting:

Warning 320: FreeType library is not available (/home/jeff/wildernessf
+ringe-fonts/VERDANA.TTF)
[download]

Thanks for any insight! "No matter where you go, there you are." Jeff Pflueger - Struggling Perl knowledge sponge

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Re: A path with heart by mattr (Curate) on May 02, 2002 at 09:06 UTC
Well, I just fixed (for the second time) an installation on a virtual hosting provider that did the same thing so here are some clues. It was DBI stuff not FreeType but anyway. First time around, the reason was that the provider decided to fix the recent BSD security hole. By upgrading the OS, so I had to recompile four modules (DBI,DBD,SQL::Statement,Text::CSV). I had these modules in my own directory (included with -I on the bang line) since they weren't supplied. Also it was upgraded to Perl 5.6. They said "it was supposed to be compatible" but whatever. Second time around (today), I found the provider had installed a later version of DBI than my own (1.13 to 1.18), which superseeded mine, so I got a DBI object version error. Fixed by using their modules, though I'm wondering if it will break again if they install SQL and Text later. Is it possible that you have your own installation of Image Magick or truetype and it has been superseded by an installation recently made by the provider? I was thinking about how to guard against this in the future, and the only thing I came up with was having my own local Perl install. This is a pain and I'm starting to think that you just can't trust a provider not to break a system you're depending on.. hope this helps.	[reply]
Re: A path with heart by hatter (Pilgrim) on May 02, 2002 at 08:46 UTC
The error sounds more like perl (or imagemagick, or the perl module itself) complaining that it doesn't understand TTFs any more, rather than an error with the actual font path. It's not something I've played with much myself, but I'd suggest you take a look (or get the Powers to take a look) at the config options that the imagemagick module takes, and make sure that TrueType/FreeType support is enabled. `the hatter`	[reply] [d/l]