How do you know the correct name to use for X11 fonts for XTerm*faceName or xterm -fa <NAME>?

Solution 1:

The following one-liner has often helped me a lot to find the correct font name:

$ fc-list | cut -f2 -d: | sort -u

Especially with Japanese fonts like 'IPAX0208Mincho', I would never have been able to guess the correct name. If you don't mind a little more typing effort, you might even prefer

$ fc-list | cut -f2 -d: | sort -u | less -r

to get a paged output.

Solution 2:

You can use xfontsel to get the right name:

$ xfontsel

Chose the font you are interested in and then click on the "Select" button. That will copy the font name to the clipboard. Use that name to run xterm. E.g.:

$ xterm -font -adobe-helvetica-*-r-normal-*-12-120-*-*-*-*-*-*

Can't get it to work on my system (linux) using "-fa" but "-font" works.