I think I can... it seems that my original diagnosis
was incorrect (that is, you seem to be setting up the
fonts just fine). However, there is a part of our
program that needs to find a "system" font--one that will
be installed on all installations of X. I picked
"adobe-helvetica", thinking that it would come with all
X11 versions R6 and beyond, and that might have been a
mistake. This "OEM" font is used for drawing system
text in our widgets, like the text in our rulers.
Because I am unsure of the licensing restrictions on the
actual Adobe "Helvetica" Type 1 font program, I chose not
to distribute it with the fonts package (nor list it in
the fonts.dir). Also, this would have been somewhat
redundant on many systems. I also didn't have the font
metrics file for that font.
Is "adobe-helvetica" not available on your X platform?
Which operating system and X11 installation do you have?
It's also very possible that I assumed in my XLFD (the
font descriptor string listed in the error) some fields
that don't match the way the font is installed on your
system (like the availability of a 75 DPI font over a 100
DPI (I am requesting 75)).
-- Shaw Terwilliger