setfont
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
NAME
setfont - load EGA/VGA console screen font
SYNOPSIS
setfont [-o font.orig] [-fontsize] [font.new] [-m cmap]
[-om cmap.orig] [-u umap] [-ou umap.orig]
DESCRIPTION
The setfont command loads a font into the EGA/VGA charac-
ter generator, and optionally outputs the previous font.
This command reads an 8xH font from the file and loads it
into the character generator memory. Usually the font size
H will be clear from the file size, but if the input file
has code page format, containing the three fonts 8x8, 8x14
and 8x16, the option -8 or -14 or -16 must be used to
select one. If no args are given (or only the option
-fontsize ), then a default font is loaded.
As currently there is no mode switching support in the
Linux kernel, setfont has nothing to do with the current
EGA/VGA mode. It's totally user's responsibility to choose
a font matching the current video mode.
Font files are binary files of size 256*H bytes, contain-
ing bit images for each of 256 characters, one byte per
scan line, and H bytes per character (0 < H <= 32). Also
.psf files are accepted; these files have the same format
but an additional 4 byte header.
The ordering of the symbols in the font is described by a
mapping table. Some fonts have a mapping table included in
the font file, and setfont will load such a mapping table.
If no explicit mapping table is included in the font, and
no mapping table is provided using the -m option, the
`trivial' mapping is assumed. In any case the mapping
table just loaded is activated by outputting the string
Esc ( K. Giving a -m none argument inhibits the loading
and activation of a mapping table. The previous mapping
table can be saved to a file using the -om file option.
These options of setfont render mapscrn(8) obsolete.
The correspondence between the glyphs in the font and Uni-
code values is described by a Unicode mapping table. Some
fonts have a Unicode mapping table included in the font
file, and an explicit table can be indicated using the -u
option. Setfont will load such a Unicode mapping table,
unless a -u none argument is given. The previous Unicode
mapping table can be saved to a file using the -ou file
option.
One may add a Unicode mapping table to a psf font using
psfaddtable(1).
FILES
/usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts is the default directory for
fonts. /usr/lib/kbd/consoletrans is the default directory
for mappings.
SEE ALSO
mapscrn(8)
AUTHORS
Eugene G. Crosser (crosser@pccross.msk.su)
Andries E. Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
Copyright (C) 1998
Hurricane Electric.
All Rights Reserved.