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SETFONT(8)                             System Manager's Manual                            SETFONT(8)



NAME
       setfont - load EGA/VGA console screen font

SYNOPSIS
       setfont  [-O  font+umap.orig]  [-o  font.orig] [-om cmap.orig] [-ou umap.orig] [-N] [font.new
       ...] [-m cmap] [-u umap] [-C console] [-hH] [-v] [-V]

DESCRIPTION
       The setfont command reads a font from the file font.new and loads it into the EGA/VGA charac‐
       ter  generator,  and  optionally outputs the previous font.  It can also load various mapping
       tables and output the previous versions.

       If no args are given (or only the option -N for some number N), then a default (8xN) font  is
       loaded  (see  below).   One may give several small fonts, all containing a Unicode table, and
       setfont will combine them and load the union.  Typical use:

       setfont
              Load a default font.

       setfont drdos8x16
              Load a given font (here the 448-glyph drdos font).

       setfont cybercafe -u cybercafe
              Load a given font that does not have a Unicode map and provide one explicitly.

       setfont LatArCyrHeb-19 -m 8859-2
              Load a given font (here a 512-glyph font combining several character sets)  and  indi‐
              cate that one's local character set is ISO 8859-2.

       Note: if a font has more than 256 glyphs, only 8 out of 16 colors can be used simultaneously.
       It can make console perception worse (loss of intensity and even some colors).


FONT FORMATS
       The standard Linux font format is the PSF font.  It has a header describing  font  properties
       like  character size, followed by the glyph bitmaps, optionally followed by a Unicode mapping
       table giving the Unicode value for each glyph.  Several other  (obsolete)  font  formats  are
       recognized.   If  the  input file has code page format (probably with suffix .cp), containing
       three fonts with sizes e.g. 8x8, 8x14 and 8x16, then one of the options -8 or -14 or -16 must
       be  used  to select one.  Raw font files are binary files of size 256*N bytes, containing bit
       images for each of 256 characters, one byte per scan line, and N bytes per character (0  <  N
       <= 32).  Most fonts have a width of 8 bits, but with the framebuffer device (fb) other widths
       can be used.


FONT HEIGHT
       The program setfont has no built-in knowledge of VGA video modes, but just asks the kernel to
       load the character ROM of the video card with certain bitmaps. However, since Linux 1.3.1 the
       kernel knows enough about EGA/VGA video modes to select a different line  distance.  The  de‐
       fault  character  height  will be the number N inferred from the font or specified by option.
       However, the user can specify a different character height H using the -h option.


CONSOLE MAPS
       Several mappings are involved in the path from user program output to console display. If the
       console is in utf8 mode (see unicode_start(1)) then the kernel expects that user program out‐
       put is coded as UTF-8 (see utf-8(7)), and converts that  to  Unicode  (ucs2).   Otherwise,  a
       translation  table  is  used  from  the 8-bit program output to 16-bit Unicode values. Such a
       translation table is called a Unicode console map.  There are four of them: three built  into
       the  kernel,  the fourth settable using the -m option of setfont.  An escape sequence chooses
       between these four tables; after loading a cmap, setfont will output the escape sequence  Esc
       ( K that makes it the active translation.

       Suitable  arguments  for  the  -m option are for example 8859-1, 8859-2, ..., 8859-15, cp437,
       ..., cp1250.

       Given the Unicode value of the symbol to be displayed, the kernel finds the  right  glyph  in
       the font using the Unicode mapping info of the font and displays it.

       Old  fonts do not have Unicode mapping info, and in order to handle them there are direct-to-
       font maps (also loaded using -m) that give a correspondence between user bytes and font posi‐
       tions.   The most common correspondence is the one given in the file trivial (where user byte
       values are used directly as font positions).  Other correspondences are sometimes  preferable
       since the PC video hardware expects line drawing characters in certain font positions.

       Giving a -m none argument inhibits the loading and activation of a mapping table.  The previ‐
       ous console map can be saved to a file using the -om file option.  These options  of  setfont
       render mapscrn(8) obsolete. (However, it may be useful to read that man page.)


UNICODE FONT MAPS
       The  correspondence  between the glyphs in the font and Unicode values is described by a Uni‐
       code mapping table.  Many fonts have a Unicode mapping table included in the font  file,  and
       an  explicit table can be indicated using the -u option. The program setfont will load such a
       Unicode mapping table, unless a -u none argument is given. The previous Unicode mapping table
       will be saved as part of the saved font file when the -O option is used. It can be saved to a
       separate file using the -ou file option.  These options of setfont render loadunimap(8) obso‐
       lete.

       The  Unicode  mapping table should assign some glyph to the `missing character' value U+fffd,
       otherwise missing characters are not translated, giving a usually very confusing result.

       Usually no mapping table is needed, and a Unicode mapping table is already contained  in  the
       font  (sometimes this is indicated by the .psfu extension), so that most users need not worry
       about the precise meaning and functioning of these mapping tables.

       One may add a Unicode mapping table to a psf font using psfaddtable(1).


OPTIONS
       -h H   Override font height.

       -d     Doubles the size of the font, by replicating all of its pixels vertically and horizon‐
              tally.   This  is  suitable  for  high pixel density (e.g. "4k") displays on which the
              standard fonts are too small to be easily legible.  Due to kernel limitations, this is
              suitable only for 16x16 or smaller fonts.

       -m file
              Load console map or Unicode console map from file.

       -o file
              Save previous font in file.

       -O file
              Save previous font and Unicode map in file.

       -om file
              Store console map in file.

       -ou file
              Save previous Unicode map in file.

       -u file
              Load Unicode table describing the font from file.

       -C console
              Set the font for the indicated console. (May require root permissions.)

       -v     Be verbose.

       -V     Print version and exit.


NOTE
       PC  video hardware allows one to use the "intensity" bit either to indicate brightness, or to
       address 512 (instead of 256) glyphs in the font. So, if the font has more  than  256  glyphs,
       the console will be reduced to 8 (instead of 16) colors.


FILES
       /usr/share/consolefonts
              The default font directory.

       /usr/share/unimaps
              The default directory for Unicode maps.

       /usr/share/consoletrans
              The default directory for screen mappings.

       The  default font is a file default (or default8xN if the -N option was given for some number
       N) perhaps with suitable extension (like .psf).

SEE ALSO
       psfaddtable(1), unicode_start(1), loadunimap(8), utf-8(7), mapscrn(8)



kbd                                          11 Feb 2001                                  SETFONT(8)