SETFONT(8)                                            International Support                                           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 character 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 indicate 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 percep-
       tion 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),  con-
       taining  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 default 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 output 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 positions.  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 previous 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 Unicode 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) obsolete.

       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 indi-
       cated by the .psfu extension), so that most users need not worry about the precise meaning and functioning of these  map-
       ping tables.

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


OPTIONS
       -h H   Override font height.

       -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
       /lib/kbd/consolefonts is the default font directory.   /lib/kbd/unimaps  is  the  default  directory  for  Unicode  maps.
       /lib/kbd/consoletrans is 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)



                                                           11 Feb 2001                                                SETFONT(8)