1SETFONT(8) System Manager's Manual SETFONT(8)
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6 setfont - load EGA/VGA console screen font
7
9 setfont [-O font+umap.orig] [-o font.orig] [-om cmap.orig] [-ou
10 umap.orig] [-N] [font.new ...] [-m cmap] [-u umap] [-C console] [-hH]
11 [-f] [-v] [-V]
12
14 The setfont command reads a font from the file font.new and loads it
15 into the EGA/VGA character generator, and optionally outputs the previ‐
16 ous font. It can also load various mapping tables and output the pre‐
17 vious versions.
18 If no args are given (or only the option -N for some number N), then a
20 default (8xN) font is loaded (see below). One may give several small
21 fonts, all containing a Unicode table, and setfont will combine them
22 and load the union. Typical use:
23 setfont
25 Load a default font.
26 setfont drdos8x16
28 Load a given font (here the 448-glyph drdos font).
29 setfont cybercafe -u cybercafe
31 Load a given font that does not have a Unicode map and provide
32 one explicitly.
33 setfont LatArCyrHeb-19 -m 8859-2
35 Load a given font (here a 512-glyph font combining several char‐
36 acter sets) and indicate that one's local character set is ISO
37 8859-2.
38 Note: if a font has more than 256 glyphs, only 8 out of 16 colors can
40 be used simultaneously. It can make console perception worse (loss of
41 intensity and even some colors).
42
45 The standard Linux font format is the PSF font. It has a header de‐
46 scribing font properties like character size, followed by the glyph
47 bitmaps, optionally followed by a Unicode mapping table giving the Uni‐
48 code value for each glyph. Several other (obsolete) font formats are
49 recognized. If the input file has code page format (probably with suf‐
50 fix .cp), containing three fonts with sizes e.g. 8x8, 8x14 and 8x16,
51 then one of the options -8 or -14 or -16 must be used to select one.
52 Raw font files are binary files of size 256*N bytes, containing bit im‐
53 ages for each of 256 characters, one byte per scan line, and N bytes
54 per character (0 < N <= 32). Most fonts have a width of 8 bits, but
55 with the framebuffer device (fb) other widths can be used.
56
59 The program setfont has no built-in knowledge of VGA video modes, but
60 just asks the kernel to load the character ROM of the video card with
61 certain bitmaps. However, since Linux 1.3.1 the kernel knows enough
62 about EGA/VGA video modes to select a different line distance. The de‐
63 fault character height will be the number N inferred from the font or
64 specified by option. However, the user can specify a different charac‐
65 ter height H using the -h option.
66
69 Several mappings are involved in the path from user program output to
70 console display. If the console is in utf8 mode (see unicode_start(1))
71 then the kernel expects that user program output is coded as UTF-8 (see
72 utf-8(7)), and converts that to Unicode (ucs2). Otherwise, a transla‐
73 tion table is used from the 8-bit program output to 16-bit Unicode val‐
74 ues. Such a translation table is called a Unicode console map. There
75 are four of them: three built into the kernel, the fourth settable us‐
76 ing the -m option of setfont. An escape sequence chooses between these
77 four tables; after loading a cmap, setfont will output the escape se‐
78 quence Esc ( K that makes it the active translation.
79 Suitable arguments for the -m option are for example 8859-1, 8859-2,
81 ..., 8859-15, cp437, ..., cp1250.
82 Given the Unicode value of the symbol to be displayed, the kernel finds
84 the right glyph in the font using the Unicode mapping info of the font
85 and displays it.
86 Old fonts do not have Unicode mapping info, and in order to handle them
88 there are direct-to-font maps (also loaded using -m) that give a corre‐
89 spondence between user bytes and font positions. The most common cor‐
90 respondence is the one given in the file trivial (where user byte val‐
91 ues are used directly as font positions). Other correspondences are
92 sometimes preferable since the PC video hardware expects line drawing
93 characters in certain font positions.
94 Giving a -m none argument inhibits the loading and activation of a map‐
96 ping table. The previous console map can be saved to a file using the
97 -om file option. These options of setfont render mapscrn(8) obsolete.
98 (However, it may be useful to read that man page.)
99
102 The correspondence between the glyphs in the font and Unicode values is
103 described by a Unicode mapping table. Many fonts have a Unicode map‐
104 ping table included in the font file, and an explicit table can be in‐
105 dicated using the -u option. The program setfont will load such a Uni‐
106 code mapping table, unless a -u none argument is given. The previous
107 Unicode mapping table will be saved as part of the saved font file when
108 the -O option is used. It can be saved to a separate file using the -ou
109 file option. These options of setfont render loadunimap(8) obsolete.
110 The Unicode mapping table should assign some glyph to the `missing
112 character' value U+fffd, otherwise missing characters are not trans‐
113 lated, giving a usually very confusing result.
114 Usually no mapping table is needed, and a Unicode mapping table is al‐
116 ready contained in the font (sometimes this is indicated by the .psfu
117 extension), so that most users need not worry about the precise meaning
118 and functioning of these mapping tables.
119 One may add a Unicode mapping table to a psf font using psfaddtable(1).
121
124 -h H Override font height.
125 -d Doubles the size of the font, by replicating all of its pixels
127 vertically and horizontally. This is suitable for high pixel
128 density (e.g. "4k") displays on which the standard fonts are too
129 small to be easily legible. Due to kernel limitations, this is
130 suitable only for 16x16 or smaller fonts.
131 -m file
133 Load console map or Unicode console map from file.
134 -o file
136 Save previous font in file.
137 -O file
139 Save previous font and Unicode map in file.
140 -om file
142 Store console map in file.
143 -ou file
145 Save previous Unicode map in file.
146 -u file
148 Load Unicode table describing the font from file.
149 -C console
151 Set the font for the indicated console. (May require root per‐
152 missions.)
153 -f Force-load unicode map: Setfont`issues the system call to load
155 the unicode map even if the specified map is empty. This may be
156 useful in unusual cases.
157 -v Be verbose.
159 -V Print version and exit.
161
164 PC video hardware allows one to use the "intensity" bit either to indi‐
165 cate brightness, or to address 512 (instead of 256) glyphs in the font.
166 So, if the font has more than 256 glyphs, the console will be reduced
167 to 8 (instead of 16) colors.
168
171 /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts
172 The default font directory.
173 /usr/lib/kbd/unimaps
175 The default directory for Unicode maps.
176 /usr/lib/kbd/consoletrans
178 The default directory for screen mappings.
179 The default font is a file default (or default8xN if the -N option was
181 given for some number N) perhaps with suitable extension (like .psf).
182
184 psfaddtable(1), unicode_start(1), loadunimap(8), utf-8(7), mapscrn(8)
185kbd 11 Feb 2001 SETFONT(8)