1SETFONT(8)                  System Manager's Manual                 SETFONT(8)
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NAME

6       setfont - load EGA/VGA console screen font
7

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

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
19       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
24       setfont
25              Load a default font.
26
27       setfont drdos8x16
28              Load a given font (here the 448-glyph drdos font).
29
30       setfont cybercafe -u cybercafe
31              Load  a  given font that does not have a Unicode map and provide
32              one explicitly.
33
34       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
39       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).
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43

FONT FORMATS

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.
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57

FONT HEIGHT

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.
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67

CONSOLE MAPS

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
80       Suitable  arguments  for  the -m option are for example 8859-1, 8859-2,
81       ..., 8859-15, cp437, ..., cp1250.
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83       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
87       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.
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95       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.)
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100

UNICODE FONT MAPS

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.
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111       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.
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115       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
120       One may add a Unicode mapping table to a psf font using psfaddtable(1).
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122

OPTIONS

124       -h H   Override font height.
125
126       -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
132       -m file
133              Load console map or Unicode console map from file.
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135       -o file
136              Save previous font in file.
137
138       -O file
139              Save previous font and Unicode map in file.
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141       -om file
142              Store console map in file.
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144       -ou file
145              Save previous Unicode map in file.
146
147       -u file
148              Load Unicode table describing the font from file.
149
150       -C console
151              Set  the  font for the indicated console. (May require root per‐
152              missions.)
153
154       -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
158       -v     Be verbose.
159
160       -V     Print version and exit.
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162

NOTE

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.
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169

FILES

171       /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts
172              The default font directory.
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174       /usr/lib/kbd/unimaps
175              The default directory for Unicode maps.
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177       /usr/lib/kbd/consoletrans
178              The default directory for screen mappings.
179
180       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).
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SEE ALSO

184       psfaddtable(1), unicode_start(1), loadunimap(8), utf-8(7), mapscrn(8)
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188kbd                               11 Feb 2001                       SETFONT(8)
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