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]
[-f] [-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 previ-
ous font. It can also load various mapping tables and output the previ-
ous 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 char-
acter 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 perception worse (loss of in-
tensity and even some colors).
FONT FORMATS
The standard Linux font format is the PSF font. It has a header de-
scribing font properties like character size, followed by the glyph
bitmaps, optionally followed by a Unicode mapping table giving the Uni-
code value for each glyph. Several other (obsolete) font formats are
recognized. If the input file has code page format (probably with suf-
fix .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 im-
ages 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 output is coded as UTF-8 (see
utf-8(7)), and converts that to Unicode (ucs2). Otherwise, a transla-
tion table is used from the 8-bit program output to 16-bit Unicode val-
ues. 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 corre-
spondence between user bytes and font positions. The most common corre-
spondence is the one given in the file trivial (where user byte values
are used directly as font positions). Other correspondences are some-
times preferable since the PC video hardware expects line drawing char-
acters in certain font positions.
Giving a -m none argument inhibits the loading and activation of a map-
ping 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 map-
ping 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 char-
acter' 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 al-
ready 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
-N, --default8x=N
Load default font (default8xN).
-hN, --font-height=N
Override font height. The short option must not have a space be-
tween the prefix and the number.
-d, --double
Doubles the size of the font, by replicating all of its pixels
vertically and horizontally. 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.
-o, --output-font=FILE
Save previous font in FILE.
-om, --output-consolemap=FILE
Store console map in FILE.
-ou, --output-unicodemap=FILE
Save previous Unicode map in FILE.
-O, --output-fullfont=FILE
Save previous font and Unicode map in FILE.
-m, --consolemap=FILE
Load console map or Unicode console map from FILE.
-u, --unicodemap=FILE
Load Unicode table describing the font from FILE.
-C, --console=DEVICE
Set the font for the indicated console. (May require root permis-
sions.)
-f, --force
Force-load unicode map: Setfont`issues the system call to load
the unicode map even if the specified map is empty. This may be
useful in unusual cases.
-R, --reset
Reset the screen font, size, and Unicode mapping to the bootup
defaults.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-V, --version
Print version and exit.
-h, --help
Print a message describing the options and exit.
NOTE
PC video hardware allows one to use the "intensity" bit either to indi-
cate 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 24 October 2024 SETFONT(8)
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