Manual: setfont

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	 op‐
       tionally 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.	Typ‐
       ical 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 char‐
	      acter 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, fol‐
       lowed 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 char‐
       acters, 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	con‐
       verts 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 ker‐
       nel, 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 op‐
       tion. 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 charac‐
       ters 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
       -N, --default8x=N
	      Load default font (default8xN).

       -hN, --font-height=N
	      Override font height. The short option must not have a space between 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 permissions.)

       -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 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						       24 October 2024						  SETFONT(8)