NAME

loadfont − list or change font information in the RAM of the video card

SYNOPSIS

loadfont

loadfont −f filename

loadfont codepage

loadfont −l

loadfont −d

loadfont −m mode

DESCRIPTION

The loadfont utility allows a user to load and activate a different font into the RAM of the video card used by the console of the INTER­ACTIVE UNIX Operating System.  It can also be used to display information about the font currently in use.  In addition, the −m option can be used to change the size of the characters on the screen; it can also be used to change the number of lines or colors, e.g., to run an application at the console at 43 lines at a time instead of 25.  loadfont will always read from standard output; this will allow a system administrator to use it from a remote terminal. 

Options

loadfont
When used without arguments, loadfont displays the different ways the command can be used, as shown in the synopsis. 

loadfont −f filename
This command reads the contents of filename and subsequently loads the font specified in the file into the RAM of the video card.  If the file does not have the correct format, an error message is produced. 

loadfont codepage
If codepage is the name of a hard-coded font available for the current font size, this font will be loaded into the RAM of the video card and activated.  Available font names are listed when the −l option is used.  If the codepage argument specified is not the name of a valid font, an error message will be produced. 

loadfont −l
This option displays a short description of the fonts that are hard-coded into the program and the name that can be passed as a codepage. Only the fonts that match the current font size are listed. loadfont −l also displays the different character modes supported by loadfont and the exact name that should be used with the −m option.  Here is a sample output:

Codepages supported for this size font are:

Different possible text modes supported are:

8859g means the 8859-1 codeset with box-drawing characters in column 9 of the table (characters 0x90 to 0x9a). 

loadfont −d
This reads the font information from the video RAM and writes it to standard output in a format compatible with the Binary Distribution Format version 2.1 as developed by Adobe Systems, Inc.

loadfont −m mode
This will attempt to change the mode of the console as specified. This will result in having a different font size and/or different number of lines and columns on the screen. The mode that can be specified should be one of the choices listed above in the loadfont −l output.  If an invalid argument is specified, an error message is produced. 

Fonts

A font is the representation of characters by images.  The need to use different fonts can be imposed by:

1.  The codeset used to represent the characters internally. 

2.  The resolution used to display the characters. 

Each font contains exactly 256 images.  All fonts supported are fixed size (constant width and constant height), i.e., each character takes the same amount of space on the screen.  When the monitor is not being used in graphics mode, the loadfont utility allows a user to modify the font used by the video card, so different images are displayed on the screen of the console for the various characters.  Depending on the type of video card used, different text modes can be supported by the same video card.  They typically differ by the number of pixels used to represent a single character.  For each character, the same number of pixels is used.  For the standard video cards, the different resolutions supported (all or a subset) are:

8 by 8 ( 8 horizontally and 8 vertically)

8 by 14

8 by 16

When loadfont is invoked to modify the existing font, it will attempt to do so for the font size currently in use.  Use the −m option to switch to another font size. 

loadfont and ttymap

There is an almost one-to-one relationship between the use of the loadfont utility and the ttymap utility.  Whereas loadfont is used to list or modify the images that correspond with the various characters, the ttymap utility is used to determine how characters are generated from the keyboard and which code (a single byte code) will be used to represent the character internally.  The default representation is the IBM extended ASCII codeset, often also referred to as “IBM codepage 437.” A ttymap sample input file is supplied that can be used for this codeset on a console with a U.S. keyboard (usa.map).  When a different keyboard is used, a different ttymap input file is required (e.g., french.map for a French keyboard). 

When a different codeset is used, both a different ttymap input file and a different font are required.  For the most popular codesets, fonts are hard-coded into the loadfont program for the 8 by 16 resolution (see “Fonts”).  If these fonts do not satisfy your needs (because you want to use a different font size or because a customized font is required, e.g., a Greek font), a loadfont description file to be used with the −f option is needed.  A sample file that describes the IBM extended ASCII font for an 8 by 16 resolution is supplied (vga437.bdf).  A second sample file, 646g.bdf, contains a font file for German ASCII.  See ttymap(1) and loadfont(5) for additional  details.

WARNING

When an attempt is made to switch to a mode that the video card does not support (e.g., a switch to EGA on a VGA card that has no EGA mode) you will get a blank screen.  There is nothing wrong with the system; simply type in the command to set the mode back, e.g.:

loadfont −m V80x25

FILES

/usr/lib/loadfont/vga437.bdf
sample Bitmap Distribution Format (BDF) file for IBM 437 font on a VGA

/usr/lib/loadfont/646g.bdf
sample BDF file for German ASCII

SEE ALSO

ttymap(1), display(7). 
loadfont(5) in the INTER­ACTIVE SDS Guide and Programmer’s Reference Manual. 

ADDED VALUE

This entry, supplied by INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, is an extension of UNIX System V. 

\*U  —  Version 1.0