vfontas(1)

Name

vfontas — a bitmap font file transformation utility

Syntax

vfontas commands...

  Commands

-blankfnt

-canvas xsize ysize

-clearmap

-crop xpos ypos width height

-fliph

-flipv

-invert

-lge

-loadclt directory/

-loadfnt mu.fnt

-loadhex unicode.hex

-loadmap cp437AB.uni

-loadpsf ter-v32b.psfu

-savebdf out.bdf fontname

-saveclt outdir/

-savefnt x.fnt

-savepbm outdir/

-savepsf new.psfu

-savesfd new.sfd

-upscale xscale yscale

-xbrz factor

-xcpi ega437.cpi outdir/

-xlat xoffset yoffset

Description

vfontas (originally "VGA font file assembler") can transform raster font files in various ways.

  blankfnt

Initializes the memory buffer with 256 empty 8x16 glyphs. The primary purpose for this is with saveclt to get blank glyph files for hand-editing. For a differently-sized canvas, combine with -crop or -canvas.

  canvas

Enlarges the glyph box to the specified size. (It never shrinks it.)

  clearmap

Discards the in-memory glyph index <-> Unicode mapping table.

  crop

Removes an outer area from the glyph images, shrinking the image in the process.

  fliph, flipv

Mirrors/flips glyphs.

  lge

Applies a "Line Graphics Enable" transformation on glyphs. It copies the pixels in the second rightmost column to the rightmost column, and does this for glyph indices 0xC0 to 0xDF.

  loadclt

Reads a directory full of CLT files containing glyphs. CLT is a textgraphical format to facilitate visual editing with a text console editor.

  loadfnt

Reads a headerless bitmap font file, as typically used for CGA/EGA/VGA/MDA hardware, from the specified file into memory. 8x8x256 (width/height/glyphs), 8x12x256, 8x14x256, 8x16x256 and 8x16x512 are supported.

  loadfnth

Reads a headerless bitmap font file, using the specified height N and width 8. The number of characters is then autoderived from the filesize.

  loadhex

Reads a Unifont .hex encoded file.

  loadmap

Reads a glyphindex <-> Unicode codepoint mapping table from the given file into memory. The format follows the maps from /usr/share/kbd/unimaps, that is, "0x00 U+0000" at its simplest. Multiple U+ codepoints can be specified in a line. -loadmap does not clear the mapping table, which makes it possible to cumulate mappings from multiple files.

  loadpsf

Reads a PC Screen Font PSF 2 version 0. If the psf file comes with a mapping table, the current in-memory table will be discarded and replaced with the one from the PSF.

  savebdf

Saves the font to a Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format file (BDF). This type of file can be processed further by other tools such as bdftopcf(1) or fontforge(1) to, for example, turn them into Portable Compiled Format (PCF) or TrueType/OpenType (TTF/OTF) files. (See the "Examples" section.)

  saveclt

Saves the current in-memory glyphs as multiple CLT files to the given directory. CLT is a textgraphical format to facilitate visual editing with a text console editor.

  savefnt

Saves the current in-memory glyphs to the given file, using the headerless format.

  savemap

Saves the current in-memory Unicode mapping table to the given file.

  savepsf

Saves the current in-memory glyphs as a PC Screen Font PSF2.0 file, which can then be loaded into a Linux text console with setfont(1). The in-memory Unicode mapping table is added to the PSF.

  savesfd

Saves the font to a Spline Font Database file (SFD). This type of file can be processed further by fontforge(1).

  upscale

Performs a linear upscale by an integral factor for all glyphs.

  xbrz

Performs a xBRZ upscale by an integral factor. xBRZ 1.6 supports up to factor 6. (Higher factors will result in an empty glyph box.)

  xcpi

Extracts a multi-font .cpi file (as was typically used on DOS) as separate .fnt files into the specified directory. This operation does not touch the in-memory glyph buffers or Unicode mapping table.

  xlat

Moves all glyphs around within their canvases by the specified amount. vfontas's coordinate system has (0,0) in the upper left corner, with positive x going to the right, and positive y going down.

Known limits

The Linux kernel accepts console font glyphs of at most 32x32 in size.

The Consoleet bitmap format

The Consoleet text bitmap format is very similar to PBM itself. Instead of "P1" as in PBM, a CLT file begins with "PCLT" on the first line. In the second line, width and height of the bitmap in pixels is given. What follow is the bitmap data: Each "off" pixel is represented by the 2-character string ".." Each "on" pixel is represented by the 2-character "##". Each row of pixels is terminated by a newline, like in PBM.

	PCLT
	9 7
	..................
	....##....##..##..
	..##..##..##..##..
	..##..##..####....
	..##..##..##..##..
	....##....##..##..
	..................

Examples

Decompose a classic file into editable pictograph text files (with the help of a Unicode map):

    mkdir mu; vfontas -loadfnt /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/mu.fnt -loadmap
    /usr/share/kbd/unimaps/cp437.uni -saveclt mu/

To convert a .fnt and scale it up to make it comfortably usable with a FullHD resolution Linux fbconsole:

    vfontas -loadfnt mu.fnt -loadmap cp437.uni -canvas 9 16 -lge -upscale 2 2
    -savepsf mu.psf

To convert a .fnt to TrueType/OpenType/WOFF (the Fontforge part is unfortunately manual):

    vfontas -loadfnt mux.fnt -loadmap cp437AB.uni -canvas 9 16 -lge -savesfd
    mux.sfd # && fontforge mux.sfd

To convert a .fnt for use under X11 and XTerm (generates sizes 12, 24 and 36, @96dpi):

    for i in 1 2 3; do vfontas -loadfnt mux.fnt -loadmap cp437AB.uni -canvas 9
    16 -lge -upscale $i $i -savebdf - Mux | bdftopcf | gzip
    >~/.fonts/mux$i.pcf.gz; done; xterm -fa "misc Mux:size=24"

Comparison to earlier vfontas (2005-2018) invocation syntax

`vfontas -D out/ -xf x.fnt` has become `vfontas -loadfnt x.fnt -saveclt out/`.

`vfontas -D out/ -cf x.fnt` has become `vfontas -loadclt out/ -savefnt x.fnt`.

`vfontas -Ecf x.fnt` has become `vfontas -blankfnt -savefnt x.fnt`.

`vfontas -G <x.fnt >x.psf` has become `vfontas -loadfnt x.fnt -canvas 9 16 -lge -savepsf2 x.psf`.

`vfontas -W <x.fnt >x.psf` has become `vfontas -loadfnt x.fnt -upscale 2 1 -savepsf2 x.psf`.

`vfontas --cpi -D out/ -f x.cpi/` has become `vfontas -xcpi x.cpi out/`.

See also

hxtools(7)