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pcfont(1M)


pcfont -- modify character font on the 386 console

Synopsis

pcfont [config_file]
pcfont -f bdf_font [ -c codeset -i input_width [-p plane]]
pcfont -f bdf_font_unicode -8
pcfont -u -c codeset

Description

The pcfont command modifies the system console font, allowing new characters to be defined in the font and default characters to be reordered. This allows code sets other than the default PC437 to be supported.

The pcfont command is normally run only from loadfont(1M), which is itself normally run only from an init process. loadfont provides options for pcfont based on the current system locale.

The first form of the command selects one of a group of 8-bit code pages. If no arguments are supplied, all characters are reset to the default font stored in the graphics card ROM (PC437). The terminal displays the codeset selected by this form of the command in text mode.

The config_file argument selects a code set from the following group of configuration files, which are supplied with the UnixWare system in the Language Supplement package:

Configuration file Code set ISO code set Language(country)
pc737 PC 737 8859-7 Greek
pc850 PC 850 8859-1 Latin 1 (western Europe and the Americas)
pc852 PC 852 8859-2 Latin 2 (central Europe)
pc857 PC 857 8859-9 Turkish
pc866 PC 866 8859-5 Cyrillic

 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
 |Configuration file | Code set | ISO code set | Language(country) |
 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
 |pc737              | PC 737   | 8859-7       | Greek             |
 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
 |pc850              | PC 850   | 8859-1       | Latin 1 (western  |
 |                   |          |              | Europe and the    |
 |                   |          |              | Americas)         |
 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
 |pc852              | PC 852   | 8859-2       | Latin 2 (central  |
 |                   |          |              | Europe)           |
 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
 |pc857              | PC 857   | 8859-9       | Turkish           |
 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
 |pc866              | PC 866   | 8859-5       | Cyrillic          |
 +-------------------+----------+--------------+-------------------+
These code sets are supported in the following sizes: 8x8, 8x14, 8x16 and 9x16.

When a code set is selected using this form of the command, the current font is indicated by the presence of the file /etc/.font.fontname. When this file is not present, the default PC437 font is used.

The second form of the pcfont command downloads the file bdf_font, which must be in BDF format. If the -c option is specified, codesets selected by this form of the command are displayed in graphics mode. The bounding box for the font must be either 8x16 or 16x16. Other font widths, for example, 24-bit fonts, are not supported.

The remaining optional options specify the font characteristics. The options are as follows:


-i
Specifies the input character width in bytes. This must be in the range 1-3.

-c
Specifies the codeset. Only EUC codesets (in the range 0-3) are supported.

-p
Specifies the plane for multi-plane codesets. This must be in the range 0-7. If not specified, this value defaults to 0.
The third form of the pcfont command is used for Unicode. The following option is used:

-8
Specifies the Unicode font type. You must specify this option in order to tell an application to load a Unicode font and not an EUC font.


NOTE: You can download Unicode fonts from the World Wide Web which comply with the BDF format, however they need to be 8-bit fonts.

If these downloaded fonts have lines that are longer than 80 characters (usually the description lines), pcfont fails.


Configuration file Code set Input width Type Language
106464-1.bdf None specified None specified Unicode All languages
8x16rk.bdf 2 2 EUC Japanese
jiskan16.bdf 1 1 EUC Japanese
hanglm16.bdf 1 2 EUC Korean
gb16.bdf 1 2 EUC Chinese

 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
 |Configuration file | Code set       | Input width    | Type    | Language      |
 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
 |106464-1.bdf       | None specified | None specified | Unicode | All languages |
 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
 |8x16rk.bdf         | 2              | 2              | EUC     | Japanese      |
 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
 |jiskan16.bdf       | 1              | 1              | EUC     | Japanese      |
 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
 |hanglm16.bdf       | 1              | 2              | EUC     | Korean        |
 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
 |gb16.bdf           | 1              | 2              | EUC     | Chinese       |
 +-------------------+----------------+----------------+---------+---------------+
The fourth form of the pcfont command unloads the specified codeset. The display then uses the default codeset.

Files


/etc/fonts
contains configuration files and data files

/etc/.font.fontname
if present, identifies the currently loaded code set.

References

loadfont(1M),
X11R5 document Bitmap Distribution Format 2.1
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004