fontopia
1 fontopia: the console font editor
1.1 About fontopia
1.2 What's new:
1.3 Supported formats:
1.4 WARNING:
1.5 Package dependencies
1.6 Navigation
1.7 Buffer mode
1.8 Raw fonts
1.9 Frequently Asked Questions
Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License
A.1 GNU Free Documentation License
Index
fontopia
********
This manual is for fontopia - the console font editor (version 2.0).
1 fontopia: the console font editor
***********************************
1.1 About fontopia
==================
Fontopia is an easy-to-use, text-based, console font editor. What this
means in simple English is that you can edit the fonts that your
GNU/Linux kernel is using to display your text on text-based (vs
graphical) terminals.
Unlike other console text editors which usually work on one PSF
version, or work on unicode tables only, or allow very minimal glyph
editing, fontopia provides all these functions together:
- It works on both PSF 1 & 2, you can even change file type and save
it to disk in the other version.
- It allows exporting and importing of unicode tables from external
files.
- It provides a user-friendly, easy-to-use glyph editor.
- It can easily change font metrics, e.g. length, width, height...
Console font files are commonly of PSF type (of which there are two
versions), or of CP type (legacy fonts). Fontopia works with PSF files
of both versions, as well as CP fonts, BDF files and raw font files.
1.2 What's new:
===============
- We added the facility to export glyph data to a C source file as an
array.
- Work is ongoing on Windows FON and FNT files.
- We added the Extended Glyph Operations window (accessed by pressing
O) and the Glyph Info window (accessed by pressing G).
1.3 Supported formats:
======================
- PSF 1 and 2
- Linux Code pages (CP)
- Raw fonts
- BDF fonts (beta)
- PCF fonts
- Windows FON files support under development
1.4 WARNING:
============
1. There is a major downside currently: fontopia doesn't work with
unicode sequences properly (at least not in all cases). If you
export a unicode table, edit it, and then import it to a font file,
you should be safe.
2. Note that if you changed the font version from CP to any other
version, only the ACTIVE font will be changed, as the other font
formats (PSF, Raw, BDF) don't support multiple fonts inside the
same font file. In this case, you will need to open the original
CP file multiple times, every time select a different font size (by
using '1'-'4' number keys) and convert to the new font version,
then reopen the original CP file, select another font size, convert
it, and so on.
1.5 Package dependencies
========================
Fontopia needs the GnuDOS and ncurses packages in order to run.
Furthermore, if you are going to compile Fontopia from the source, you
will need the following header files: dialogs.h, kbd.h and screen.h.
These files are part of the GnuDOS package. If you don't have GnuDOS
installed on your system, you can download the sources from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnudos/, compile and install them, then retry
running or compiling Fontopia.
Alternatively, if you are using an RPM-based distro, you can download
and install the RPM from places like: https://pkgs.org/download/gnudos.
Additionally, Fedora, CentOS and RHEL users can use yum/dnf to install
GnuDOS from the official repos. (Note: if you are installing GnuDOS
from an RPM repo, and you want to compile Fontopia from the source, you
will need to install the 'gnudos-devel' package in addition to the
'gnudos' package. The former package includes the above header files,
which are needed to compile Fontopia from the source).
1.6 Navigation
==============
Using the editor is very easy:
1. Navigate the glyphs on the right side window using the arrow keys.
Edit a single glyph using ENTER (or TAB).
2. Navigate the bits that form a single bit (on the left side window)
using arrow keys. Press ENTER or SPACE to set/unset the desired
bit. Go back to right window (glyph list) using TAB.
3. To zoom in (make the glyph on the left look bigger), press Z.
4. To zoom out, press X.
5. To open a new file, press CTRL+O.
6. To create a new font from scratch, press CTRL+N.
7. To save your work, press CTRL+S.
8. To save with a new filename, press CTRL+D (aka Save As..).
9. To quit the editor, press CTRL+Q.
10. To show help, press CTRL+H.
11. To copy a glyph, press CTRL+C.
12. To cut a glyph, press CTRL+X.
13. To paste a glyph, press CTRL+V.
14. To show about dialog box, press A.
15. To switch buffer mode (on/off), press CTRL+B.
16. To clear a glyph (i.e. remove all bits), press C.
17. To invert a glyph, press D.
18. To export font unicode table (by default to a file with same
original file name plus .tab extension), press E.
19. To flip a glyph horizontally, press H.
20. To import unicode table from another file, press I.
21. To show these keys without the extra jargon, press K.
22. To show font metrics window, press M.
23. To show the extended glyph operations window, press O.
24. To change codepage of a CP font, press P. If font is in BDF
format, P shows properties (or metadata).
25. To remove unicode table from font, press CTRL+R.
26. To set a glyph (i.e. set all bits), press S.
27. To show font unicode table, press U.
28. To flip a glyph vertically, press V.
29. To export font glyphs in textual format (by default to a file with
same original file name plus .glyph extension), press W. You can
alternatively export glyphs to a C source file by pressing CTRL+W.
30. If editing a CP font and you want to change the active font (e.g.
edit the 8x8 font instead of the 16x8 font you are currently
editing) press any key from '1' to '4' and the respective font will
be the active font to be edited. You can go back and forth by
using the number keys.
The unicode values that are mapped to a specific glyph are shown on
the status bar (the bottom strip) to the right side.
That should make you ready to move around and edit your fonts. Have
fun!.
1.7 Buffer mode
===============
We know editing font files is a delicate and error-prone task, more so
when working with small tiny fragile things like console fonts. For
this we added buffering functionality to fontopia.
What the buffer is, simply, a way to do all your work on your font,
editing and cutting and scaling and whatsoever, and saving the font with
the same name you intended to, but adding a tilde '~' to the end, same
like backup files used by other programs (like gedit for example).
When you are happy with your work and you want to transfer it to the
final font file, turn off buffering mode and hit ^S and your file will
be saved.
1.8 Raw fonts
=============
As mentioned above, fontopia works with different font formats, incuding
raw fonts. Raw fonts are tricky: there is no file signature and there
is not a single file extension to identify these fonts (some have the
extension .bin, but this is not universal).
When you open a font file in fontopia, the following process happens:
1. Fontopia tries to open the file as a BDF, PCF, PSF or CP font
first.
2. When all of the above fails, fontopia tries to open the font as a
raw font.
3. Fontopia checks the file size and the file name to try and guess
the glyph width and height.
4. If the file name is something like 'myfont-8x12.bin', fontopia
takes this as a hint to the glyph size (8 pixels wide and 12 pixels
high).
5. If the file name is not helpful, fontopia opens the font using
internal width and height defaults, which might or might not be
correct.
6. A red message is shown in the status bar at the bottom of the
screen to alert the user to the fact that a raw font is assumed and
the file should be closed immediately if this is not the case.
1.9 Frequently Asked Questions
==============================
Why is fontopia not able to open my raw font file?
==================================================
As mentioned in the *Note Raw fonts:: section above, fontopia looks at
the file size and file name to decide if it is a potential raw font
file.
If fontopia fails to open the file, it is probably because the file
size is not recognized. Fontopia recognizes the following file sizes
for raw fonts: 1536, 2048, 2560, 3072, 3584, 4096, 6144, 7168 and 8192
bytes.
Fontopia opens my raw font, but glyphs are of the wrong width or height?
========================================================================
As mentioned above, it is very difficult to guess a raw font's glyph
size, and fontopia does its best to find this out, but this does not
work all the time.
If you know the font's width and height, you can tell fontopia by
passing the '-i' and '-w' commandline options:
$ fontopia myfont -i 16 -w 12
This example tells fontopia that 'myfont' is a raw font file and that
the glyphs are 12 pixels wide and 16 pixels high. Note if you use these
options, you will have to pass both options to fontopia, one will not
work without the other.
Why is fontopia not able to open my BDF font file?
==================================================
BDF fonts are text files that usually start with a line similar to
'STARTFONT 2.1', but this is not always the case, and the fonts do not
otherwise have a file signature. The only way fontopia recognizes a BDF
font is if it has a '.bdf' extension. If your BDF font does not have
this extension, this is the likely cause of your problem.
Why is fontopia not able to open my Code Page (CP) font file?
=============================================================
Same issue as for BDF fonts. Save your font with a '.cp' extension, and
everything should work as expected.
How can I export the text representation of my font's glyphs?
=============================================================
Open the font in fontopia, then press 'W'. The glyph data will be
written to a file with the same name as the font file but with a
'.glyph' extension.
I want to embed my font in a C project. Can fontopia help?
==========================================================
Yes it can!
Open the font in fontopia, then press 'CTRL-W'. The glyph data will
be written to a file with the same name as the font file but with a '.c'
extension.
The font data is export as a 'uint8_t' array that you can use in your
C project. The array looks like:
uint8_t fontdata[] =
{
/* glyph #1 */ 0xff, 0xff, ...
/* glyph #2 */ 0xff, 0xff, ...
...
}
The exported file also contains some helpful macros that define the
glyph width, height and size (in bytes). Glyphs are stored sequentially
in the array, and you can get a particular glyph knowing its index:
uint8_t *glyph = fontdata + (index * CHAR_BYTES);
Where 'CHAR_BYTES' is one of the macros fontopia automatically
defines in the exported file.
Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License
*****************************************
A.1 GNU Free Documentation License
==================================
Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
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ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
====================================================
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Copyright (C) YEAR YOUR NAME.
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Index
*****
* Menu:
* About fontopia: fontopia. (line 25)
* Buffer mode: fontopia. (line 156)
* FAQs: FAQs. (line 200)
* FDL, GNU Free Documentation License: GNU Free Documentation License.
(line 285)
* fontopia: the console font editor: fontopia. (line 21)
* Frequently Asked Questions: FAQs. (line 200)
* Navigation: fontopia. (line 103)
* Package dependencies: fontopia. (line 83)
* Raw fonts: Raw fonts. (line 172)
* Supported formats:: fontopia. (line 57)
* WARNING:: fontopia. (line 67)
* What's new:: fontopia. (line 48)