The Hackers Guide for console-setup - The New Fonts

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# The Hackers Guide for `console-setup`
Chapter 4 - The New Fonts

Even for the new PSF fonts it is not wise to use a single BDF source. Many of the BDF fonts share a common look. For example the X font `fixed` was used by Roman Czyborra in order to create his `unifont.bdf`. The same font was used also by Electronic Font Open Laboratory for their `h16.bdf` and by the former Electrotechnical Laboratory (now National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science Technology, Japan) for their `etl16-unicode.bdf` font.

The targets `FONTFACE-BDFS` in the `Makefile` specify the BDF fonts to use in order to generate the PSF font fonts. For example the combination "`unifont.bdf` + `h16.bdf` + `etl16-unicode.bdf`" is used for the Fixed16 font face. The fonts listed first take precedence, so it is wise to list first the fonts which symbols look better and not the fonts with more symbols.

The `bdf` directory contains almost all free BDF fonts that can be used to generate console fonts. Currently they allow to generate fonts from the following font faces: Fixed13, Fixed14, Fixed15, Fixed16, Fixed18, Fixed24x12, FixedBold13, FixedBold14, FixedBold15, FixedBold16, FixedBold18, FixedBold24x12, FixedOblique13, Terminus12x6, Terminus14, Terminus16, Terminus24x12, Terminus20x10, Terminus28x14, Terminus32x16, TerminusBold12x6, TerminusBold14, TerminusBold16, TerminusBold20x10, TerminusBold24x12, TerminusBold28x14, TerminusBold32x16, TerminusBoldVGA14, TerminusBoldVGA16, Courier13, Courier14, Courier15, Courier16, CourierBold13, CourierBold14, CourierBold15, Lucid12, Lucid13, Lucid15, Lucid16, Lucid22x12, Lucid29x16, LucidBold11, LucidBold13, LucidBold15, LucidBold16, LucidBold22x12, LucidBold29x16, Goha12, Goha14, Goha16, GohaClassic12, GohaClassic14 and GohaClassic16.

The targets in the `Makefile` are able to generate a PSF font for every CHARSET-FONTFACE combination. The `build` target however will generate fonts only for the "good" combinations.

First, the program `fontcodesets` is used to determine which charsets a particular font face supports. The result is stored in the file `soft.Makefile` where the variable `PSF_FONTS` is defined and it is directly included in the main `Makefile`. Use the target `soft.Makefile` in order to update this file (this doesn't happen automatically).

Second, some of the font faces are not generated because they do not look very attractive on the console (certainly the choice is a personal opinion). Only the following font faces are approved: Fixed13, Fixed14, Fixed15, Fixed16, Fixed18, Terminus12x6, Terminus14, Terminus16, Terminus24x12, Terminus20x10, Terminus28x14, Terminus32x16, TerminusBold12x6, TerminusBold14, TerminusBold16, TerminusBold20x10, TerminusBold24x12, TerminusBold28x14, TerminusBold32x16, TerminusBoldVGA14, TerminusBoldVGA16, Goha12, Goha14, Goha16, GohaClassic12, GohaClassic14 and GohaClassic16. See the `GOOD_PSF_FONTS` variable in the `Makefile`.

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The Hackers Guide for `console-setup`