Command: font

Syntax

font <name> {, <file/name> }

      or

font <name> = <ident>

Description

Create or redefine a font identifier.

Parameters

• <name>
  The name of the font identifier.

• <file/name>

• Graphic font - The name of a software font file containing the font data. The default file extension is .fnt.

• System font - The name of an external font of the windowing system (e.g. X windows), a string identifier or constant may be used. If file is omitted, then a font called <name> is searched for. If the font name contains any spaces or non-alphanumeric characters it should be declared within quotes.

• <ident>
  Copy the attributes of an existing font identifier into the new font identifier. All command switches are ignored with such a definition.

Switches

• -sys
  The font is an external windowing system font. Without this switch, the font is assumed to be a graphic font.

• -var
  When combined with the -sys switch, this indicates that the windowing system font can be used as a graphic font, i.e. it is scalable and rotatable. This can be used on Windows NT/95 for TrueType fonts.On Unix systems, X fonts may not be used as graphic fonts.

Notes

Graphic fonts are displayable at any angle or size. System fonts are fixed sized fonts, only displayable in a horizontal direction.

As a rule, graphic windows use graphic fonts to display characters, and other window types use system fonts. However, there are graphic primitives (glabels) which may use system fonts.

Font identifiers can have global or application scope, but cannot have local scope. When local font identifiers are required, string identifiers should be used to reference the font to which the local identifier refers.

Examples

Create a graphic font.

font gothic, $MXSYS/fonts/gothgbt.fnt

Create a system font.

font vtsingle, -sys

Take a copy of a font.

font mygoth = gothic

See Also