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>

• Vector font - The name of an Fire 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. Microsoft windows or X windows), a string identifier or constant may be used. If this parameter 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 in such a definition.

Switches

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

Scalable fonts are displayable at any angle or size. Fire software fonts, or system fonts declared with the -var switch (Microsoft Windows only), may be used as scalable fonts.
Fixed fonts are displayable only in a horizontal direction and have a fixed character height. System fonts declared without the -var switch are always fixed fonts, those declared with the -var switch may be used where a fixed font is required.

As a rule, graphic windows use scalable fonts to display text, and other window types use fixed fonts. However, there are graphic primitives (glabels) which may use scalable or fixed fonts.
Scalable fonts are anti-aliased when rendered, but fixed fonts are not.

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 fonts by name.

Examples

Create a scalable font from a Fire software font file.

font gothic, $MXSYS/fonts/gothgbt.fnt

Create a scalable system font (on a Microsoft Windows system).

font fntArial12Bold,'Arial,12,Bold',-sys,-var

Create a fixed-size system font (on a Unix system).

font vtsingle, -sys

Take a copy of a font.

font mygoth = gothic

See Also