Mini Shell

Contents:

1. About.
1.1. Quick installation.
1.2. Recommended modes.
1.3. Legend.
1.4. Variants.
1.5. Notes.

2. Linux console.
2.1. consoletools.
2.2. kbd.
2.3. Quick reference.
2.4. Legend.
2.5. Notes.

3. UNIX console.
3.1. bsd-pcvt.
3.2. Legend.
3.3. Notes.

4. X11 Window System.
4.1. Installation.
4.2. Notes.

5. Frequently Asked Questions.

6. Bugs.

7. Legal information.
7.1. License.
7.2. Copyright.


1. About.

This archive contains source code for generating and installing Terminus
Font for Linux console, UNIX console and X11 Window System.

- version	4.20
- sizes		6x12, 8x14, 8x16, 10x20, 12x24, 14x28, 16x32
- styles	normal, bold, EGA/VGA bold
- code pages	ISO10646-1
- characters	690
- format	Bitmap Distribution Format (BDF) version 2.1

The character set covers ISO8859-1/2/5/9/13/15/16, IBM-437/852/855/866,
Windows-1250/1251/1252/1254/1257, KOI8-R/U/E/F, Paratype-PT154/PT254,
Bulgarian-MIK, Macintosh-Ukrainian, Esperanto and many others (a total of
about 110 language sets). Also included are the IBM VGA, vt100 and xterm
pseudographic characters.

1.1. Quick installation.

The commands:

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX]
$ make
# make install

compile and install the Linux console and X11 Window System fonts, and

# make fontdir

updates fonts.dir for X11 (if you don't know what fonts.dir is, execute the
command).

1.2. Recommended modes.

Obviously, the larger and better a monitor is, the higher modes (with the
respective rates) can be used, and the more text may fit on the screen while
remaining comfortably readable - and vice versa. As a comparison base, it is
considered normal to use 640x480 and 800x600 modes with font size 8x16 and
10x20 respectively (that is, 80 columns by 30 lines) on 14" and 15" CRT
monitors.

Use modes that match your display ratio. Most personal computer monitors are
4:3, so use 1280x960 (4:3) instead of 1280x1024 (5:4) if possible. The
EGA/VGA text modes are 720x400 (9:5), but the font (i.e. sizes 8x14 and
8x16) is designed to work with them.

1.3. Legend.

The file names are structured as follows:

ter-u<SIZE><STYLE>.bdf

where <SIZE> is 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28 or 32, and <STYLE> is n for normal
(all sizes), b for bold (all sizes except 6x12) and v for EGA/VGA bold (8x14
and 8x16 only, makes use of the eight character matrix column).

1.4. Variants.

Some characters are implemented in two variants. The alternate variants are
on the font WEB page. To use a variant, download it and execute:

zcat terminus-font-<VERSION>-<NAME>.diff.gz | patch -p1

before installation. <VERSION> is the font version and <NAME> identifies the
variant.

1.5. Notes.

The commands marked with $ can be executed by a regular user.
The configure commands are optional.

Almost all characters which are not part of the code pages listed above are
available on X11/ISO10646-1 only (UTF+8/Unicode).


2. Linux console.

- sizes		6x12, 8x14, 8x16, 12x24, 10x20, 14x28 and 16x32
- styles	normal, bold, framebuffer-bold
- code pages	ISO8859-1/ISO8859-15/Windows-1252, ISO8859-2/Windows-1250,
		Windows-1251/ISO8859-5, ISO8859-9/Windows-1254, ISO8859-16,
		ISO8859-13/Windows-1257, IBM-437, Bulgarian-MIK, KOI8-R,
		KOI8-U, Paratype-PT154, combined
- characters	582
- format	PC Screen Font (PSF) with unicode data

2.1. consoletools.

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX | --psfdir=DIRECTORY]
$ make psf
# make install-psf

The files are compressed with gzip and installed in DIRECTORY. If DIRECTORY
does not exist, it is created. The default PREFIX is /usr. The default
DIRECTORY is PREFIX/share/consolefonts. Requires Perl.

If you don't have mappings for Windows-1252/1250/1251/1254/1257, ISO8859-16,
IBM-437, KOI8-R, Bulgarian-MIK or Paratype-PT154/PT254, also run:

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX | --acmdir=DIRECTORY]
$ make txt
# make install-acm

The default DIRECTORY is PREFIX/share/consoletrans. Requires awk.
Uninstallation of the mappings is not supported. To load a font:

$ consolechars [-m MAPPING] -f ter-<X><SIZE><STYLE>

where <X> is a character identifying the code page as listed in p.2.4.

2.2. kbd.

$ ./configure [--psfdir=DIRECTORY]
$ make psf
# make install-psf

where DIRECTORY should be either PREFIX/lib/kbd/consolefonts or
PREFIX/share/kbd/consolefonts, depending on kbd version, and PREFIX is
usually /usr. The missing mappings are installed with:

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX | --unidir=DIRECTORY]
$ make txt
# make install-uni

The default DIRECTORY is PREFIX/share/kbd/consoletrans. Requires awk. To
load a font:

$ setfont [-m MAPPING] ter-<X><SIZE><STYLE>

where <X> is a character identifying the code page as listed in p.2.4.

2.3. Quick reference.

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX | --psfdir=DIRECTORY | --ref=FILENAME]
# make install-ref

Installs the text from p.2.4. as FILENAME (the default is README.terminus)
in DIRECTORY.

2.4. Legend.

names	mappings		covered codepage(s)

ter-1*	iso01, iso15, cp1252	ISO8859-1, ISO8859-15, Windows-1252
ter-2*	iso02, cp1250		ISO8859-2, Windows-1250
ter-9*	iso09, cp1254		ISO8859-9, Windows-1254
ter-c*	cp1251, iso05		Windows-1251, ISO8859-5
ter-d*	iso13, cp1257		ISO8859-13, Windows-1257
ter-g*	iso16			ISO8859-16
ter-i*	cp437			IBM-437
ter-k*	koi8r			KOI8-R
ter-m*	mik			Bulgarian-MIK
ter-p*	pt154			Paratype-PT154
ter-u*	koi8u			KOI8-U
ter-v*	all listed above,	all listed above, Paratype-PT254,
	pt254 etc. (if you	Macintosh-Ukrainian, KOI8-U/E/F and
	have such mappings)	IBM-852/855/866, 8 foreground colors

names	style

ter-*n	normal
ter-*b	bold
ter-*f	framebuffer-bold

2.5. Notes.

The combined code page is based on IBM-437 (character 0xFF is ogonek).
The ISO8859-16 font also includes all letters and accents from Windows-1250.

The Linux kernel 2.4 framebuffers support widths 8, 12 and 16 only; kernel
2.6 and a relevant framebuffer are required to use the other sizes.


3. UNIX console.

- sizes		8x14, 8x16
- styles	normal, bold, framebuffer-bold
- code pages	ISO8859-1/Windows-1252, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-5, ISO8859-9,
		ISO8859-9/Windows-1254, ISO8859-13, ISO8859-15, ISO8859-16,
		IBM-437, KOI8-R, KOI8-U, Paratype-PT154
- characters	542
- format	raw data

3.1. bsd-pcvt.

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX | --rawdir=DIRECTORY]
$ make raw
# make install.raw

or, for file names with minus instead of period:

# make install-raw

The default DIRECTORY is PREFIX/share/misc/pcvtfonts. The fonts are
installed uncompressed. Requires Perl. To load a font:

$ loadfont -f /usr/share/misc/pcvtfonts/ter-<X><STYLE>.8<SIZE>

or, for file names with minus instead of period:

$ loadfont -f /usr/share/misc/pcvtfonts/ter-<X><STYLE>-8x<SIZE>

where <X> is a character identifying the code page as listed in p.3.2.

3.2. Legend.

names	covered codepage(s)

ter-1*	ISO8859-1, Windows-1252
ter-2*	ISO8859-2
ter-5*	ISO8859-5
ter-9*	ISO8859-9, Windows-1254
ter-c*	Windows-1251
ter-d*	ISO8859-13
ter-f*	ISO8859-15
ter-g*	ISO8859-16
ter-i*	IBM-437
ter-k*	KOI8-R
ter-p*	Paratype-PT154
ter-u*	KOI8-U

names	style

ter-*n	normal
ter-*b	bold
ter-*f	framebuffer-bold

3.3. Notes.

The RAW font contains data only and should be compatible with all UNIX
systems. If any of the bold fonts doesn't look good try framebuffer-bold,
or, if you are using an EGA/VGA adapter, program it to to clear column 8 of
the character matrix (attribute controller register 0x10 bit 0x02).


4. X11 Window System.

- sizes		6x12, 8x14, 8x16, 10x20, 12x24, 14x28 and 16x32
- styles	normal, bold
- code pages	ISO8859-1/Windows-1252, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-5,
		ISO8859-9/Windows-1254, ISO8859-13, ISO8859-15, ISO8859-16,
		Windows-1251, KOI8-R, KOI8-U, Paratype-PT154, ISO10646-1
- characters	689
- format	Portable Compiled Font (PCF)

4.1. Installation.

$ ./configure [--prefix=PREFIX | --x11dir=DIRECTORY]
$ make pcf
# make install-pcf

The files are compressed with gzip and installed in DIRECTORY. If DIRECTORY
does not exist, it is created. The default PREFIX is /usr. The default
DIRECTORY is PREFIX/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local. Requires Perl and bdftopcf.
Some X11 libraries and applications substitute the missing bold fonts by
shifting the normal fonts. To avoid such substitution for 6x12, run:

# make install-12b

To update fonts.dir file in DIRECTORY after (un)installation, use:

# make fontdir

The configuration file which lists the font directories must contain
DIRECTORY. If xfs or the X-server have been active during the installation,
they should be restarted so the font list can be updated.

See also mkfontdir(1), xorg.conf(5), xfs(1), xlsfonts(1) and fonts-conf(5).

4.2. Notes.

The ISO8859-1 and ISO8859-9 fonts contain the Windows Western characters and
can be used as Windows-1252 and Windows-1254 respectively.


5. Frequently Asked Questions.

Q. Italic version?

A. No. The quality is significantly lower, and preserving the font width
requires overlapping characters, which are not handled very well by X11/Xft.
If you need it than much, try mkitalic from FreeBSD or bdfslant from Debian.

Q. Scalable version?

A. Probably a TrueType font in 2006/7. No italic version will be included
unless it is very easy to implement.

Q. Win32 version?

A. No, there are problems with the raster font codepages and sizes. You can
try the pseudo-TrueType version by Eric Shao-yu Cheng.

Q. How to create an italic version with mkitalic?

A. Sorry, but I do not answer questions about mkitalic, bdfslant and the
pseudo-TrueType version, neither to questions specific to a particular Linux
distribution. Read the sources/documentation or write to the respective
package maintainer.

Q. How about some new characters?

A. Fine, if they aren't very complex - but be ready to help. To make the new
characters easily readable, I must have a very good idea what they should
look like. The digits and most of the letters and punctuation characters
that I'm familiar with are already included in the font, so your assistance
will most probably be required for the new ones.

Q. The bold 6x12 font...

A. ...does not exist - see 4.1.

Q. The font works in X11/Motif, but not in GNOME/KDE/Xfce.

A. See fonts-conf(5).
                                                                                                        variant
Q. The lowercase cyrillic k...

A. ...has been fixed, and the previous (high) k is now a varianth.


6. Bugs.

Size 6x12, size 14x28 bold style and size 16x32 normal style are of worse
quality than the others. Avoid them.

The eth modifier should be based on curve not diagonal.

Shha, Dje, Tshe, shha, dje tshe and may be wrong and/or font incompliant.

The upper-P-part of Thorn in sizes 6x12 and 12x24 is not centered.

The modifiers of Ghe middlehook, ghe middlehook, Eng and eng are mostly
random.

Several accents are implemented as combining accents, commaturnedmod is
arbitary.


7. Legal information.

7.1. License.

You can use and distribute this archive and the character varianths freely
and without charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License version
2.0 or (at your choice) any later version.

7.2. Copyright.

Terminus Font 4.20, Copyright (C) 2006 Dimitar Toshkov Zhekov.
Report bugs to <jimmy@is-vn.bg>


Thanks to Anton Zinoviev, Kir Koliushkin and all others who helped.