This package provides two perl programs for reading and writing PSF font files. It is not a font editor per-se – but when combined with powerful text editor or paint software it pretty much is the best one available!
readpsf and writepsf)The plain text format is same that NAFE uses. It is very simple and flexible.
The bitmap format is 24-bit BMP. The rationale is that 99% of graphics software can read and write BMP files natively. Also, reading and writing uncompressed 24-bit BMP images from perl is very easy and requires no external libraries.
$ find /usr/ -name '*.psf*' | less$ cd ~ # or some other directory you have read/write permissions
$ cp /usr/share/consolefonts/LatGrkCyr-12x22.psfu.gz .
$ gunzip LatGrkCyr-12x22.psfu.gz$ readpsf LatGrkCyr-12x22.psfu bmp
Reading 'LatGrkCyr-12x22.psfu'...
Version 2 PSF file.
Font has an unicode table. Use 'psfgettable' command to extract it.
PSF file suggests 512 glyphs of size 12 x 22.
512 glyphs found.
Creating an image.
'LatGrkCyr-12x22.12x22.bmp' written. All Ok.$ psfgettable LatGrkCyr-12x22.psfu LatGrkCyr-12x22.tableE.g. draw an infinity symbol (U+221E) at unused character position 29 (0x01d).
$ write-psf LatGrkCyr-12x22.12x22.bmp LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psf
Reading 'LatGrkCyr-12x22.12x22.bmp'...
Were are assuming 16 characters per row. Override this with '-br'.
Were are assuming total of 512 characters. Override this with '-c'.
BMP file suggests 512 glyphs of size 12 x 22.
512 glyphs found.
Writing 'LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psf'...
512 glyphs written.
'LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psf' written. All Ok.$ setfont LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psf
$ showconsolefontThe new font contains an infinity symbol, but we still have to tell Linux console that the symbol is now available!
Open (with your favourite text editor) the LatGrkCyr-12x22.table
file that was extracted with the psfgettable command. Seek the
line beginning 0x01d and add U+221E into it:
0x01d U+221ESave this new table as LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.table.
$ psfaddtable LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psf LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.table LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psfu(Please note that by tradition files ending with .psf are files
without an Unicode table, and files ending with .psfu contain an
Unicode table.)
$ setfont LatGrkCyr-12x22-inf.psfu
$ echo -e '\u221e'
∞Rinse and repeat!
(setfont, showconsolefont, psfgettable, and psfaddtable
commands are in most distros located in the console-tools package.)
Both readpsf and writepsf have the following command line options:
Geometry:
-tN --top=N Override character geometry.
-lN --left=N (Top and left can be negative numbers.)
-wN --width=N
-hN --height=N
Edge:
-ew --edge=wrap When running out of pixels: wrap character.
-er --edge=repeat When running out of pixels: repeat edge pixels.
(Default action: use empty pixels.)With these you can manipulate the character geometry. The default character geometry is something like this:
01234567
0░░░░░░░░ Top: 0
1░░███░░░ Left: 0
2░██░██░░
3██░░░██░ Width: 8
4██░░░██░ Height: 12
5███████░
6██░░░██░
7██░░░██░
8██░░░██░
9██░░░██░
10░░░░░░░░
11░░░░░░░░If you set the top and left to negative numbers the character
geometry will change to something like this:
-10123456
-3▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Top: -3
-2▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Left: -1
-1▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
0▒░░░░░░░ Width: 8
1▒░░███░░ Height: 12
2▒░██░██░
3▒██░░░██ ▒ = New pixels (Default action: use empty pixels.)
4▒██░░░██
5▒███████
6▒██░░░██
7▒██░░░██
8▒██░░░██Because width and height remained the same the character was
cropped. To make character genuinely larger you have to also set the
width and height:
-1012345678
-3▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Top: -3
-2▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Left: -1
-1▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
0▒░░░░░░░░▒ Width: 10
1▒░░███░░░▒ Height: 16
2▒░██░██░░▒
3▒██░░░██░▒ ▒ = New pixels (Default action: use empty pixels.)
4▒██░░░██░▒
5▒███████░▒
6▒██░░░██░▒
7▒██░░░██░▒
8▒██░░░██░▒
9▒██░░░██░▒
10▒░░░░░░░░▒
11▒░░░░░░░░▒
12▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒By default the new pixels are created empty. With the edge option
you can either wrap the current character over, or repeat the
edge pixels. This is especially handy with the box drawing
characters. (╨, ╪, ╕, ╫ et al.)
Default: Wrap: Repeat:
-1012345678 -1012345678 -1012345678
-3▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ -3▒▒██▒██▒▒▒ -3▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Top: -3
-2▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ -2▒▒██▒██▒▒▒ -2▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ Left: -1
-1▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ -1▒▒██▒██▒▒▒ -1▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
0▒░░░░░░░░▒ 0▒░░░░░░░░▒ 0▒░░░░░░░░▒ Width: 10
1▒░░░░░░░░▒ 1▒░░░░░░░░▒ 1▒░░░░░░░░▒ Height: 16
2▒░░░░░░░░▒ 2▒░░░░░░░░▒ 2▒░░░░░░░░▒
3▒░░░░░░░░▒ 3▒░░░░░░░░▒ 3▒░░░░░░░░▒ ▒ = New pixels
4▒░███████▒ 4█░███████▒ 4▒░████████
5▒░██░░░░░▒ 5▒░██░░░░░▒ 5▒░██░░░░░▒
6▒░██░████▒ 6█░██░████▒ 6▒░██░█████
7▒░██░██░░▒ 7▒░██░██░░▒ 7▒░██░██░░▒
8▒░██░██░░▒ 8▒░██░██░░▒ 8▒░██░██░░▒
9▒░██░██░░▒ 9▒░██░██░░▒ 9▒░██░██░░▒
10▒░██░██░░▒ 10▒░██░██░░▒ 10▒░██░██░░▒
11▒░██░██░░▒ 11▒░██░██░░▒ 11▒░██░██░░▒
12▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 12▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 12▒▒██▒██▒▒▒Because both readpsf and writepsf support these options you can
first create one base BMP file, manually fix it, and then (when you
know it will grow without edge problems) create multiple larger ones
from it:
$ readpsf --top=-1 --left=-1 --width=10 --height=16 --edge=wrap font8x14.psf bmp
Manually fix the font, save it as 'stretchable.bmp'.
Then create different line heights easily from it:
$ readpsf --top=-1 --height=18 --edge=repeat stretchable.bmp font10x18.psf
$ readpsf --top=-1 --height=19 --edge=repeat stretchable.bmp font10x19.psf
$ readpsf --top=-2 --height=20 --edge=repeat stretchable.bmp font10x20.psf
$ readpsf --top=-2 --height=21 --edge=repeat stretchable.bmp font10x21.psf
$ readpsf --top=-3 --height=22 --edge=repeat stretchable.bmp font10x22.psfHave fun!