Re: DOS Window Font Nomenclature and Identification

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "M.C."  on Sun, 19 Dec 2004 23:39:21
+0100

Multiple raster fonts of one size but different styles. How
to identify a font

-------------

Very nice sans serif font, Manuel. Beautiful. I like it
just the way it is (1280x1024), so I'm maybe the wrong
person to ask. But this is CodePage 1252, right? I use
your Mono850n.FON (CP850) a _lot_.

Coincidentally, I've been meaning to write to you privately
-- but this is, I think, of some general interest, so I'll
say it here.

We all know how difficult (nay, impossible!) it is to
correlate a specific font filename with the X by Y listings
for raster fonts, and also with the little name for the font
that is displayed immediately above the preview window under
NT, when selecting a font at the DOS Box Properties' "Font"
tab. We have four different ways of looking at a given font
-- let's take your font as an example:

In DOS Box Properties:
    "Size: 16 x 34"
    "Selected Font: Terminal"
In Control Panel ==> Fonts:
    "Terminal 17"
    "Filename: Mono850n.FON"

Now HOW in heaven's name would you ever be able to relate
those disparate fragments of information to your font?
There is simply no way to know, looking in Properties, what
specific font you are loading. None.

**Moreover**, we have the very real problem that Windows
won't permit more than one Terminal font of one given X by
Y size to be displayed or selected in the Properties window.
In general, you must delete one font (assuming you know
_which_ one to delete!) in order to make room for and enable
another font to be selected, if they are both the same size.
It is an awful mess of a system. (I mean, *what* does
Microsoft do really well, apart from make money?)

Here's the workaround that I use -- and I wish more font
developers used something like it -- I have *many* different
fonts of the same size but different styles, and I can
identify them too in the Properties window (I don't claim it
is easy, but when you're looking for and want to use one
specific font, it really helps):

The general belief is that you cannot display a font in a
Desktop DOS window unless it is a Terminal font. Amongst
other authorities, Uwe Sieber says so, and he should know!

But he's only half right. Take a look at your font with
LIST. Toggle into Hex display (Alt-H). There are three
instances of the $tring "Terminal" in the font. The first
one is the font "name" that shows up in Control Panel -
Fonts: "Terminal 17". The second instance occurs about 100
bytes later, by itself, surrounded by 00h chars. The third
instance of "Terminal" occurs near the end of the font.

There are two things you can do to differentiate fonts --
and you already did the first thing: You gave it a unique
name, "Terminal 17". That is very important. When you try
to "Install New Font" with the Control Panel ==> Fonts
dialog, it will only offer you one choice, and allow you to
install one font with a given internal "Name" -- even if two
or more fonts bear the same name.

The second instance of "Terminal" is the name that is
displayed above the Properties font preview window (the
little window that shows you what a font actually looks
like). This can and should be changed! Get a byte editor,
and make it something distinct -- e.g., the first eight
characters of the *filename*! So I changed your font to
"Mono850n". The third instance of "Terminal should be left
alone -- it needs to remain as-is.

Now Install the font via Control Panel ==> Fonts.

Here's a good test of this procedure. I take another copy
of your font and REName it "Mono850m.FON" (instead of
"Mono850n.FON"). I edit the font with a byte editor: I
change "Terminal 17" to "Terminal_17", and I change
"Mono850n" to "Mono850m". Then I install the second,
identical font.

Now open Properties for a Desktop DOS window. You will
discover two separate 16x34 fonts listed, and when you click
on them individually, they display "Mono850m" or "Mono850n"
above the preview window. Either one can be selected and
used -- even though, of course, they are two copies of the
same thing.

It works. Much less useful in 9x, though -- font handling
there is even more primitive, and Properties doesn't display
any font names at all.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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