Kagehi
asked on
PC Terminal font..
I am trying to find a font that has its characters 'sorted' the same as the Lucida Console font, but is more solid looking. As an example, in a DOS window you can select TTF version or non-TTF version of the font. This is a serious joke, since it appears that they are actually using the Terminal.fon font for some size, then stretching it where needed to match the 'size' you want, but if you pick one that says TTF next to it, they seem to instead be using Lucida or Courier and accessing the unicode versions of what it in the Terminal font.
My problem is that imho the Lucida Console font isn't 'solid' enough. Check out the 7x11 TFF version in the DOS window and compare it to 7x12 (which is the 'real' Terminal font. Someone has to have a version that looks like the 7x12 version and is actually TTF and therefore actually scalable. All the alternatives that exist, and there are very few fixed width fonts, either completely change it or are like the Lucida version, which 'seems' to have been made thinner to make it feel more like other fonts used for publishing. At the point size I am using it, some characters look goofy, but switching to Terminal to get the better looking font means any foreign characters are wrong when displayed.
Does anyone know of a fixed font that actually looks like the 7x12 size for the DOS window (including general thickness), doesn't need to be made bold to look that way and is actually a TTF?
My problem is that imho the Lucida Console font isn't 'solid' enough. Check out the 7x11 TFF version in the DOS window and compare it to 7x12 (which is the 'real' Terminal font. Someone has to have a version that looks like the 7x12 version and is actually TTF and therefore actually scalable. All the alternatives that exist, and there are very few fixed width fonts, either completely change it or are like the Lucida version, which 'seems' to have been made thinner to make it feel more like other fonts used for publishing. At the point size I am using it, some characters look goofy, but switching to Terminal to get the better looking font means any foreign characters are wrong when displayed.
Does anyone know of a fixed font that actually looks like the 7x12 size for the DOS window (including general thickness), doesn't need to be made bold to look that way and is actually a TTF?
Oh, and one more thing, here is probably the biggest collection of monospaced, or fixed-width fonts:
http://www.matchfonts.com/pages/monospaced_fonts.html
(You have to shell out a few bucks for them though...)
sina
london
http://www.matchfonts.com/pages/monospaced_fonts.html
(You have to shell out a few bucks for them though...)
sina
london
ASKER
I'll take a look at the monospace site, however the other two are useless. I am actually looking for something to use in a telnet app and unlike the command window, it can't rescale fonts to specific sizes unless they are actually ttf or contain the correct mappings for those sizes. While I 'can' use the normal Terminal font, all so called 'modern' fonts use a completely different mapping for characters over decimal 127 or so. This means that I can use one I hate, like Lucida Console and get the right characters, or use Terminal and have some non-english content get completely screwed up. Might be easier if I could just find something that would let me copy, then rearrange the order of the characters in the Terminal font to match the modern ones.
Hmm. Then again, looking at the site you pointed me too, I kind of need one I don't have to pay a chunk of money for either. Which sadly makes matters even more irritating when finding a decent replacement. :p
Hmm. Then again, looking at the site you pointed me too, I kind of need one I don't have to pay a chunk of money for either. Which sadly makes matters even more irritating when finding a decent replacement. :p
ASKER
Hmm. Well, after a bit of hunting, a lot of copy and paste, the use of the demo of a font program called Softy and a major system glitch that resulted from the new font being damaged (Real glad I use 98, since I had to boot to DOS and copy the original font over the new to get the machine to boot at all), I was able to finally hack together a 12pt version of the original terminal font that is actually sorted the same as the other 99.9% people actually use.
On the other hand, Softy has some major flaws imho. The ttf inteface I couldn't figure out how to use to make a new font, so I had to make a bitmap version. The final file had two copies of the same font called ModTerm and ModTerminal, because of the confusion as to where it was being saved and the system glitch I ran into, but you can't delete (or) rename a font once it has been stored in the file. All in all I think I would rather spend the cash to register High Logic's Font Creator, even though I really don't understand the full complexities of ttf and it can't do anything at all with bitmap fonts.
All in all, I just don't get why the DOS OEM font was never ported to TTF. Lucida really isn't intended to be a replacement, doesn't really look the same and is useless for accessing some special characters that only appear if the program supports unicode (which is how windows 'cheats' in the DOS command windows). Sigh..
Oh well.. At lest my hack also includes a few of those characters in the inevitable 'gaps' that people seem to think they need to leave in fonts, which is something else that I really don't get... Thanks for trying to help anyway.
On the other hand, Softy has some major flaws imho. The ttf inteface I couldn't figure out how to use to make a new font, so I had to make a bitmap version. The final file had two copies of the same font called ModTerm and ModTerminal, because of the confusion as to where it was being saved and the system glitch I ran into, but you can't delete (or) rename a font once it has been stored in the file. All in all I think I would rather spend the cash to register High Logic's Font Creator, even though I really don't understand the full complexities of ttf and it can't do anything at all with bitmap fonts.
All in all, I just don't get why the DOS OEM font was never ported to TTF. Lucida really isn't intended to be a replacement, doesn't really look the same and is useless for accessing some special characters that only appear if the program supports unicode (which is how windows 'cheats' in the DOS command windows). Sigh..
Oh well.. At lest my hack also includes a few of those characters in the inevitable 'gaps' that people seem to think they need to leave in fonts, which is something else that I really don't get... Thanks for trying to help anyway.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Take a look at this site, it may solve your problem.
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/dosfonfe.shtml
Thanks,
Benoit
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/dosfonfe.shtml
Thanks,
Benoit
ASKER
Hmm. Basically the same issue. The original OEM font that DOSBox and the DOS windows both use are not compatible, in terms of which character appear in what places, with the TTF fonts commonly used by other people. Most are satisfied with Lucida or the like. Second problem is that .FON types don't scale well. By preference I would like to see a true reproduction of the OEM/DOS font as a TTF, with bolf an italic versions as well. Even better would be one that remapped the characters common to OEM/DOS and Lucida to the correct values *and* really looks like the original high visibility font. Your not going to find such a thing. Lucida is considered by most as 'acceptable', despite being thinner and harder to read. It also contains both the common mapping + Unicode groupings for the OEM, but unless you can use unicode in the application, you can't access any of those characters anyway. Not a lot of Telnet clients support full unicode.
It is a mute point anyway. I finally ended up using a copy of the Softy Font Editor to hack together one with the basic size I needed. I don't really need the Italics or Bold funtionality and it works fine, though Softy is seriously buggy when exporting the correct info to the FON file for some of the internals and other features, including the deletion of a font you screwed up from the .FON file are absent or don't really work. :( Anyway, it solved my problem, so its good enough. I just would have preferred a true TTF which didn't merely mimic the original, but actually looked right.
In any case, the question is closed.
BTW For anyone interested, you can get the hacked together font I managed (12 point only) from www.magnumsworld.com/muds, along with a number of plugins I developed for the Mushclient program I use it in. Most are designed for use on the Ages of Despair mud though.
It is a mute point anyway. I finally ended up using a copy of the Softy Font Editor to hack together one with the basic size I needed. I don't really need the Italics or Bold funtionality and it works fine, though Softy is seriously buggy when exporting the correct info to the FON file for some of the internals and other features, including the deletion of a font you screwed up from the .FON file are absent or don't really work. :( Anyway, it solved my problem, so its good enough. I just would have preferred a true TTF which didn't merely mimic the original, but actually looked right.
In any case, the question is closed.
BTW For anyone interested, you can get the hacked together font I managed (12 point only) from www.magnumsworld.com/muds, along with a number of plugins I developed for the Mushclient program I use it in. Most are designed for use on the Ages of Despair mud though.
http://www.abstractfonts.com/fonts/search/full_listing.htm?kw=joystix
Another is 'Lilliput Steps' by Ray Larabie, a pixelfont with a bigger character set + lower case:
http://www.flashkit.com/downloads/fonts/zip/264/Lilliput%20Steps.zip
Having said that, bare in mind that you cant actualy tell a command window what font you wish to use, you have to choose between Lucida or the Terminal.fon.
I don't believe you'll ever find a 'smooth' fixed width font, but then again, the internet is a big place.
sina
london