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restorefont(1)		      Svgalib User Manual		restorefont(1)

NAME
       restorefont - save or restore the SVGA font for textmode.

SYNOPSIS
       restorefont {-r|-w} filename

DESCRIPTION
       The  font  used by SVGA when in textmode	is written to or restored from
       filename	using the vga_gettextfont(3) and vga_puttextfont(3) functions.

FILE FORMAT
       The VGA font file filename has the following format:

	      Offset:
		 0 -   31  Character 0
		  ...	       ...
	      8164 - 8195  Character 255

       Each row	of a character bitmap is stored	as a  byte  (8	pixels).   The
       space  that  is	left from the 32-byte buffer for each character	is ig-
       nored, e.g. a 16	line font uses only offsets 0 -	15 of each character.

       Linux textmode screen resolutions:

       80x25	16 line	font  400 scanlines
       80x28	14 line	font  400 scanlines
       80x50	 8 line	font  400 scanlines

       The font	sizes and resolutions of  extended  textmodes  depend  on  the
       video card type and BIOS:

       132x25	14 line	font  350 scanlines (ugly)
       132x25	16 line	font  400 scanlines
       132x43	 8 line	font  350 scanlines (use fix132x43 to fix/improve)
       132x50	 8 line	font  400 scanlines

       Using a font that has less lines	per character than the textmode	works,
       but  the	 characters  are smaller. Using	a font that is bigger than the
       textmode	font results in	the bottom part	of characters being cut	off.

       The svgalib distribution	contains sample	fonts with 8, 14 and  16  line
       characters in the files utils/font8, utils/font14, and utils/font16.

       The convfont (1)	program	can be used to convert fonts straightforwardly
       stored	character-after-character   (i.e.  each	 character  only  uses
       8/14/whatever bytes), to	the 32-byte per	character format that restore-
       font requires.

       The purpose of this program is usually to recover from a	 crashed  con-
       sole  due  to  an  svgalib,  Xfree or other program bug.	First save the
       state of	the SVGA card when on a	text console. After the	crash  restore
       this  state. The	savetextmode(1)	and textmode(1)	script makes this pro-
       cedure very easy.

       The national/fontpak packages, which include kernel patches, allow dif-
       ferent textmode fonts to	be used	in different virtual  consoles.	 These
       have been superseded by the kbd package (in the kernel since ages). See
       the setfont(8) utility of the kbd package as a starting point.

       Recent  kernels	support	up to 2	fonts with 512 chars each. Recent ver-
       sions of	svgalib	take this into account and  extend  the	 size  of  the
       datafile	accordingly.

OPTIONS
       -w filename
	      write the	font to	the file filename.

       -r filename
	      restore the font from the	file filename.

SEE ALSO
       svgalib(7), vgagl(7), libvga.config(5), setfont(8), vga_gettextfont(3),
       vga_puttextfont(3),  dumpreg(1),	 convfont(1),  fix132x43(1),  restore-
       textmode(1), restorepalette(1), runx(1),	 savetextmode(1),  setmclk(1),
       textmode(1).

AUTHOR
       This  manual page was edited by Michael Weller <eowmob@exp-math.uni-es-
       sen.de>.	The exact source of the	referenced utility as well as  of  the
       original	documentation is unknown.

       It is very likely that both are at least	to some	extent are due to Harm
       Hanemaayer <H.Hanemaayer@inter.nl.net>.

       Occasionally  this  might be wrong. I hereby asked to be	excused	by the
       original	author and will	happily	accept any additions or	corrections to
       this first version of the svgalib manual.

Svgalib	(>= 1.2.11)		  2 Aug	1997			restorefont(1)

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