Picking a font

To display the available fonts, type xlsfonts. To display a font from that list

xfd -fn 

You can specify a font to an application by

xterm -fn lucidasanstypewrite-12

xterm.Font:lucidasanstypewriter-12

What do these font names mean?

> -a-b-c-d-e--f-g-h-i-j-k-l-
>
>the letter stand for
>
>a = foundry
>b = font family
>c = weight
>d = slant
>e = set width
>f = pixels
>g = points in tenths of a point
>h = horiz resolution in dpi
>i = vertical resolution in dpi
>j = spacing
>k = average width in tenths of a pixel
>l = character set
>Hope this is what you asked for. If not...never mind. :-)
>
>Exactly what I wanted - but not being an X user....
>
>Could I ask for a little more please
>Like 
>What are the valid options for
>c  [Something like bold, light, normal?] - or is it coded?

This is what NT-Emacs understands:

thin, extralight, light, normal, medium, semibold, demibold, bold,
extrabold, heavy

>d  [upright, italic..]

i for italic and anything else (usually r) for roman.

>e  ??? What is width - of each character [what format, in pixels?]

Not sure.  Ignored by NT-Emacs.

>f  A number? For char height? 

Nominal font height in pixels.  (Eg. 13 pixels roughly corresponds to 10
points (a point is 1/72 of an inch) on a 96dpi monitor, so the font spec
above is selecting a 10 point bold Courier font.)

>g  [Am I right in suggesting that 10 point would be 100 etc?

Yes.

>h,i  Resolution of this screen? e.g. 1024 768?

No, I think these numbers represent the "design resolution" of the font
- on X, fonts are typically designed for 75dpi or 100dpi screens (under
Windows, most monitors are assumed to be 96dpi I believe).  NT-Emacs
ignores these values.

>j  Spacing of what? line spacing in points?

Confusion of terminology - spacing as in mono-spaced or proportionally
spaced.  Values are "c" (constant) or "m" (monospace) to mean
fixed-width or "p" for proportionally spaced.  (You can tell Emacs to
use proportional fonts, but the display will become garbled as you move
the cursor around.)

This file is part of Victor Eijkhout's OS X notes.