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How to use Linux's misc-fixed unicode fixed-width bitmap font (-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13---*---iso10646) in Windows (specifically for Cygwin's Mintty), without installing X?

Is there a method to convert it to a Windows font that contains all the glyphs?

aggu
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  • possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3750124/how-to-convert-a-bitmap-font-fon-into-a-truetype-font-ttf – aelgoa Mar 22 '14 at 21:53

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I have a Windows conversion of Misc-Fixed 7x14 and directions on how I made it here: http://samiam.org/blog/20131215.html

Here's a cut-and-paste of my own text:

First I went to the current page for the misc-fixed fonts and downloaded the most recent version of the fonts. The source font I used was 7x14; its source file is 7x14.bdf, which can be seen here:

http://​samiam.​org/​fonts/​terminal/​misc-​fixed/

I then opened up the font in FontForge, and exported the font as a Windows .fnt file.

Once I had the Windows .fnt file, I used Simon Tatham’s dewinfont.py tool to convert the font in to a “.fd” file. Once I had the fd file, I had to make sure of the following:

  • The font needs the line near the top with the charset to say “charset 0”, otherwise MSYS will be unable to open the font

  • To avoid looking buggy in MSYS’ RXVT client, I had to make sure the letters had no pixels in the leftmost column of the font. 7x14 comes from upstream “left aligned” (the blank pixel separing characters is on the right size of the font); I used a Perl script to make the letters “right aligned”, by moving all characters one pixel to the right, discarding the blank right column, and inserting a blank column on the left hand side.

  • The RXVT included with MSYS will not open a font whose name starts with a number. This is why the font is called “m7x14” instead of “7x14”.

  • All of the characters needed to have the same width (no “width 0” characters), or PuTTY would refuse to open the font.

Once all that was done, I used Simon’s mkwinfont.py script to convert the .fd file in a to the final Windows .fon file.

Simon’s tools can be downloaded here:

http://​www.​chiark.​greenend.​org.​uk/~​sgtatham/​fonts/

I have made a mirror here:

http://​samiam.​org/​fonts/​terminal/​Simon-​Tatham/

One last thing: .fon files only appear to support Windows Codepage 1252 glyphs. Making a Unicode font (which is a good deal harder) is left as an exercise to the reader.

samiam
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  • Both links at the end of your post are dead. – Joshua Huber Mar 12 '15 at 19:35
  • The first link is broken because (irony alert) of character encoding issues. Here's the correct link: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/fonts/ – scw Jan 16 '16 at 08:28
  • @samiam have been searching a windows version of this font for a week, however, the one i've downloaded from your blog is a little small (the size) do you have or can you make a version with a bigger size please. – Asme Just Feb 16 '16 at 03:50
  • I’ve fixed the links. The issue isn’t character encoding issues; the issue is that Stackexchange revised their code to add invisible Unicode word breaks to bare links. For people who want a bigger misc-fixed font, feel free to use these directions to make your own font file. – samiam Mar 26 '16 at 15:14