NAME

txt2psf - compile a PC Screen Font file from a textual description

SYNOPSIS

txt2psf [--psf1] [--psf2] [INPUTFILE [OUTPUTFILE]]

DESCRIPTION

txt2psf converts an ASCII source file to a font in the .PSF format.

INPUT FILE FORMAT

The source file is composed of a header, followed by a series of character definitions. The first line of the header must be "%PSF2"; it is followed by these fields, each on a separate line, in any order:

Version: nnn: File format version; currently this must be 0.
Flags: nnn: This is 1 if the font should include a Unicode table, else 0.
Length: nnn: The number of characters in this font. If it is too low, the extra characters will be ignored. Too high, and the extras will be left blank.
Width: nnn: The width of a character cell.
Height: nnn: The height of a character cell.

After the header, character definitions follow. Each character definition starts as a "%" on a line by itself. It is then followed by two fields, in any order.

Bitmap: bitmapdata: The bitmap is composed of width*height cells, each of which is either a '-' (zero) or a '#' (black). Whitespace is ignored. The bitmap can be spread over several lines; the bitmaps created by psf2txt(1) are, for example.
Unicode: unicodestring: This describes the Unicode characters this bitmap represents. It is formed "[single];[sing]e];...[sequence];[sequence];..." where single is a single hexadecimal number, and sequence is two or more hexadecimal numbers separated by + signs. So "[41];" is an example of a single character, and "[00B4+0065];" is an example of a sequence. If the bitmap doesn't represent any Unicode characters this field may be blank or simply missing.

OPTIONS

--psf1: Force the resulting file to be in PSF1 format.
--psf2: Force the resulting file to be in PSF2 format.

BUGS

The file format is too rigid, and the parser (such as it is) a quick hack.

The "Length:" header should not be necessary; txt2psf should be able to calculate the file size itself.

AUTHOR

John Elliott <seasip.webmaster@gmail.com>.