Ubuntu Manpage: xfd - display all the characters in an X font

NAME

       xfd - display all the characters in an X font

SYNOPSIS

       xfd [-options ...] -fn fontname

       xfd [-options ...] -fa fontname

DESCRIPTION

The xfd utility creates a window containing the name of the font being displayed, a row of
command buttons, several lines of text for displaying character metrics, and a grid
containing one glyph per cell. The characters are shown in increasing order from left to
right, top to bottom. The first character displayed at the top left will be character
number 0 unless the -start option has been supplied in which case the character with the
number given in the -start option will be used.

The characters are displayed in a grid of boxes, each large enough to hold any single
character in the font. Each character glyph is drawn using the PolyText16 request (used
by the Xlib routine XDrawString16) or the XftDrawString32 routine, depending on whether
the -fn or -fa option was given. If the -box option is given, a rectangle will be drawn
around each character, showing where an ImageText16 request (used by the Xlib routine
XDrawImageString16) would cause background color to be displayed.

The origin of each glyph is normally set so that the character is drawn in the upper left
hand corner of the grid cell. However, if a glyph has a negative left bearing or an
unusually large ascent, descent, or right bearing (as is the case with cursor font), some
character may not appear in their own grid cells. The -center option may be used to force
all glyphs to be centered in their respective cells.

All the characters in the font may not fit in the window at once. To see the next page of
glyphs, press the Next button at the top of the window. To see the previous page, press
Prev. To exit xfd, press Quit.

Individual character metrics (index, width, bearings, ascent and descent) can be displayed
at the top of the window by clicking on the desired character.

The font name displayed at the top of the window is the full name of the font, as
determined by the server. See xlsfonts and fc-list for ways to generate lists of fonts,
as well as more detailed summaries of their metrics and properties.

OPTIONS

xfd accepts all of the standard toolkit command line options along with the additional
options listed below:

-fn font
This option specifies the core X server side font to be displayed. This can also
be set with the FontGrid font resource. A font must be specified.

-fa font
This option specifies a Xft font to be displayed. This can also be set with the
FontGrid face resource. A font pattern must be specified.

-box This option indicates that a box should be displayed outlining the area that would
be filled with background color by an ImageText request. This can also be set
with the FontGrid boxChars resource. The default is False.

-center This option indicates that each glyph should be centered in its grid. This can
also be set with the FontGrid centerChars resource. The default is False.

-start number
This option specifies the glyph index of the upper left hand corner of the grid.
This is used to view characters at arbitrary locations in the font. This can also
be set with the FontGrid startChar resource. The default is 0.

-bc color
This option specifies the color to be used if ImageText boxes are drawn. This can
also be set with the FontGrid boxColor resource.

-rows numrows
This option specifies the number of rows in the grid. This can also be set with
the FontGrid cellRows resource.

-columns numcols
This option specifies the number of columns in the grid. This can also be set
with the FontGrid cellColumns resource.

WIDGETS

       In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the widgets which compose xfd.  In the
       notation below, indentation indicates hierarchical structure.  The widget  class  name  is
       given first, followed by the widget instance name.  The application class name is Xfd.

       Xfd  xfd
            Paned  pane
                 Label  fontname
                 Box  box
                      Command  quit
                      Command  prev
                      Command  next
                 Label  select
                 Label  metrics
                 Label  range
                 Label  start
                 Form  form
                      FontGrid  grid

FONTGRID RESOURCES

       The FontGrid widget is an application-specific widget, and a subclass of the Simple widget
       in the Athena widget set.  The effects and instance names of this widget's  resources  are
       given  in  the OPTIONS section.  Capitalize the first letter of the resource instance name
       to get the corresponding class name.

APPLICATION SPECIFIC RESOURCES

The instance names of the application specific resources are given below. Capitalize the
first letter of the resource instance name to get the corresponding class name. These
resources are unlikely to be interesting unless you are localizing xfd for a different
language.

selectFormat
Specifies a printf-style format string used to display information about the
selected character. The default is "character 0x%02x%02x (%u,%u) (%#o,%#o)". The
arguments that will come after the format string are char.byte1, char.byte2,
char.byte1, char.byte2, char.byte1, char.byte2. char.byte1 is byte 1 of the
selected character. char.byte2 is byte 2 of the selected character.

metricsFormat
Specifies a printf-style format string used to display character metrics. The
default is "width %d; left %d, right %d; ascent %d, descent %d (font %d, %d)".
The arguments that will come after the format string are the character metrics
width, lbearing, rbearing, character ascent, character descent, font ascent, and
font descent.

rangeFormat
Specifies a printf-style format string used to display the range of characters
currently being displayed. The default is "range: 0x%02x%02x (%u,%u) thru
0x%02x%02x (%u,%u)". The arguments that will come after the format string are the
following fields from the XFontStruct that is returned from opening the font:
min_byte1, min_char_or_byte2, min_byte1, min_char_or_byte2, max_byte1,
max_char_or_byte2, max_byte1, max_char_or_byte2.

startFormat
Specifies a printf-style format string used to display information about the
character at the upper left corner of the font grid. The default is "upper left:
0x%04x (%d,%d)". The arguments that will come after the format string are the new
character, the high byte of the new character, and the low byte of the new
character.

nocharFormat
Specifies a printf-style format string to display when the selected character does
not exist. The default is "no such character 0x%02x%02x (%u,%u) (%#o,%#o)". The
arguments that will come after the format string are the same as for the
selectFormat resource.

BUGS

       The program should skip over pages full of non-existent characters.

AUTHOR

       Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium; previous program of the same name by Mark  Lillibridge,  MIT
       Project Athena.