Microsoft KB Archive/22131

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INFO: Using a Different Hardware Font Instead of the Default

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Q22131

3.00 3.10 WINDOWS kbprg

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.1

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SUMMARY
The following information describes how to inform Windows that a specific hardware font in a display device driver should be used instead of the default system font.

In general, an OEM provides an .fon file that contains bitmaps and metric information that is appropriate for the display board. This font file is listed in the SYSTEM.ini file in the [boot] section as follows:

  fonts.fon= At startup, GDI creates the SYSTEM_FONT stock font from this file.

If the display board has a hardware font available, it is possible to force GDI to use this font as the SYSTEM_FONT font by creating an .FON file that contains no bitmap information and has the third bit (04h) set in the dfType field and the absolute address of the hardware font in the dfBitsOffset field in the FONTINFO structure contained in the .fon file.

NOTE: It must be possible to draw that same font (or any other hardware fonts that are provided within the display device driver) onto main-memory bitmaps. GDI has no notion of some fonts being used on the (dedicated) frame buffer and other fonts used on host-memory bitmaps. Often, this requires that the hardware font be read off of the board and into host memory where the display device driver can move the bitmaps onto compatible bitmaps allocated by GDI. Within these guidelines, and with that provision in mind, the programmer can feel free to provide the system, OEM, and so on, with as many additional fonts as are desired (say, from Bitstream, Xiphias, or Conographics).