---
name: "chkdvifont"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "texlive-doc"
version: "2026.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/chkdvifont"
---

# chkdvifont(1)

CHecK DVI/tfm/font file and report information of FONTs

## NAME

chkdvifont - CHecK DVI/tfm/font file and report information of FONTs

## SYNOPSIS

**chkdvifont** \[**-s**\] \[**-c**\] \[**-{f\|F}***\<font\_data\_file\>*\] \[**-d**\] *dvi\_file\_name*

**chkdvifont** \[**-s**\] \[**-c**\] \[**-{f\|F}***\<font\_data\_file\>*\] \[**-t**\] *tfm\_file\_name*

**chkdvifont** \[**-s**\] \[**-c**\] \[**-{f\|F}***\<font\_data\_file\>*\] \[**-p**\] *font\_file\_name*

## DESCRIPTION

**Chkdvifont** is a utility to check DVI and other TeX font-related formats (such as TFM, VF, GF and PK) and print information of those fonts. There are 3 modes;

Option **-d**: force DVI mode

Option **-t**: force TFM/OFM mode

Option **-p**: force other FONT mode

By default, the mode is guessed from the file extension.

## EXAMPLE

- (1) If you want to know what font is used in sample.dvi,

      $ chkdvifont sample.dvi\
       dvi file name                   = sample.dvi\
       comment                         = TeX output 2007.11.24:0632\
       factor converting to 10^{-5}m   = 25400000/473628672\
       magnification                   = 1000\
       maximum width                   = 26083328 scaled points = 398 points\
       maximum height+depth            = 11099063 scaled points = 169 points\
       maximum stack depth             = 4\
       number of pages                 = 13\
       page size                       = 14.0 cm x  6.0 cm\
       page size magnificated          = 14.0 cm x  6.0 cm

      Font 14\
           checksum                    = 44D3ED74\
           design size                 =  1132462 scaled points = 17 points\
           space size                  =  1630536 scaled points = 24 points\
           magnification               = +magstep2\
           font name                   = cmr17

      Font 7\
           checksum                    = 4BF16079\
           design size                 =   655360 scaled points = 10 points\
           space size                  =   655360 scaled points = 10 points\
           font name                   = cmr10

- (2) If you want to know the brief summary of jis.tfm,

      $ chkdvifont jis.tfm\
       "jis" is a jfm file :  0  -\>   5\
       checksum                = 00000000\
       design size             = 10485760 2^{-20} points = 10 points

- (3) If you want to know what font is referred to by jis.vf,

      $ chkdvifont jis.vf\
       "jis.vf" is in VF format\
       checksum                = 00000000\
       design size             = 10485760 2^{-20} points = 10 points

      Mapped Font 1\
               font dsize      = 10485760 2^{-20} points = 10 points\
               font at         =  0.962216\
               font name       = rml

Listing the fonts used in a DVI file (as shown in the first example) is almost equivalent to **dvifontlist** in TeX-Guy package \<http://www-masu.ist.osaka-u.ac.jp/%7Ekakugawa/TeX-Guy/\> and a script **dviinfox** \<https://ctan.org/pkg/dviinfox\>. I don't know any alternatives for obtaining information about TFM, OFM, VF and other font formats.

## SEE ALSO

[pltotf(1)](/pltotf/1.md), [tftopl(1)](/tftopl/1.md), [vptovf(1)](/vptovf/1.md), [vftovp(1)](/vftovp/1.md)

## AUTHOR

The program **chkdvifont** (original name "chkfont") is derived from the DVIOUT package (DVI previewer for Windows) by Toshio OSHIMA ("SHIMA"), Yoshiki OTOBE, and Kazunori ASAYAMA. Current version is maintained by Japanese TeX Development Community \<https://texjp.org\>.\
 For more information, please refer to chkdvifont-ja.txt (in Japanese) on our GitHub repository, \<https://github.com/texjporg/tex-jp-build\> (under source/texk/dviout-util directory).