---
name: "fnt2bdf"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "hxtools"
version: "20180301-1"
release: "Debian 10 (Buster)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fnt2bdf"
---

# fnt2bdf(1)

convert VGA raw fonts to X11 BDF

## Name

fnt2bdf — convert VGA raw fonts to X11 BDF

## Syntax

**fnt2bdf** \[**-x**\] \[**-n** *fontname*\] \[**-w** *fontwidth*\] *file*

## Description

Converts a raw font FNT file (4096 bytes) to a BDF file, suitable for bdf2pcf, which can then serve as an X11 font.

For best results, fontname should be the same as the later filename (w/o .bdf). Output is always standard output. The default for "fontname" is "defaultXXXX" otherwise, default for -w is 9.

## Options

- **-n** *fontname*

  The X11 font name that will be embedded into the BDF output.

- **-w** *fontwidth*

  The width of the font in pixels. VGA fonts are always(?) 8 pixels wide and are displayed as such, but if you happen to have glyphs only 7 pixels wide, you can use this option to crop the glyphs for X11.

- **-x**

  Do not do the CP437 to ANSI glyph position translation. This option is generally useful for VGA font files that have been converted from PSF.

## Example

To actually use fonts in e.g. xterm, they need to be present as PCF files.

```
fnt2bdf -n roman roman.fnt | bdftopcf |
gzip -9c >/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/roman.pcf.gz
```

## See also

[**hxtools**(7)](/hxtools/7.md)