---
name: "glyphs"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "magic"
version: "8.3.105+ds.1-1.1"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/glyphs"
---

# glyphs(5)

format of .glyphs files

## NAME

glyphs - format of .glyphs files

## DESCRIPTION

Glyph files (\`\`.glyph'' extension) are used to store commonly-used bit patterns (glyphs) for Magic. Right now, the bit patterns are used for two purposes in Magic. First, they specify patterns for programmable cursors:  each cursor shape (e.g. the arrow used for the wiring tool) is read in as a glyph from a glyph file. Second, glyphs are used by the window manager to represent the icons displayed at the ends of scroll bars. Glyph file names normally have the extension **.glyph**.

Glyph files are stored in ASCII format. Lines beginning with \`\`#'' are considered to be comments and are ignored. Blank lines are also ignored. The first non-comment line in a glyph file must have the syntax **size** *nGlyphs width height* The *nGlyphs* field must be a number giving the total number of glyphs stored in the file. The *width* and *height* fields give the dimensions of each glyph in pixels. All glyphs in the same file must have the same size.

The **size** line is followed by a description for each of the glyphs. Each glyph consists of *height* lines each containing 2×*width* characters. Each pair of characters corresponds to a bit position in the glyph, with the leftmost pair on the topmost line corresponding to the upper-left pixel in the glyph.

The first character of each pair specifies the color to appear in that pixel. The color is represented as as a single character, which must be the short name of a display style in the current display style file. Some commonly-used characters are **K** for black, **W** for white, and **.** for the background color (when **.** is used in a cursor, it means that that pixel position is transparent:  the underlying picture appears through the cursor). See \`\`Magic Maintainer's Manual #3: Display Styles, Color Maps, and Glyphs'' for more information.

The second character of each pair is normally blank, except for one pixel per glyph which may contain a \`\`\*'' in the second character. The \`\`\*'' is used for programmable cursors to indicate the hot-spot:  the pixel corresponding to the \`\`\*'' is the one that the cursor is considered to point to.

For an example of a glyph file, see ∼cad/lib/magic/sys/color.glyphs.

## SEE ALSO

[magic(1)](/magic/1.md), [dstyle(5)](/dstyle/5.md)