---
name: "mkfontscale"
section: "1x"
platform: "linux"
package: "xbase-clients"
version: "4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge7"
release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mkfontscale/1x"
---

# mkfontscale(1x)

create an index of scalable font files for X

## NAME

mkfontscale - create an index of scalable font files for X

## SYNOPSIS

**mkfontscale** \[ **-e** *encoding* \] ... \[ **-f** *fuzz* \] \[ **--** \] \[ *directory* \] ...

## DESCRIPTION

For each directory argument, *mkfontscale* reads all of the scalable font files in the directory.  For every font file found, an X11 font name (XLFD) is generated, and is written together with the file name to a file **fonts.scale** in the directory.

The resulting **fonts.scale** file should be checked and possibly manually edited before being used as input for the [**mkfontdir**(1)](/mkfontdir/1.md) program.

## OPTIONS

- **-e** *encoding*

  add *encoding* to the list of encodings searched for.

- **-f** *fuzz*

  set the fraction of characters that may be missing in large encodings to *fuzz* percent.  Defaults to 2%.

- **--**

  end of options.

## SEE ALSO

[X(7x)](/X/7x.md), [Xserver(1)](/Xserver/1.md), [mkfontdir(1)](/mkfontdir/1.md), [ttmkfdir(1)](/ttmkfdir/1.md), [xfs(1)](/xfs/1.md), [xset(1)](/xset/1.md)

## NOTES

**Mkfontscale** will overwrite any **fonts.scale** file even if it has been hand-edited.

## AUTHOR

**Mkfontscale** was written by Juliusz Chroboczek \<jch@xfree86.org\> for the XFree86 project.  The functionality of this program was inspired by the **ttmkfdir** utility by Joerg Pommnitz.