--- name: "unifont" section: "5" platform: "linux" package: "unifont-bin" version: "1:15.1.01-1" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/unifont" --- # unifont(5) a bitmapped font with full Unicode Plane 0 (BMP) coverage ## NAME Unifont - a bitmapped font with full Unicode Plane 0 (BMP) coverage ## SYNOPSIS **unifont.hex** ## DESCRIPTION **Unifont** is a bitmapped font with glyphs described in a plain text file, generically referred to as **unifont.hex** herein. This man page describes the format of three related files: **unifont.hex, masks.hex,** and **combining.txt.** All three of these files start with a Unicode code point as a hexadecimal string, with code points appearing in ascending order. A **unifont.hex** file consists of single-line entries for each Unicode code point. Each line contains the code point, a colon (':') field separator, and the glyph bitmap. **The glyphs in a unifont.hex format file must appear in ascending** **Unicode code point order.** This file can be converted into a BDF font using the [**hex2bdf**(1)](/hex2bdf/1.md) program, and into a TrueType font using [**fontforge**(1)](/fontforge/1.md) (which is not part of this package). The BDF font can also be converted into a PCF font using [**bdftopcf**(1)](/bdftopcf/1.md) (which is also not part of this package). **The first field** The first field is the Unicode code point in hexadecimal, ranging from "0000" through "10FFFF", inclusive. This corresponds to the Unicode code points U+0000 through U+10FFFF, respectively. **The second field** The second field is the glyph's bitmap string. This is a series of hexadecimal digits. Currently Unifont encodes two glyph sizes: 8 pixels wide by 16 pixels tall (single-width), and 16 pixels wide by 16 pixels tall (double-width). A third format of 32 pixels wide (drawn as 31 pixels plus a pixel on the right that is always blank) by 16 pixels tall (quadruple-width) is also available, but only for experimental use. As each hexadecimal digit can encode four bits, one pixel row of a glyph is either two hexadecimal digits long (single-width) or four hexadecimal digits long (double-width). The glyphs are 16 pixels tall, so a single-width glyph is (2)(16) = 32 hexadecimal digits long and a double-width glyph is (4)(16) = 64 hexadecimal digits long. Previous versions of this package supplied a file named **masks.hex.** This file followed the same format as **unifont.hex** with a first field that was a Unicode code point in hexadecimal, followed by a colon (':') field separator, followed by a second field that was a hexadecimal string representing a glyph bitmap. Code points were in ascending order. The glyph bitmaps were bitmaps that would be exclusive-ored with the glyph in **unifont.hex** that had the same code point. The original **unifont.hex** contained combining circles as depicted in *The Unicode Standard.* When Paul Hardy got combining characters to display properly in the TrueType version, it became desirable to remove these combining circles for proper display with **unifont.ttf.** The program [**uniunmask**(1)](/uniunmask/1.md) will read such a **masks.hex** file, read a **unifont.hex** format file, and apply the exclusive-or masks in **masks.hex** to **unifont.hex.** The output is another file in **unifont.hex** format with the masked-off bits (*i.e.,* combining circles) removed. Because the operation is an exclusive-or, **masks.hex** could also be used to turn on pixels in selective glyphs, for example to add combining circles to selective glyphs that do not show them. However, the program [**unigencircles**(1)](/unigencircles/1.md) can do this without a separate **masks.hex** file. Thus **masks.hex** is no longer supplied with this package. [**uniunmask**(1)](/uniunmask/1.md) remains part of this distribution in case someone might find creating a custom **masks.hex** file useful for another purpose. The TrueType version of the font, **unifont.ttf,** and the [**unigencircles**(1)](/unigencircles/1.md) utility both read a file **combining.txt.** This file appears in the directory **font/ttfsrc.** The **combining.txt** file is a list of code points as hexadecimal strings, one per line in ascending order, of Unicode code points that show combining circles in *The Unicode Standard.* Any glyph with its code point listed in **combining.txt** will have zero width in **unifont.ttf.** ## UTILITIES Roman Czyborra, the font's creator, originally wrote two Perl scripts as utilities: [**bdfimplode**(1)](/bdfimplode/1.md) and [**hexdraw**(1)](/hexdraw/1.md). The [**bdfimplode**(1)](/bdfimplode/1.md) Perl script reads in a font in BDF format and generates a font output in **unifont.hex** format. The [**hexdraw**(1)](/hexdraw/1.md) Perl script might appear somewhat magical. It can read a file in **unifont.hex** format and generate a text file with each glyph appearing as a grid of characters in an 8 by 16 or 16 by 16 grid: a '-' character indicates a corresponding white pixel, and a '#' character indicates a corresponding black pixel. These pixel grids are indented with a single tab character. The first line of each glyph first shows the code point for the glyph, followed by a colon (':'). The 16 lines that graphically represent each glyph are followed by one blank line. This text file can then be modified with any text editor. The magical part about [**hexdraw**(1)](/hexdraw/1.md) is that it will read in this text file, detect that it is in this converted format, and produce as output a second file in Unifont's .hex format. Thus [**hexdraw**(1)](/hexdraw/1.md) automagically provides round-trip coverage between an original font file in **unifont.hex** format and an intermediate text graphics format for editing. Utilities introduced after those first two convert a file in **unifont.hex** format to and from bitmapped graphics (".bmp") files. The [**unihex2bmp**(1)](/unihex2bmp/1.md) program converts a file in **unifont.hex** format into a .bmp format file, for editing with a graphics editor. The [**unibmp2hex**(1)](/unibmp2hex/1.md) program performs the reverse conversion, from a bitmapped graphics format back to a file in **unifont.hex** format. [**hexdraw**(1)](/hexdraw/1.md), [**unihex2bmp**(1)](/unihex2bmp/1.md), and [**unibmp2hex**(1)](/unibmp2hex/1.md) are the central programs that handle conversion of a **unifont.hex** file to and from two-dimensional glyph representations for visual editing. See the **doc/unifont.info** texinfo file included in the source package for more information on these and other utilities to customize **unifont.hex** format files. Also consult the man pages for the utilities listed below. ## FILES The following files are part of the Unifont source distribution: - **font/plane\*/\*.hex** GNU Unifont font files - **LICENSE** The Unifont license - **README** Instructions on building Unifont - **doc/unifont.info** Tutorial in texinfo format on customizing Unifont ## SEE ALSO [**bdfimplode**(1)](/bdfimplode/1.md), [**hex2bdf**(1)](/hex2bdf/1.md), **hex2otf**(1), [**hex2sfd**(1)](/hex2sfd/1.md), [**hexbraille**(1)](/hexbraille/1.md), [**hexdraw**(1)](/hexdraw/1.md), [**hexkinya**(1)](/hexkinya/1.md), [**hexmerge**(1)](/hexmerge/1.md), **johab2syllables**(1), [**johab2ucs2**(1)](/johab2ucs2/1.md), [**unibdf2hex**(1)](/unibdf2hex/1.md), [**unibmp2hex**(1)](/unibmp2hex/1.md), [**unibmpbump**(1)](/unibmpbump/1.md), [**unicoverage**(1)](/unicoverage/1.md), [**unidup**(1)](/unidup/1.md), **unifont-johab631**(5), [**unifont-viewer**(1)](/unifont-viewer/1.md), [**unifont1per**(1)](/unifont1per/1.md), [**unifontchojung**(1)](/unifontchojung/1.md), [**unifontksx**(1)](/unifontksx/1.md), [**unifontpic**(1)](/unifontpic/1.md), **unigen-hangul**(1), [**unigencircles**(1)](/unigencircles/1.md), [**unigenwidth**(1)](/unigenwidth/1.md), [**unihex2bmp**(1)](/unihex2bmp/1.md), [**unihex2png**(1)](/unihex2png/1.md), [**unihexfill**(1)](/unihexfill/1.md), [**unihexgen**(1)](/unihexgen/1.md), **unihexpose**(1), [**unihexrotate**(1)](/unihexrotate/1.md), **unijohab2html**(1), [**unipagecount**(1)](/unipagecount/1.md), [**unipng2hex**(1)](/unipng2hex/1.md) ## AUTHOR The **unifont.hex** format was created by Roman Czyborra, who drew the original set of glyphs. ## LICENSE **unifont** is Copyright © 1998 Roman Czyborra, with portions Copyright © 2007–2013 Paul Hardy, Copyright © 2004–2013 Qianqian Fang, and others. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. ## BUGS The format is very straightforward and no real bugs exist. However, Unifont's original BDF font format does not support Unicode's combining characters (accents, etc.); only the TrueType version of Unifont does.