--- name: "xfontsel" 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/xfontsel/1x" --- # xfontsel(1x) point and click selection of X11 font names ## NAME xfontsel - point and click selection of X11 font names ## SYNTAX **xfontsel** \[-*toolkitoption* ...\] \[**-pattern** *fontname***\]** **\[-print\]** **\[-sample** *text***\]** **\[-sample16** *text16***\]** **\[-sampleUCS** *textUCS***\]** **\[-scaled\]** ## DESCRIPTION **The** *xfontsel* **application provides a simple way to display** **the fonts known to your X server, examine samples of each, and** **retrieve the X Logical Font Description ("XLFD") full name for a font.** **If -pattern is not specified, all fonts with XLFD 14-part** **names will be selectable. To work with only a subset of the** **fonts, specify -pattern followed by a partially or fully** **qualified font name; e.g., \`\`-pattern \*medium\*'' will** **select that subset of fonts which contain the string \`\`medium''** **somewhere in their font name. Be careful about escaping** **wildcard characters in your shell.** **If -print is specified on the command line the selected** **font specifier will be written to standard output when the** *quit* **button is activated. Regardless of whether or not -print was** **specified, the font specifier may be made the PRIMARY (text)** **selection by activating the** *select* **button.** **The -sample option specifies the sample text to be used to** **display the selected font if the font is linearly indexed,** **overriding the default.** **The -sample16 option specifies the sample text to be used to** **display the selected font if the font is matrix encoded,** **overriding the default.** **The -sampleUCS option specifies the sample text encoded in the UTF-8** **form to be used to display the selected font if the font has a** **CHARSET\_REGISTRY of ISO10646, overriding the default.** **The -scaled option enables the ability to select scaled fonts** **at arbitrary pixel or point sizes.** ## INTERACTIONS **Clicking any pointer button in one of the XLFD field names will pop up** **a menu of the currently-known possibilities for that field. If** **previous choices of other fields were made, only values** **for fonts which matched the previously selected fields will be** **selectable; to make other values selectable, you must deselect** **some other field(s) by choosing the \`\`\*'' entry in that field.** **Unselectable values may be omitted from the menu entirely as** **a configuration option; see the ShowUnselectable resource, below.** **Whenever any change is made to a field value,** *xfontsel* **will** **assert ownership of the PRIMARY\_FONT selection. Other applications** **(see, e.g.,** *xterm***) may then retrieve the selected font specification.** **Scalable fonts come back from the server with zero for the pixel size,** **point size, and average width fields. Selecting a font name with a** **zero in these positions results in an implementation-dependent size.** **Any pixel or point size can be selected to scale the font to a particular** **size. Any average width can be selected to anamorphically scale the font** **(although you may find this challenging given the size of the average** **width menu).** **Clicking the left pointer button in the** *select* **widget will** **cause the currently selected font name to become the PRIMARY text** **selection as well as the PRIMARY\_FONT selection.** **This then allows you to paste the string into other** **applications. The select button remains** **highlighted to remind you of this fact, and de-highlights when** **some other application takes the PRIMARY selection away. The** *select* **widget is a toggle; pressing it when it is highlighted** **will cause** *xfontsel* **to release the selection ownership and** **de-highlight the widget. Activating the** *select* **widget twice** **is the only way to cause** *xfontsel* **to release the** **PRIMARY\_FONT selection.** ## RESOURCES **The application class is XFontSel. Most of the user-interface** **is configured in the app-defaults file; if this file is missing** **a warning message will be printed to standard output and the** **resulting window will be nearly incomprehensible.** **Most of the significant parts of the widget hierarchy are documented** **in** */etc/X11/app-defaults/XFontSel*, **Application specific resources:** - **cursor (class Cursor)** **Specifies the cursor for the application window.** - **pattern (class Pattern)** **Specifies the font name pattern for selecting a subset of** **available fonts. Equivalent to the -pattern option.** **Most useful patterns will contain at least one field** **delimiter; e.g. \`\`\*-m-\*'' for monospaced fonts.** - **pixelSizeList (class PixelSizeList)** **Specifies a list of pixel sizes to add to the pixel size menu,** **so that scalable fonts can be selected at those pixel sizes.** **The default pixelSizeList contains 7, 30, 40, 50, and 60.** - **pointSizeList (class PointSizeList)** **Specifies a list of point sizes (in units of tenths of points) to add to** **the point size menu, so that scalable fonts can be selected at those** **point sizes. The default pointSizeList contains 250, 300, 350, and 400.** - **printOnQuit (class PrintOnQuit)** **If** *True* **the currently selected font name is printed** **to standard output when the quit button is activated.** **Equivalent to the -print option.** - **sampleText (class Text)** **The sample 1-byte text to use for linearly indexed fonts.** **Each glyph index is a single byte, with newline separating lines.** - **sampleText16 (class Text16)** **The sample 2-byte text to use for matrix-encoded fonts.** **Each glyph index is two bytes, with a 1-byte newline separating lines.** - **scaledFonts (class ScaledFonts)** **If** *True* **then selection of arbitrary pixel and point sizes for** **scalable fonts is enabled.** **Widget specific resources:** - **showUnselectable (class ShowUnselectable)** **Specifies, for each field menu, whether or not to show values that** **are not currently selectable, based upon previous field selections.** **If shown, the unselectable values are clearly identified as such** **and do not highlight when the pointer is moved down the menu.** **The full name of this resource is fieldN.menu.options.showUnselectable,** **class MenuButton.SimpleMenu.Options.ShowUnselectable;** **where N is replaced with the field** **number (starting with the left-most field numbered 0).** **The default is True for all but field 11 (average width of characters** **in font) and False for field 11. If you never want to see** **unselectable entries, '\*menu.options.showUnselectable:False' is** **a reasonable thing to specify in a resource file.** ## FILES **$XFILESEARCHPATH/XFontSel** ## SEE ALSO **[xrdb(1)](/xrdb/1.md), [xfd(1)](/xfd/1.md)** ## BUGS **Sufficiently ambiguous patterns can be misinterpreted and lead to an** **initial selection string which may not correspond to what the user intended** **and which may cause the initial sample text output to fail to match** **the proffered string. Selecting any new field value will correct the** **sample output, though possibly resulting in no matching font.** **Should be able to return a FONT for the PRIMARY selection, not** **just a STRING.** **Any change in a field value will cause** *xfontsel* **to assert** **ownership of the PRIMARY\_FONT selection. Perhaps this should** **be parameterized.** **When running on a slow machine, it is possible for the user to** **request a field menu before the font names have been completely** **parsed. An error message indicating a missing menu is printed** **to stderr but otherwise nothing bad (or good) happens.** **The average-width menu is too large to be useful.** ## COPYRIGHT **Copyright 1989, 1991, X Consortium**\ **See** *[X(7x)](/X/7x.md)* **for a full statement of rights and permissions.** ## AUTHOR **Ralph R. Swick, Digital Equipment Corporation/MIT Project Athena**\ **Mark Leisher \ added the support for the UTF-8 sample** **text.**