HVFont for Windows' DOS Box and Terminal Mode

Terminal

- Terminal Fonts for Windows

Windows Terminal Fonts

Windows includes some very basic bitmap fonts (called "raster" fonts in Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista) that it uses in "DOS boxes" and Terminal modes (when run in "Window" mode rather than "Full-screen").

These monospaced Terminal fonts are provided by files installed in the Windows Font directory. The most important of these are:-

VGAOEM.FON - when the Screen Display setting is "Small Fonts", and
8514OEM.FON - when the Screen Display setting is "Large Fonts".

The number of different font sizes - and the display legibility of the fonts - varies somewhat with the Windows version.

However, the fonts are generally poor choices for screen display. Character glyphs are small, thin and indistinct and many characters are easily confused (0 and O, 1, l and I, 2 and Z, 8 and B, (, { and [).

An even more fundamental problem is that the Windows monospaced raster fonts do not include a full range of sizes. (VGAOEM.FON provides just one size - 8x12 pixels!)

This was tolerable when monitors were running at VGA (640x480 pixels) and SVGA (800x600) resolutions, but is totally inadequate at SXGA (1280x1024) or UXGA (1600x1200). (As the pixel size of a standard Windows DOS box is always 80 characters wide by 25 lines deep, an 8x12 font produces a DOS box of 640x300 pixels. This occupies only 10% of the screen area at UXGA resolution!)

The largest bitmapped Windows font produces a Terminal window barely 23% of the optimal size!

Users can run Windows at lower resolutions but this is not an ideal solution - particularly with LCD monitors monitors. (See: The problem with LCD Monitors.)

Ideally, we should be able to pick a font size for each screen resolution, so that the Terminal box occupies as much of the "available area" of the screen as possible without needing scroll bars.

Font Size for Largest DOS or Terminal Box in Windows

Optimal font sizes for common screen resolutions (Width x Height in pixels) are:-

Resolution	Screen Size	Font Size
VGA	640x480	8x15
SVGA	800x600	10x20
XGA	1024x768	12x27
	1152x864	14x30
	1280x960	16x34
SXGA	1280x1024	16x37
SXGA+	1400x1050	17x38
	1600x900	20x32
SXGA-Wide	1600x1024	20x37
UXGA	1600x1200	20x44
HDTV	1920x1080	24x39
UXGA-Wide	1920x1200	24x44
	1920x1440	24x53
QXGA	2056x1536	25x57
QUXGA	3200x2400	40x92
QUXGA-Wide	3840x2400	48x92

The "available area" depends upon the size and location of the Windows' task and title bars. The tabled font sizes allow for a task bar at the bottom of the screen and a Screen Display setting of "Large Fonts".

How do I Get More Terminal Font Sizes?

PROCON's Hi-Visibility Font is a supplement - or replacement - for these Windows Terminal fonts.

The Licenced version of the HVDOSBox.FON file includes over 20 different sizes ranging from a very small 5 point, 6x7 pixel font to a large 43 point font with 25x57 pixel glyphs. This provides expanded Terminal boxes at virtually all common screen resolutions up to QXGA. The smaller font sizes cater for 50 line screens - and support small Terminal boxes on screen - with the clearer text that the HVFont produces. (HVFont is used in the right screen of these otherwise identical Windows 2000 Terminal boxes running CMD.EXE).

Click here to see a screen shot of a PROCON program running in an MS-DOS box using the HVDOSBox font.

Click here to download an Evaluation version of the HVDOSBox font. (The Evaluation version has a subset of four of these fonts in glyph sizes from 8x16 to 25x57 pixels.)

Click here to purchase a licence for one of PROCON's HVFont packages.

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Copyright © 2007 - All rights reserved.
Last modified: 26 April 2007
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