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(emacs)Font X

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Font Specification Options
==========================

   By default, Emacs displays text in the font named `9x15', which
makes each character nine pixels wide and fifteen pixels high.  You can
specify a different font on your command line through the option `-fn
NAME' (or `--font', which is an alias for `-fn').

`-fn NAME'
`--font=NAME'
     Use font NAME as the default font.

   Under X, each font has a long name which consists of eleven words or
numbers, separated by dashes.  Some fonts also have shorter
nicknames--`9x15' is such a nickname.  You can use either kind of name.
You can use wildcard patterns for the font name; then Emacs lets X
choose one of the fonts that match the pattern.  Here is an example,
which happens to specify the font whose nickname is `6x13':

     emacs -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-*-*-*-c-60-iso8859-1" &

You can also specify the font in your `.Xdefaults' file:

     emacs.font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-*-*-*-c-60-iso8859-1

   A long font name has the following form:

     -MAKER-FAMILY-WEIGHT-SLANT-WIDTHTYPE-STYLE...
     ...-PIXELS-HEIGHT-HORIZ-VERT-SPACING-WIDTH-CHARSET

MAKER
     This is the name of the font manufacturer.

FAMILY
     This is the name of the font family--for example, `courier'.

WEIGHT
     This is normally `bold', `medium' or `light'.  Other words may
     appear here in some font names.

SLANT
     This is `r' (roman), `i' (italic), `o' (oblique), `ri' (reverse
     italic), or `ot' (other).

WIDTHTYPE
     This is normally `condensed', `extended', `semicondensed' or
     `normal'.  Other words may appear here in some font names.

STYLE
     This is an optional additional style name.  Usually it is
     empty--most long font names have two hyphens in a row at this
     point.

PIXELS
     This is the font height, in pixels.

HEIGHT
     This is the font height on the screen, measured in tenths of a
     printer's point--approximately 1/720 of an inch.  In other words,
     it is the point size of the font, times ten.  For a given vertical
     resolution, HEIGHT and PIXELS are proportional; therefore, it is
     common to specify just one of them and use `*' for the other.

HORIZ
     This is the horizontal resolution, in pixels per inch, of the
     screen for which the font is intended.

VERT
     This is the vertical resolution, in pixels per inch, of the screen
     for which the font is intended.  Normally the resolution of the
     fonts on your system is the right value for your screen;
     therefore, you normally specify `*' for this and HORIZ.

SPACING
     This is `m' (monospace), `p' (proportional) or `c' (character
     cell).

WIDTH
     This is the average character width, in pixels, multiplied by ten.

CHARSET
     This is the character set that the font depicts.  Normally you
     should use `iso8859-1'.

   You will probably want to use a fixed-width default font--that is, a
font in which all characters have the same width.  Any font with `m' or
`c' in the SPACING field of the long name is a fixed-width font.
Here's how to use the `xlsfonts' program to list all the fixed-width
fonts available on your system:

     xlsfonts -fn '*x*' | egrep "^[0-9]+x[0-9]+"
     xlsfonts -fn '*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-m*'
     xlsfonts -fn '*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-c*'

To see what a particular font looks like, use the `xfd' command.  For
example:

     xfd -fn 6x13

displays the entire font `6x13'.

   While running Emacs, you can set the font of the current frame
(Note: Frame Parameters) or for a specific kind of text (Note:
Faces).