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Introduction |
Since I installed my first Windows 3.0 I have been annoyed
with the ugly fonts for the DOS-Box and the Fixedsys size 14.
With Dave Emmett's font
editor 'Softy' I have made new fonts for the DOS-Box and a replacement for the Fixedsys fonts:
Their design is in contrast to the fonts shipped with Windows; their design
leans more towards the typical VGA-BIOS fonts
but I made a lot of modifications for a better visual effect.
DOSFon is the name of the package
that contains the ANSI fonts 'DOSLike' with CP 1252 and the OEM fonts 'NewDOS'
for DOS-Boxes and consoles.
The fonts in 'NewDOS' have the OEM-flag set and their internal name is
'Terminal' to make Windows uses them for DOS-Boxes and consoles.
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DOSLike |
DOSLike.FON is an ANSI-font
with CP 1252 (like Fixedsys). Its sizes are 8x15, 9x16 and 10x20. They
are freeware for private use. Of course everyone can test them for a appropriate time.
I use them for programming and for texteditors.
7 Pt. (7x11):
9 Pt. (8x15):
12 Pt. (9x16):
14 Pt. (10x20):
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NewDOS |
NewDOS.FON contains four new OEM-fonts
for DOS-Boxes and consoles. These are 8x13, 9x16, 10x19, 12x23. These
four fonts are freeware for private use.
Of course everyone can test them for a appropriate time.
They are available with Codepages
437, 850, 865 and 852.
Some general information about Codepages you can find here.
CP 850 contains the Euro currency symbol at position 213 as defined by IBM.
The fonts are freeware for private use only.
Click on the screenshots to open a screenshot of a whole DOS box.
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NewDOS Fullscreen (Licence version) |
The licence version contains fonts for nearly fullscreen DOS-Boxes
and Console windows. I have designed an additional 16 fonts for 25 line boxes and a further
5 fonts for 50 lines. The sizes of the fonts result in DOS-Boxes that fill the
screen as best as possible. For each common resolution there are at least two fonts
- for DOS-Boxes with and without a toolbar and for a desktop with or without a visible taskbar.
Fullscreen-Fonts
The fullscreen fonts are not freeware.
To make the space around a DOS box black I've made
ConsoleBlackFill.zip (6K).
To keep users from closing DOS boxes by means of the X button, I've made
ConsoleNoClose.zip (5K).
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How to install |
If you get them as executable, simply execute it and follow the
instructions.
If you get them as ZIP file, unzip it. Then open the Windows Control Panel
and select 'Fonts' there. Open the File menu and select 'Install new font'.
Select the folder where you unzip the fonts too, select them and click OK.
If there is no menu item 'Install new font', the Fonts folder lost its
file attribute 'System'. You can repair it easily with Microsoft's tool
TweakUI.ZIP. Select 'Repair' and then
'Repair Fonts Folder'.
The NewDOS fonts appear as additional sizes in the list of 'Bitmap Fonts' (Win9x)
or 'Raster Fonts' (Win NT/2000/XP) resp. in the properties of all DOS boxes and console
windows (see screenshots from
Windows 9x/ME and
NT/2000/XP).
BTW: It makes no sense to install more than one codepage at the time. In the preview it works to select different codepages of the same sizes, but for the DOS-Box Windows alway uses the same font.
Users of Citrix Metaframe may be interested in this message from a forum at 'The Thin Net':
http://www.thethin.net/dosfullscreen.cfm
DOSLike appears whereever the Windows font 'Fixedsys' appears.
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Slow DOS-Box under NT/W2K/XP |
Under Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003 Server the DOS-Box is incredible slow.
Especially the response on keystrokes and the screen refresh are tardy.
I thougt that there is no way to improve it, but there is
TameDOS
For a single DOS-Box you can improve the response on keystrokes and the
screen refresh.
Furthermore it limits the CPU time of the DOS-Boxes. So the rest of your
system becomes faster and you can open more DOS-Boxes at a time on
Terminal-Servers.
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Known Problems |
- In rare cases the new font sizes aren't listed in the font settings
of DOS-Boxes and console windows of Windows NT4, 2000 and XP even
the fonts are installed correctely.
So far I've not been able to reproduce it and I've no idea what's
the reason. So test it before you buy it!
Here you can download the tool 'Fix Fonts Folder':
http://www.high-logic.com/download.html
Maybe this helps.
Or this text from the MS knowledge base
Q247815
If nothing helps, you can try the harder way.
If you open the SYSTEM.INI in your Windows folder you will see something like this:
[386enh]
woafont=app850.FON
EGA80WOA.FON=EGA80850.FON
EGA40WOA.FON=EGA40850.FON
CGA80WOA.FON=CGA80850.FON
CGA40WOA.FON=CGA40850.FON
If you change the first or one oft '80' items to NewDOS.fon, New850.fon or however your font files are named, the new sizes should appear in the list. Maybe a restart is required.
Under Windows 2000 and higher there is the default font for consoles and DOS boxes in the registry. For a western european Windows, the default font is vga850.fon. By editing and executing this reg file, you can enforce a different default font, for instance NewDOS.fon:
oemfonts_vga850.reg
- It's not possible to install more than one codepage at the same
time. Windows offers then the same font sizes twice and in the
preview it really uses the diferent fonts. But for the DOS-Box
it always uses the same.
You can solve it by opening the fonts you want with Softy and
save them then to a new font file. But each size only once!
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Downloads |
*1) New1252.FON contains 3 ANSI fonts with Codepage 1252. That's the
codepage normally used under Windows.
But the font has the OEM flag set and its internal name is 'Terminal'.
Therefore Windows list the fonts in the settings of the DOS-Boxes
and Terminal windows. The font sizes are different from the other codepages to make a
parallel install possible (8x15, 9x17 and 10x20).
The combination of an ANSI font and the OEM flag is 'illigal', so
I hope you know what you do.
In the 12x14 font there were wrong '{' and '}' until 8/99.
In September and October 2001 I fixed some errors in 12x23 and the the 16 pixel wide font.
Until Jan. 2002 char 214 was wrong in some sizes of Codepage 850 ('Ì' instead 'Í').
Purchasers of the licence version can mail me for a update.
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last change: 30 Oct 2010
Sorry for my poor English - corrections welcome.
Uwe Sieber
Home: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/english.html |
