B.7.3 ASCII font options

These are the ASCII font options:

box[line-type]=box-chars

The characters used for lines in tables produced by the ASCII driver can be changed using this option. line-type is used to indicate which type of line to change; box-chars is the character or string of characters to use for this type of line.

line-type must be a 4-digit number in base 4. The digits are in the order `right', `bottom', `left', `top'. The four possibilities for each digit are:

0

No line.

1

Single line.

2

Double line.

3

Special device-defined line, if one is available; otherwise, a double line.

Examples:

box[0101]="|"

Sets | as the character to use for a single-width line with bottom and top components.

box[2222]="#"

Sets # as the character to use for the intersection of four double-width lines, one each from the top, bottom, left and right.

box[1100]="\xda"

Sets "\xda", which under MS-DOS is a box character suitable for the top-left corner of a box, as the character for the intersection of two single-width lines, one each from the right and bottom.

Defaults:

• box[0000]=" "
• box[1000]="-"
box[0010]="-"
box[1010]="-"
• box[0100]="|"
box[0001]="|"
box[0101]="|"
• box[2000]="="
box[0020]="="
box[2020]="="
• box[0200]="#"
box[0002]="#"
box[0202]="#"
• box[3000]="="
box[0030]="="
box[3030]="="
• box[0300]="#"
box[0003]="#"
box[0303]="#"
• For all others, + is used unless there are double lines or special lines, in which case # is used.

italic-on=italic-on-string

Character sequence written to turn on italics or underline printing. If this is set to overstrike, then the driver will simulate underlining by overstriking with underscore characters (_) in the manner described by overstrike-style and carriage-return-style. Default: overstrike.

italic-off=italic-off-string

Character sequence to turn off italics or underline printing. Default: "" (the empty string).

bold-on=bold-on-string

Character sequence written to turn on bold or emphasized printing. If set to overstrike, then the driver will simulated bold printing by overstriking characters in the manner described by overstrike-style and carriage-return-style. Default: overstrike.

bold-off=bold-off-string

Character sequence to turn off bold or emphasized printing. Default: "" (the empty string).

bold-italic-on=bold-italic-on-string

Character sequence written to turn on bold-italic printing. If set to overstrike, then the driver will simulate bold-italics by overstriking twice, once with the character, a second time with an underscore (_) character, in the manner described by overstrike-style and carriage-return-style. Default: overstrike.

bold-italic-off=bold-italic-off-string

Character sequence to turn off bold-italic printing. Default: "" (the empty string).

overstrike-style=overstrike-option

Either single or line:

• If single is selected, then, to overstrike a line of text, the output driver will output a character, backspace, overstrike, output a character, backspace, overstrike, and so on along a line.
• If line is selected then the output driver will output an entire line, then backspace or emit a carriage return (as indicated by carriage-return-style), then overstrike the entire line at once.

single is recommended for use with ttys and programs that understand overstriking in text files, such as the pager less. single will also work with printer devices but results in rapid back-and-forth motions of the printhead that can cause the printer to physically overheat!

line is recommended for use with printer devices. Most programs that understand overstriking in text files will not properly deal with line mode.

Default: single.

carriage-return-style=carriage-return-type

Either bs or cr. This option applies only when one or more of the font commands is set to overstrike and, at the same time, overstrike-style is set to line.

• If bs is selected then the driver will return to the beginning of a line by emitting a sequence of backspace characters (ASCII 8).
• If cr is selected then the driver will return to the beginning of a line by emitting a single carriage-return character (ASCII 13).

Although cr is preferred as being more compact, bs is more general since some devices do not interpret carriage returns in the desired manner. Default: bs.