In the following, fontopia was run in a terminal, not a console, unless otherwise noted:
The eurlatgr.psfu font is psf1. If you convert it to psf2 and save as [new name], exit fontopia, start fontopia on [new name], then convert it back to psf1, you get a message "You chose to change this font length From:512 char To:256 char ..." and if you proceed the font is indeed truncated. However, the original psf1 font had 512 char, so why can't the new psf1?
If font metrics are displayed, and no changes are made, and the OK button is selected, there is an info message at the bottom of the screen: "Applying changes to glyph size", even though there was no change to the glyph size. This spurious message is also displayed if the font version is changed, even though there was no change to the glyph size.
For some fonts in /lib/kbd/consolefonts, while almost all of the glyph matrix displays OK, there are some items for which no glyph is displayed but instead there are 2x2 hex unicodes displayed: Agafari-14.psfu, drdos8x16.psfu, drdos8x6.psfu, Goha-14.psfu, GohaClassic-12.psfu, greek-polytonic.psfu, niCyr_8x16.psf, UniCyrExt_8x16.psf, viscii10-8x16.psfu - there may be others. Also, for the first glyph in eurlatgr.psfu, in the glyph matrix, the symbol displayed is a filled in hexagon with a reversed question mark in the center. Why the two different glyph representations for "unknown unicodes"?
If the font type is changed to bdf, even if bdftopcf converts the font (to pcf) OK, "setfont [font].bdf" complains "Bad input file size".
When viewing the unicode table ("U"), ESC must be pressed twice to exit. (This is in a terminal - in a console ESC only needs to be pressed once.)
MINOR COSMETIC BUG: I use green on black terminal colors. After running fontopia, the colors have been changed to white on black, and the terminal must be reset to restore the color scheme.
If you do a "save as" (CTRL+D), and you change your mind about saving, or hit CTRL+D by mistake, you must press ESC twice to cancel. (This is in a terminal - in a console ESC only needs to be pressed once.)
THIS IS NOT A BUG: some fonts give "unknown font format" error: koi8r-8x14, cp857.14 - there may be others.
BZ#1363855 font version change causes fontopia abend and trashes keyboard
I'm pretty sure that setfont does not support bdf fonts, so the above bug concerning that should be discarded. I ran otf2bdf on FreeMono.ttf to create FreeMono.bdf. FreeMono.bdf looks very complete, yet setfont still complains with the same error message "Bad input file size", but I believe the message is really saying "this font format is not supported by setfont". (The setfont man page is not completely clear on which formats are supported.) If I understand correctly, the bdf format provides a way to import an X font into a console font format via fontopia, but the bdf format is not itself a console font format.
I am unable to get fontopia to read otf2bdf bdf output, even if it is 512 chars. gbdfed reads otf2bdf outputs fine, and mate-font-viewer will preview otf2bdf output. mate-font-viewer will not display bdf files created by fontopia. gbdfed will not read bdf files created by fontopia. setfont gives the same "Bad input file size" error message with all bdf fonts, regardless of their source. I do not have expertise in this area, and I am unable to get fontopia, otf2bdf, gbdfed, and mate-font-viewer to play nice together. Note that mate-font-viewer doesn't actually allow you to view all the font glyphs, but to view "The quick brown fox ..." in that font.
This update has been submitted for testing by mohammedisam.
This update has obsoleted fontopia-1.5-1.fc24, and has inherited its bugs and notes.
This update has been pushed to testing.
Works.
In the following, fontopia was run in a terminal, not a console, unless otherwise noted:
The eurlatgr.psfu font is psf1. If you convert it to psf2 and save as [new name], exit fontopia, start fontopia on [new name], then convert it back to psf1, you get a message "You chose to change this font length From:512 char To:256 char ..." and if you proceed the font is indeed truncated. However, the original psf1 font had 512 char, so why can't the new psf1?
If font metrics are displayed, and no changes are made, and the OK button is selected, there is an info message at the bottom of the screen: "Applying changes to glyph size", even though there was no change to the glyph size. This spurious message is also displayed if the font version is changed, even though there was no change to the glyph size.
For some fonts in /lib/kbd/consolefonts, while almost all of the glyph matrix displays OK, there are some items for which no glyph is displayed but instead there are 2x2 hex unicodes displayed: Agafari-14.psfu, drdos8x16.psfu, drdos8x6.psfu, Goha-14.psfu, GohaClassic-12.psfu, greek-polytonic.psfu, niCyr_8x16.psf, UniCyrExt_8x16.psf, viscii10-8x16.psfu - there may be others. Also, for the first glyph in eurlatgr.psfu, in the glyph matrix, the symbol displayed is a filled in hexagon with a reversed question mark in the center. Why the two different glyph representations for "unknown unicodes"?
If the font type is changed to bdf, even if bdftopcf converts the font (to pcf) OK, "setfont [font].bdf" complains "Bad input file size".
When viewing the unicode table ("U"), ESC must be pressed twice to exit. (This is in a terminal - in a console ESC only needs to be pressed once.)
MINOR COSMETIC BUG: I use green on black terminal colors. After running fontopia, the colors have been changed to white on black, and the terminal must be reset to restore the color scheme.
If you do a "save as" (CTRL+D), and you change your mind about saving, or hit CTRL+D by mistake, you must press ESC twice to cancel. (This is in a terminal - in a console ESC only needs to be pressed once.)
THIS IS NOT A BUG: some fonts give "unknown font format" error: koi8r-8x14, cp857.14 - there may be others.
The "W" (export font glyphs in textual format) feature goes really well with xxdiff - to compare before and after versions of changes made.
I'm pretty sure that setfont does not support bdf fonts, so the above bug concerning that should be discarded. I ran otf2bdf on FreeMono.ttf to create FreeMono.bdf. FreeMono.bdf looks very complete, yet setfont still complains with the same error message "Bad input file size", but I believe the message is really saying "this font format is not supported by setfont". (The setfont man page is not completely clear on which formats are supported.) If I understand correctly, the bdf format provides a way to import an X font into a console font format via fontopia, but the bdf format is not itself a console font format.
I am unable to get fontopia to read otf2bdf bdf output, even if it is 512 chars. gbdfed reads otf2bdf outputs fine, and mate-font-viewer will preview otf2bdf output. mate-font-viewer will not display bdf files created by fontopia. gbdfed will not read bdf files created by fontopia. setfont gives the same "Bad input file size" error message with all bdf fonts, regardless of their source. I do not have expertise in this area, and I am unable to get fontopia, otf2bdf, gbdfed, and mate-font-viewer to play nice together. Note that mate-font-viewer doesn't actually allow you to view all the font glyphs, but to view "The quick brown fox ..." in that font.
This update has been obsoleted by fontopia-1.7-1.fc24.