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XLoadFont(3)                                   XLIB FUNCTIONS                                   XLoadFont(3)



NAME
       XLoadFont, XQueryFont, XLoadQueryFont, XFreeFont, XGetFontProperty, XUnloadFont, XCharStruct, XFont-Prop, XFontProp,
       Prop, XChar2b, XFontStruct - load or unload fonts and font metric structures

SYNTAX
       Font XLoadFont(Display *display, char *name);

       XFontStruct *XQueryFont(Display *display, XID font_ID);

       XFontStruct *XLoadQueryFont(Display *display, char *name);

       int XFreeFont(Display *display, XFontStruct *font_struct);

       Bool XGetFontProperty(XFontStruct *font_struct, Atom atom, unsigned long *value_return);

       int XUnloadFont(Display *display, Font font);

ARGUMENTS
       atom      Specifies the atom for the property name you want returned.

       display   Specifies the connection to the X server.

       font      Specifies the font.

       font_ID   Specifies the font ID or the GContext ID.

       font_struct
                 Specifies the storage associated with the font.

       gc        Specifies the GC.

       name      Specifies the name of the font, which is a null-terminated string.

       value_return
                 Returns the value of the font property.

DESCRIPTION
       The XLoadFont function loads the specified font and returns its associated font ID.  If the font name
       is not in the Host Portable Character Encoding, the result is implementation-dependent.  Use of
       uppercase or lowercase does not matter.  When the characters ``?'' and ``*'' are used in a font name,
       a pattern match is performed and any matching font is used.  In the pattern, the ``?'' character will
       match any single character, and the ``*'' character will match any number of characters.  A struc-tured structured
       tured format for font names is specified in the X Consortium standard X Logical Font Description Con-ventions. Conventions.
       ventions.  If XLoadFont was unsuccessful at loading the specified font, a BadName error results.
       Fonts are not associated with a particular screen and can be stored as a component of any GC.  When
       the font is no longer needed, call XUnloadFont.

       XLoadFont can generate BadAlloc and BadName errors.

       The XQueryFont function returns a pointer to the XFontStruct structure, which contains information
       associated with the font.  You can query a font or the font stored in a GC.  The font ID stored in
       the XFontStruct structure will be the GContext ID, and you need to be careful when using this ID in
       other functions (see XGContextFromGC).  If the font does not exist, XQueryFont returns NULL.  To free
       this data, use XFreeFontInfo.

       XLoadQueryFont can generate a BadAlloc error.

       The XLoadQueryFont function provides the most common way for accessing a font.  XLoadQueryFont both
       opens (loads) the specified font and returns a pointer to the appropriate XFontStruct structure.  If
       the font name is not in the Host Portable Character Encoding, the result is implementation-dependent.
       If the font does not exist, XLoadQueryFont returns NULL.

       The XFreeFont function deletes the association between the font resource ID and the specified font
       and frees the XFontStruct structure.  The font itself will be freed when no other resource references
       it.  The data and the font should not be referenced again.

       XFreeFont can generate a BadFont error.

       Given the atom for that property, the XGetFontProperty function returns the value of the specified
       font property.  XGetFontProperty also returns False if the property was not defined or True if it was
       defined.  A set of predefined atoms exists for font properties, which can be found in <X11/Xatom.h>.
       This set contains the standard properties associated with a font.  Although it is not guaranteed, it
       is likely that the predefined font properties will be present.

       The XUnloadFont function deletes the association between the font resource ID and the specified font.
       The font itself will be freed when no other resource references it.  The font should not be refer-enced referenced
       enced again.

       XUnloadFont can generate a BadFont error.

STRUCTURES
       The XFontStruct structure contains all of the information for the font and consists of the font-spe-cific font-specific
       cific information as well as a pointer to an array of XCharStruct structures for the characters con-tained contained
       tained in the font.  The XFontStruct, XFontProp, and XCharStruct structures contain:


       typedef struct {
            short lbearing;     /* origin to left edge of raster */
            short rbearing;     /* origin to right edge of raster */
            short width;   /* advance to next char's origin */
            short ascent;  /* baseline to top edge of raster */
            short descent; /* baseline to bottom edge of raster */
            unsigned short attributes;    /* per char flags (not predefined) */
       } XCharStruct;



       typedef struct {
            Atom name;
            unsigned long card32;
       } XFontProp;



       typedef struct {    /* normal 16 bit characters are two bytes */
           unsigned char byte1;
           unsigned char byte2;
       } XChar2b;



       typedef struct {
            XExtData *ext_data; /* hook for extension to hang data */
            Font fid; /* Font id for this font */
            unsigned direction; /* hint about the direction font is painted */
            unsigned min_char_or_byte2;   /* first character */
            unsigned max_char_or_byte2;   /* last character */
            unsigned min_byte1; /* first row that exists */
            unsigned max_byte1; /* last row that exists */
            Bool all_chars_exist;    /* flag if all characters have nonzero size */
            unsigned default_char;   /* char to print for undefined character */
            int n_properties;   /* how many properties there are */
            XFontProp *properties;   /* pointer to array of additional properties */
            XCharStruct min_bounds;  /* minimum bounds over all existing char */
            XCharStruct max_bounds;  /* maximum bounds over all existing char */
            XCharStruct *per_char;   /* first_char to last_char information */
            int ascent;    /* logical extent above baseline for spacing */
            int descent;   /* logical decent below baseline for spacing */
       } XFontStruct;


       X supports single byte/character, two bytes/character matrix, and 16-bit character text operations.
       Note that any of these forms can be used with a font, but a single byte/character text request can
       only specify a single byte (that is, the first row of a 2-byte font).  You should view 2-byte fonts
       as a two-dimensional matrix of defined characters: byte1 specifies the range of defined rows and
       byte2 defines the range of defined columns of the font.  Single byte/character fonts have one row
       defined, and the byte2 range specified in the structure defines a range of characters.

       The bounding box of a character is defined by the XCharStruct of that character.  When characters are
       absent from a font, the default_char is used.  When fonts have all characters of the same size, only
       the information in the XFontStruct min and max bounds are used.

       The members of the XFontStruct have the following semantics:

       •    The direction member can be either FontLeftToRight or FontRightToLeft.  It is just a hint as to
            whether most XCharStruct elements have a positive (FontLeftToRight) or a negative (FontRight-ToLeft) (FontRightToLeft)
            ToLeft) character width metric.  The core protocol defines no support for vertical text.

       •    If the min_byte1 and max_byte1 members are both zero, min_char_or_byte2 specifies the linear
            character index corresponding to the first element of the per_char array, and max_char_or_byte2
            specifies the linear character index of the last element.

            If either min_byte1 or max_byte1 are nonzero, both min_char_or_byte2 and max_char_or_byte2 are
            less than 256, and the 2-byte character index values corresponding to the per_char array element
            N (counting from 0) are:


                 byte1 = N/D + min_byte1
                 byte2 = N\D + min_char_or_byte2

            where:

                    D = max_char_or_byte2 - min_char_or_byte2 + 1
                    / = integer division
                    \\ = integer modulus


       •    If the per_char pointer is NULL, all glyphs between the first and last character indexes inclu-sive inclusive
            sive have the same information, as given by both min_bounds and max_bounds.

       •    If all_chars_exist is True, all characters in the per_char array have nonzero bounding boxes.

       •    The default_char member specifies the character that will be used when an undefined or nonexis-tent nonexistent
            tent character is printed.  The default_char is a 16-bit character (not a 2-byte character).
            For a font using 2-byte matrix format, the default_char has byte1 in the most-significant byte
            and byte2 in the least significant byte.  If the default_char itself specifies an undefined or
            nonexistent character, no printing is performed for an undefined or nonexistent character.

       •    The min_bounds and max_bounds members contain the most extreme values of each individual
            XCharStruct component over all elements of this array (and ignore nonexistent characters).  The
            bounding box of the font (the smallest rectangle enclosing the shape obtained by superimposing
            all of the characters at the same origin [x,y]) has its upper-left coordinate at:
                 [x + min_bounds.lbearing, y - max_bounds.ascent]

            Its width is:
                 max_bounds.rbearing - min_bounds.lbearing

            Its height is:
                 max_bounds.ascent + max_bounds.descent

       •    The ascent member is the logical extent of the font above the baseline that is used for deter-mining determining
            mining line spacing.  Specific characters may extend beyond this.

       •    The descent member is the logical extent of the font at or below the baseline that is used for
            determining line spacing.  Specific characters may extend beyond this.

       •    If the baseline is at Y-coordinate y, the logical extent of the font is inclusive between the Y-coordinate Ycoordinate
            coordinate values (y - font.ascent) and (y + font.descent - 1).  Typically, the minimum inter-line interline
            line spacing between rows of text is given by ascent + descent.

       For a character origin at [x,y], the bounding box of a character (that is, the smallest rectangle
       that encloses the character's shape) described in terms of XCharStruct components is a rectangle with
       its upper-left corner at:

       [x + lbearing, y - ascent]

       Its width is:

       rbearing - lbearing

       Its height is:

       ascent + descent

       The origin for the next character is defined to be:

       [x + width, y]

       The lbearing member defines the extent of the left edge of the character ink from the origin.  The
       rbearing member defines the extent of the right edge of the character ink from the origin.  The
       ascent member defines the extent of the top edge of the character ink from the origin.  The descent
       member defines the extent of the bottom edge of the character ink from the origin.  The width member
       defines the logical width of the character.

DIAGNOSTICS
       BadAlloc  The server failed to allocate the requested resource or server memory.

       BadFont   A value for a Font or GContext argument does not name a defined Font.

       BadName   A font or color of the specified name does not exist.

SEE ALSO
       XCreateGC(3X11), XListFonts(3X11), XSetFontPath(3X11)
       Xlib - C Language X Interface



X Version 11                                    libX11 1.2.1                                    XLoadFont(3)