FONTEDIT font

Latest revision as of 21:34, 16 February 2025

FONTEDIT is a simple bitmapped font editor for DOS, developed by Michael J. Mefford. It was published in the 1988-09-13 issue of PC Magazine.

Its native font format is in the form of a COM file, which doubles as a font loader that can be executed independently.

[edit] Format details

A font file normally contains two fonts. The second is what the software calls the "template". Its purpose is to aid in the editing process.

[edit] Identification

For pristine files made by the original software, the first 99 bytes are always the same, except for the 9 bytes at offset 44. Files start with eb 33 90, have text "PC Magazine ■ Michael J. Mefford" at offset 10, and are exactly 8291 bytes in size.

A significant number of variant formats exist. All known variants start with byte eb, have 32 or 33 at offset 1, and have b8 10 11 cd 10 at offset {41 + {the byte at offset 1}}.

[edit] Software

• FONTEDIT
  • VOL7N15.ZIP - FONTEDIT, with source code, etc., and unrelated files.
  • fontedit.zip - FONTEDIT, with minimal accompanying files.
  • ZAVT11.ZIP → FONTS.ZIP → FONTEDIT.COM (This variant has a small patch.)
• Deark

[edit] Sample files

• ftrfont.zip
• weirdfnt.zip
• tact529.zip → TACFONT.COM
• tdstuff.zip → 3FONTS.ZIP
• PC World Interactive 1 → NOSTALJI/BBS/DOS/FONTM21.ZIP (most .COM files)
• dexvert samples — font/fonteditFont

Variants:

• fnt_ace.zip → PROGRAM.1 (ZIP format) → *.COM (Message changed.)
• ftp.srk.fer.hr archive → pub/msdos/programming/source/sfontkit.zip → FONTS/ (Message changed, second 0x90 byte deleted. Includes modified FONTEDIT.COM.)
• lqvgashl.zip (Both 0x90 bytes deleted.)
• Hot Sound & Vision → hotsv/vision/progs/font.zip (Template deleted, weird font sizes.)

[edit] Links

• Making Your Own Screen Fonts - PC Magazine article, 1988-09-13, p. 305-.