Font List
Font List
2: FONT LIST
• All fonts include the full CP437[→] (DOS/US) character range; fonts labeled "+Plus" have extended
Unicode versions, too.
• Most of these fonts were made for CRT or LCD monitors that didn't necessarily have square pixels,
unlike current displays. Alongside the simple square-pixel versions, these fonts have aspect-
corrected variants to reproduce the original appearance.
• For fonts that *were* originally used in square-pixel resolutions (or close enough that the
difference is negligible), no aspect-corrected variants are provided.
These are the original character sets provided with the IBM PC line (PC, XT, PCjr, AT, PS/2, etc.) in
hardware or firmware, and with official add-on products from IBM, such as graphics adapters and certain
versions of DOS. Naturally, they were also duplicated by a huge number of 3rd-party hardware
manufacturers.
With pre-EGA video, the system BIOS provides the default 8x8 font for graphics mode (the firmware
contains only the lower 128 ASCII characters; the upper half has to be loaded separately). For EGA and
up, IBM included the full version in the on-board video ROM, for text *and* graphics modes that require
an 8x8 font.
The wide '2x' version is seen e.g. in 160x200 (PCjr) or 320x400 (VGA). The '2y' version is what you get
in 640x200 modes.
IBM's first two video solutions shared the same character ROM, which provided the text mode font:
neither CGA nor MDA could redefine it. Cards for the US market contained the CP437 character set; the
non-US characters in the 'Plus' fonts were adapted from localized ROMs off cards sold internationally
(most of the Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew blocks), plus manual additions.
For CGA, the ROM contains two different 8x8 fonts usable in text mode. The default 'thick' variant
differs from the BIOS font in only four characters (♣, ♠, ☼, S); PCjr text modes use this font too.
The alternate 'thin' one is selectable in CGA only and requires hardware modification. I've
included 1:1 (40-column) and half-width (80-column) versions for both of these.
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
IBM CGA Square
8x8; CP437, +Plus 1:1 IBM CGA ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456
Correct
5:6 IBM CGA ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
IBM CGA-2y Square
8x8; CP437, +Plus 1:2 IBM CGA-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:12 IBM CGA-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
IBM CGAthin Square
8x8; CP437, +Plus 1:1 IBM CGAthin ■ AaBbCcDd 0123
Correct
5:6 IBM CGAthin ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
IBM CGAthin-2y Square
8x8; CP437, +Plus 1:2 IBM CGAthin-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:12 IBM CGAthin-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
The same ROM includes the 14-scanline font used by the MDA for its single mode – 80-column text.
Its characters are stored as 8 pixels wide, but displayed with an additional 9th column: blank for
most glyphs, but for box/block-drawing chars it duplicates the 8th. The same font was used on the
Hercules Graphics Card and a host of other clones.
These adapters introduced fully programmable character sets, so DOS could now redefine them for
international scripts - the multilingual 'Plus' versions here are based on various DOS code pages. 80-
column text was evidently the main focus by this point: at 40 columns, the funny pixel aspect ratio
makes the default font even *less* readable than CGA.
The EGA's text modes (and 640x350 graphics mode) use the new 8x14 font by default. The 8x8 font is
identical to the PC BIOS one, but it gets its own version, since the narrower aspect ratio in 350-
line modes is specific to EGA:
When the EGA is used with a monochrome monitor, character cells receive a bonus 9th column just like
on MDA/Hercules. The 14-line font even sports wider variants of some glyphs for this purpose.
The PS/2 standards further modified the system font, with a character cell 16 pixels tall and a few
stylistic changes ('O', '0' etc.).
With VGA, 9-dot character cells were now the default, and the resulting 9x16 glyphs make up the
famous font which remains most strongly associated with ASCII art on the PC, and probably with the
entire DOS era in general. The EGA sizes were also available, but with different aspect ratios due
to the extra vertical resolution.
Plain old 8-dot characters were still available, both on VGA and on its lobotomized low-end cousin,
MCGA (where they were the only option). The 8x8 size here was exactly the same as the PC BIOS font
once again, so no sense in adding yet another version of it.
This one has some rather exotic video hardware[→], but also offers a basic 80x25 text mode with a
distinct, (mostly) sans-serif 9x14 font. Unlike most PC hardware fonts, the 9th column is stored in
the actual bitmap data.
IBM's first high-end PC graphics card has a 400-line text mode with an 8x16 character cell. It
basically takes the 8x14 EGA font and adds two scanlines, which most characters simply use as extra
padding.
Mostly based on CGA, the Convertible adds support for redefinable 8x8 charsets. The default is a
rather elaborate serif font, which IBM also used as a basis for PC-DOS 3.20's LCD-specific
codepages.
The squat, built-in monochrome LCD had square pixels at 640x200 (that's 16:5 - how's that for you
widescreen fanatics?), but the optional external monitor was a regular 4:3 CRT, so the aspect-
corrected versions are based on that.
In the earliest variant of the PS/2 Model 30 (the 'rev. 0' BIOS dated 09/02/86), the built-in 8x16
font is slightly different from the MCGA/VGA font of the later units: "0", "O", "ß", and characters
with descenders and umlauts are closer to their EGA forms. The Model 30 is MCGA-only, so there is
no 9-dot-wide version.
PS/2 models based on the 16-bit ISA bus (at least the 25-286, 30-286, 25 SX, 35 SX) include
additional fonts in ROM, alongside the usual VGA fonts. These are all rather nondescript, and I'm
not aware of any software that ever actually used them; they're not documented and the video BIOS
code doesn't seem to reference them, so such software is unlikely to exist.
PS/55:
The PS/2's Japanese cousin[→] had generously large bitmap fonts to support that language's various
scripts. Since full CJK fonts are outside the scope of this collection, the version here is a
CUSTOM REMAPPING to CP437 (with supplements).
Internally the bitmaps are 12x24 dots. Later, they were replicated in IBM DOS/V for generic PCs; at
least the half-width Latin alphanumerics appear to be exactly the same, so this version is almost
identical to the "JP-24" font in the DOS/V section. Almost, but not quite: the PS/55's display
adapter[→] padded the characters[→] to 13x29, so this font follows suit.
These are a bit of an exception here, since they're not really hardware fonts. IBM's more advanced
PC video standards had, among other things, hardware-accelerated text output for their high-
resolution graphics modes. These were accessed with an API called simply the Adapter Interface
("AI"), and the AI drivers for DOS contained some fonts for this purpose. (There's also an 8x14
size, but it basically copies the EGA/VGA font.)
True text modes remained purely a VGA function, although XGA(-2) had integrated the VGA part into
the chipset, so they still used the same fonts as VGA.
These are NOT what most would call "the" DOS fonts, since DOS normally uses the video hardware's
character set (or .CPI versions that strongly resemble it). Still, a number of DOS versions provided
different fonts for specific purposes.
Starting with IBM PC-DOS 5.02 (and later in MS-DOS as well), the "ISO.CPI" file included a bunch of
new 8x16 codepage fonts. These were intended to comply with the (then-new) ISO standard for display
ergonomics, namely ISO 9241-3:1992, "Ergonomics - Office Work with Visual Display Terminals (VDTs) -
Visual Display Requirements", which went into extreme detail regarding character height, stroke
width, size uniformity, spacing, and so on so forth.
Technically these aren't hardware/text mode fonts, so they're another exception here. DOS/V (V for
VGA, not 5.0) ran in permanent graphics mode to support Japanese full-width glyphs and double-byte
charsets, so you could choose from a whole heap of resolutions[→] (all with a square pixel ratio)
and character cell sizes.
However, the following versions do *not* include the Japanese scripts. They're REMAPPED/REMADE for
codepage 437/US, so they preserve only the half-width Latin alphanumerics, with custom additions to
fill out the rest.
These originate from the various IBM versions of PC-DOS/V. The 8x19 and 12x30 fonts mostly
duplicate their smaller siblings, with more generous vertical padding. For the 24/30-pixel
versions, cf. IBM PS/55:
Microsoft came in a bit later in the game; MS-DOS/V used a similar system, through it redesigned
(and renamed) the font files:
These were technically DOS/V as well, and the ASCII portion of the 24/30-pixel fonts is identical to
the Japanese version, so these larger charsets are not repeated here.
In Taiwan, the Latin fonts unique to PC-DOS T7.0/V do have native CP437 encoding, so no remapping
was needed. In fact they look like they're probably derived from OS/2:
The fonts from the PRC version are once again REMAPPED, and slightly adjusted for legibility to
boot. Interestingly, they look quite close to those used on the Japanese IBM JX[→] (still mising
from this collection).
The deluge of IBM PC compatibles included some outliers that extended on IBM's video standards, although
most of them didn't. A lot of the clone makers contented themselves with cloning IBM's character
bitmaps, too. These are naturally absent from this collection - only those with their own font designs
are included here.
ACER 710:
Acer's 'Turbo XT' machine from ~1987 includes an on-board video controller for CGA, MDA, and
Hercules compatibility. The Acer folks went through the trouble of modifying IBM's glyph designs,
albeit not very daringly. A bit more obvious in the monochrome font, where they toned down the
serifs a little like ATI did.
This CGA font was also seen earlier in some Multitech cards from the mid-1980, before the rebranding
to Acer, e.g. the CGA-PC PB85048-3A (but not all of them; the Multitech MPF-PC CGA for one pretty
much ripped the IBM font).
These computers all feature a nicely readable 8x8 font with a consistent style; very small
differences exist between models. Characters are wider and more tightly spaced than in IBM's fonts.
Besides the default codepage 437, Danish and Greek fonts were available, and the PC1640/PPC models
added Portuguese; I used these as a basis for the 'Plus' unicode version.
The PPC line adds built-in monochrome support, along with the 9x14 font that this entails, but it's
nearly identical to that of the IBM MDA.
This laptop came with a 3:4, 640x480 VGA LCD. At only 400 scanlines, normal 8x16 VGA text would
appear squashed, so the display could be set to "Expand mode", which enables 8x19 characters for a
square-pixel 80x25 text mode. AST's version of DOS 5.0 includes 19-scanline fonts for multiple
codepages, which I've combined into the 'Plus' version here.
AT&T PC6300:
The rebadged Olivetti M24, with its enhanced CGA-compatible video, introduced 400-line text and
graphics modes for increased resolution. These supported an 8x16 character set, which was similar
to the IBM MDA font, but with more of a slab serif style on the uppercase letters, and more
consistent metrics for the lowercase and accented Latin characters.
This is the text mode version - in the 640x400 graphics mode, the only difference is a more rounded
'h' (identical to the IBM MDA one). The 8x8 BIOS font, on the other hand, was exactly the same as
IBM's.
In terms of video these two portables are identical: both are CGA-compatible, but add an extended
640x400 resolution and allow redefinable characters. The default font is loaded from the BIOS,
rather than a dedicated ROM. The orange plasma screen uses square pixels, so the 1:1 fonts here are
already aspect-correct.
Compaq's OEM versions of MS-DOS include their own lighter versions of the system font, loadable from
a command-line utility. These versions come from Compaq-DOS v3.31; later versions introduced slight
differences, but chiefly in the way of adding more of those weird little gaps in the glyphs.
These fonts aren't specific to a video mode/resolution, so there's no "correct" pixel aspect as
such.
CORDATA PPC-21:
Corona rode the initial wave of PC compatibles, and was praised for its high-quality text displays.
This particular 'luggable' has 640x325 mono graphics, but in the 80-column text mode, each character
is 16 dots horizontally - twice the usual resolution. With the original CRT's 1:3 pixel aspect, the
result is very well-defined.
CORDATA PPC-400:
This 1984 portable increased the text resolution even further: the monochrome CRT now handled 400
scanlines, and character cells were 16x16. At 80 columns, you effectively have a pixel resolution
of 1280x400 - much sharper than even VGA and later. Another very nice font which deserves a 'Plus'
enhancement.
Known from the minicomputer market, DG introduced in 1984 what was probably the first true PC-
compatible laptop with a full-sized 4:3 LCD panel. Alas, the display panel was remembered mostly
for its atrociously poor contrast, and perhaps that was the reason for the alternate font with its
heavier weight. However, it's also possible that it was used as a substitute for high-intensity CGA
text, since the panel couldn't handle multiple shades of gray; to emulate such a behavior, these
fonts have both regular and bold styles.
HEWLETT-PACKARD CO.
───────────────────
HP's successful PDAs from the mid '90s were very much PC compatible, form factor notwithstanding,
and came with MS-DOS and lots of other goodies in ROM. These models were 80186- and CGA-compatible,
but the display system had a few more tricks up its sleeve such as zoomable text modes with
different font sizes to match.
The built-in charsets were multilingual – Latin alphabets only, but the 'Plus' versions here include
even more custom enhancements.
ITT XTRA:
An early (1984) PC clone, although this font comes from the 1985 BIOS (v2.0), with the upper ASCII
part courtesy of ITT's version of MS-DOS. A squarish, (mostly) sans-serif design that somehow looks
like a cross between the earlier and later versions of the Amiga Topaz font.
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
ITT Xtra Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 ITT Xtra ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456
Correct
5:6 ITT Xtra ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
ITT Xtra-2y Square
8x8; CP437 1:2 ITT Xtra-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:12 ITT Xtra-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
KAYPRO CORP.
────────────
One of the first PC-compatible laptops. The text-mode font was pretty much the same as the IBM CGA,
but the BIOS (i.e. graphics mode) one is quite different, with thin strokes and sort of a 'techno'
look. Interestingly the built-in LCD came in two form factors[→]: the aspect-correct versions are
based on the larger screen; the smaller one has 1:1 pixels (or close enough) at 640x200.
See the Sperry PC (HT3070-03), a somewhat improved version marketed by another vendor.
The rather successful Model D was another system with a dual mode on-board video controller, which
could be switched to CGA or monochrome, and the respective ROM fonts shared the same basic style
between them. (I'm not certain that my source for the CGA charset was 100% correct, so please let
me know if you own this PC and want to help out.)
An interesting Australian computer based on the NEC V30 CPU, with built-in video hardware that could
handle CGA, monochrome (Hercules) and EGA graphics. The firmware was extended by a 'SoftBIOS'
loaded off the system disk, and at least some versions supported an extended "EGA+" mode, which
accounts for the presence of an 8x16-pixel font.
NEC MULTISPEED:
NEC's 1986 answer to IBM's PC Convertible was a laptop based on its own 10MHz V30 CPU, 8086-
compatible but more advanced. The supertwist LCD display provides a CGA-compatible 640x200
resolution with 8 gray levels. In text mode, a thin-stroke font represents normal intensity, and a
bolder version is used for high intensity (there's also a DIP switch to reverse that assignment).
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
NEC MultiSpeed Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBbCcDd 01
Correct
3:5 NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
(Bold) Square
1:1 NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBbCcDd 01
Correct
3:5 NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
NEC MultiSpeed-2x Square NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBb
8x8; CP437 2:1
Correct NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
6:5
(Bold) Square NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBb
2:1
Correct NEC MultiSpeed ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
6:5
NIXDORF COMPUTER AG
───────────────────
This 10MHz laptop (manufactured by Matsushita) features a 4:3 monochrome LCD and CGA-level
compatibility. As the resolution is 640x400, the character cell is doubled in size to 8x16, with an
atypically heavy-weight font.
A 286 model - once again with line-doubled CGA emulation on a 4:3 640x400 panel, and a more
standard-looking 8x16 font this time around. There was also a VGA version, but that one used
generic copies of the IBM fonts.
The M35 is a desktop machine, once again sourced from Matsushita, with a conservative 4.77MHz 8088
CPU and an on-board CGA controller. (There's a possibility that it also supports monochrome, with a
corresponding 14-line font; if you have a source, please drop me a line.)
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
Nix8810 M35 Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 Nix8810 M35 ■ AaBbCcDd 1234
Correct
5:6 Nix8810 M35 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Nix8810 M35-2y Square
8x8; CP437 1:2 Nix8810 M35-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:12 Nix8810 M35-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
OLIVETTI M24:
See AT&T PC6300, the rebadged model for the US market.
These two 80c88-based portables share a CGA-resolution (640x200), 4:3 monochrome display, with a
distinct system font which shaves one pixel off the usual cap/ascender height. That reduces the
tendency of adjacent rows to stick together, and makes text more legible than the average 8x8 job.
See CL GD-610/620 'Stingray' (these laptops used Cirrus Logic's mobile VGA chipset).
This particular OEM version of MS-DOS comes with an inexplicably large EGA/VGA code page file, which
includes more character sets than its header and metadata indicate. For some unknown reason, four
of these are plain old CP 437, but use an original thin-stroke design which comes in two widths and
two heights.
SANYO MBC-550/555:
3.58-MHz 8088 computers in a "pizza-box" form factor (likely a repurposed Sanyo VCR chassis). They
were introduced in 1983 as the cheapest PC clones of their time, although for a number of reasons
they weren't all that IBM-compatible – they should really be in the "semi-compatibles" section, but
I've kept them here next to their younger MBC brothers.
The display hardware is better than CGA, with 8 colors at 640x200, but its 8x8 font still sticks
pretty closely to IBM's (with only subtle differences, as in the slashes) so it's here mostly for
completeness' sake.
SANYO MBC-775/885:
The 775 was much more of a true compatible, and perhaps the first portable PC clone (really a
"luggable") to come with a color RGB CRT; The 885 was the hard-drive version. The built-in video
appears to be true CGA this time, but they go a bit more out there with the character design here:
see that weird serpentine 'S', stroked 'Z', curvy 'l' (not to mention foreign objects like the
'Ç'/'æ').
SANYO MBC-16:
I do not have much information about this computer, beyond the fact that it has CGA (and perhaps
mono?) capabilities. As a matter of fact, I need a better source for the font(s) - the upper/non-
ASCII half here can be considered a placeholder. If you own one, please get in touch; the same 8x8
font also appears to be used on the MBC-670, and perhaps others.
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
SanyoMBC16 Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 SanyoMBC16 ■ AaBbCcDd 01234
Correct
5:6 SanyoMBC16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
SanyoMBC16-2y Square
8x8; CP437 1:2 SanyoMBC16-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:12 SanyoMBC16-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
After partnering with Amstrad to sell the 8-bit CPC in the German-speaking market, Schneider came up
with PC/XT clones using the same "computer-in-a-keyboard" form factor. Both include an on-board
video chip which handles CGA and Hercules graphics, and provide fonts in the expected formats,
although they're not all that different from IBM's CGA and MDA fonts respectively:
SEEQUA CHAMELEON:
Although this is an interesting dual-CPU (Z80+i8088) luggable, the PC-compatible half of its split
personality is compatible enough to be included in this category. Text and graphics output are CGA-
type, and the 8x8 font doesn't try very hard to distinguish itself from IBM's original.
SHARP PC-3000:
Designed by DIP Research like the earlier Atari Portfolio, this 80C88-based palmtop computer is more
of an actual PC compatible. Its square-pixel 640x200 monochrome LCD panel displays CGA graphics
(aspect ratio issues aside), with some adjustment options, like inverting the screen colors for a
CRT-like white on black, and swapping the default 8x8 font for a lighter one using a hotkey.
SPERRY CORP.
────────────
SPERRY PC (HT3070-03):
The Sperry PC was basically the original Leading Edge PC (latter designated the "Model M") sold
concurrently by a different vendor, but Sperry souped up their version a little. Most
interestingly, there was an optional adapter/monitor combo that pulled off such tricks as 256 colors
at 320x200, and hi-res 640x400 video (using 8x16-dot characters) with 16-color text/graphics overlay:
not bad at all for 1984! Both the CGA and hi-res fonts are reproduced here.
TANDY CORP.
───────────
TANDY VIDEO I - EARLY TANDY 1000 SERIES (1000, A, HD, EX, SX, TX, HX):
One peculiarity of the 1000 series is the 225-scanline text mode, using an 8x9 character cell to
improve readability. All but the earliest models (pre-EX) boot into this mode by default, so the
8x9 variant is more commonly seen in text mode. You can still set "TV mode" for standard 200-line
text, and graphics modes are always 200 pixels tall in any case, so the 8x8 size is still around.
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
Tandy1K-I 200L Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 Tandy1K-I 200L ■ AaBbCcDd 0
Correct
5:6 Tandy1K-I 200L ■ AaBbCcDd 1234567
Tandy1K-I 200L-2x Square Tandy1K-I 200L-2x ■ A
8x8; CP437 2:1
TANDY VIDEO II - LATER TANDY 1000 SERIES (SL, SL/2, TL, TL/2, TL/3, RL):
By this point, MS-DOS 3.x was included in the system ROM; but the Tandy Video II chip still couldn't
redefine fonts for code-page support, so two character sets from MS-DOS were built in: CP437 (US)
and CP850 (Western European Latin). As they're identical to the DOS .CPI fonts, the expanded 'Plus'
version here is based on the latter.
The Video II chip could also drive a monochrome monitor (for MDA/Hercules modes), hence the
additional 9x14 font. This one was cribbed from MS-DOS as well, so it lacks the wider
'M'/'T'/'W'/etc., which usually show up in hardware 9-dot fonts.
Two 1984 machines, pretty much identical except for the 'H' model having a hard drive. Not all that
special in terms of capabilities, but the VLSI chipset allowed most functions to reside on board,
and the design was based on TeleVideo's own terminals, complete with a swivel-mounted 14" monitor
(green monochrome, but CGA-capable).
Coming from terminals, TeleVideo put in the effort to improve legibility by making the character
cells taller (8x9), so there's actually some spacing between rows of text. The default font is
still clearly based on IBM's thin CGA font; a jumper changes this to a heavier double-dot one (not
yet extracted for this collection).
TOSHIBA CORP.
─────────────
The earlier Satellite laptops were released when text mode was still a relevant use-case, and their
built-in VGA fonts share a consistent sans-serif design which is quite distinctive and readable.
Optionally, the text display could be stretched to fill the 4:3 screen, so the aspect-corrected
versions conform to the expected VGA pixel aspects.
This version of the font comes from the Satellite 4200; some other models introduced a few
(negligible) differences.
This doesn't apply to the original T1x00 laptops, which used duplicates of IBM's fonts, but to later
models starting somewhere around 1986's T3100. They came with either amber plasma displays or LCD
panels, and allowed the selection of single-dot or double-dot fonts - both of which had a custom-
made stylized design.
The aspect-corrected variants are based on the gas-plasma models (e.g. T3100, T3200, T5100) which
sported 640x400 pixels on their 4:3 screens.
These all replace the 8x8 PC BIOS font in their respective machines, so they only ever show up in
graphics mode, and include just the lower 128 ASCII characters. The other 128 were added manually to
complete the CP437 character set, with varying amounts of effort to keep the design consistent (and most
of these didn't merit much effort).
See the 8x8 AMI EGA font, which is identical to what AMI used in its system BIOS firmware.
A prolific PC clone manufacturer from Taiwan. At least for version 3.86 of their generic XT-class
BIOS (1985), the author seemingly grabbed a copy of the standard CGA font and proceeded to
add/remove pixels pretty much at random. The result is about as hideous as you'd expect.
Yet another variation on the CGA character set, without much of an effort put into it. This
particular font is taken from v2.42 of the generic Taiwanese clone BIOS, although the other
revisions were probably every bit as nondescript.
Phoenix's brand of BIOSes (at least two known revisions: v2.27, v2.51) used an interesting graphics
mode font with a bit of an Amiga style to it, although the capitals and numerals also resemble the
classic Atari/Namco arcade font somewhat. As a result of the Phoenix BIOS line's success, this font
can be found on quite a number of machines -- from generic beige boxes to Commodore's PC-compatible
range (Commodore PC-I/II/III/Colt).
See the 8x8 Phoenix EGA font – at least some later iterations (e.g. v3.13) of Phoenix's system BIOS
replaced their internal font with that one.
Another nasty-looking font, this time a thin-stroked one, which seems to imitate a disheveled
version of the alternate/thin CGA font. In sharp contrast, it clearly has the happiest-looking
smiley faces in the bunch.
This is where we cover all non-IBM graphics cards that were available for PC compatibles over the years
(without being restricted to particular machines). Here too, the great majority of chipset/board makers
manufacturers never really bothered to depart from IBM's original character designs, but there are quite
See Acer 710; this board's 8x8 font was reused for the 710 after the company's name change.
At least some VGA boards based on Acer's M3125 video BIOS used their own 8x8 font design. For the
other standard VGA character sizes, the bitmaps matched those of IBM, so only the 8x8 charset has
been included here.
EGA boards using AMI's video BIOS (e.g. the Matrox PG1281) have the following fonts, which cannot
seem to decide whether they're serif or sans-serif, often in the same character. The 8x8 size also
shows up in machines based on AMI's *system* BIOS, from the 8088 to the 486 era at least, as the
default graphics mode font for CGA.
ATI TECHNOLOGIES
────────────────
This series of fonts includes every standard cell size supported by the usual CGA/EGA/VGA modes, and
is used on a very wide range of ATI cards: most of the EGA/VGA Wonder, Mach 32/64, Rage, and similar
lines. The style is maintained across sizes, and the 9-column variants have their own alternate
wide glyphs ('M', 'T' and co.) to replace their 8-column counterparts.
ATI's enhanced CGA/MDA/HGC clone offered (among other things) the ability to output 132-column text.
The card has a specific 'thin' font for this purpose; on a monochrome display (MDA-compatible), 132-
column mode is achieved by using 6 pixel wide character cells. This results in a pixel aspect of
5:8 on a typical 3:4 monitor.
(The normal CGA/MDA fonts on the card are identical to IBM's, rather than the usual ATI fonts seen
above.)
This 1988 Super VGA chipset offered a few extended video modes, true register-level backward
compatibility with EGA/CGA/MDA/HGC, and the ability to drive the pre-VGA digital monitors required
by those earlier standards. But this impressive level of fidelity didn't extend to VGA text mode
appearance – the 8/9x16 fonts got quite the overhaul.
A later (1990) revision of the Eagle II, which simplifies integration by requiring less external
circuitry, and adds some more modes and features along the way. The 'III' designation only seems to
show up in a support utility or two, but it makes for a catchier font name than "CL-GD5320".
Again, only the 8x16/9x16 font designs are unique to this model. They're styled like those of its
older brother the II, just with the glyph heights toned back down a notch.
No relation to Hercules' Stingray 3dfx boards. This 1989 SVGA controller was specialized for flat-
panel output, so it cropped up in a variety of portable machines from the likes of GRiD Systems,
Olivetti, and others. For industry-standard 25-row text on 640x480 square-pixel displays, there's a
new 8x19 font size; and as flat panels were often monochrome at the time, the x16/x19 sizes also get
bold versions, which stand in for high-intensity text.
CRTs are supported too, but the fonts used in that case are identical to the Eagle II.
EAGLE COMPUTER
──────────────
Eagle Computer produced a number of early PC compatibles; the Spirit was a 1983 luggable with a
built-in 9" CRT. This CGA board was released for that specific machine, although it's (probably)
usable with any IBM or clone. The default font is yet another identical copy of IBM's CGA charset,
but interestingly the character ROM contains 3 more alternate fonts.
The first one ('Alt1') is identical to the system font from Eagle's 1630 and PC-2 computers, if not
others. The other two are sci-fi & fantasy-inspired fonts: clearly not meant for "serious" use, but
pretty elaborate and well-done regardless.
The Q205A is a "Multi-mode Graphics Adapter" - the 'M' doesn't just stand for monochrome, as this
board could be toggled for either CGA or Hercules compatibility. As such, it was provided with 8x8
and 9x14 ROM fonts to match, and even went the extra mile of including an alternate single-dot CGA
font.
This board was often sold with the earlier Epson Equity-series computers, and the same fonts were
used for the Equity LT laptop.
EVEREX SYSTEMS
──────────────
The Micro Enhancer series was a line of so-called "super EGA" boards with various extended feature
sets. The ME Deluxe EV-657 supported (among other things) some proprietary text modes in a rare
example of odd character widths, e.g. 132x44 characters at 5x8 dots each, and 94x51 at 7x8.
The EV-659A was a similar board, which supported resolutions such as 640x480 (although it wasn't
VGA-compatible). It is assumed that this explains the 8x16 VBIOS font.
A mid-1990s 2D-accelerated SVGA chip, found in PCI video boards like the Shuttle HOT-137/139. IGS's
video BIOS contains the usual set of IBM-derived fonts, except for the 8x16/9x16 sizes, which seem
to be updated takes on earlier ones from Cirrus Logic.
PARADISE SYSTEMS
────────────────
This SVGA board had its own set of extended modes, and the DOS drivers included a set of fonts for
them. At least on non-multisync monitors, they were rendered as 7 rather than 8 dots wide: 132x43
characters at 7x9 pixels each, and 132x25 at the 7x16 size. These are clearly thin-stroke versions
of the original IBM bitmap fonts.
PHOENIX TECHNOLOGIES
────────────────────
Phoenix's EGA firmware has these character sets built in. They all follow a consistent design with
less rounded curves, sharper diagonals, and thinner strokes on the more elaborate characters. All
the usual character sizes for EGA text modes make an appearance, complete with the monochrome-
friendly 9x14 size.
Some of these cards were based on C&T's 82C435 controller, and unlike standard EGA it also supported
a 400-line text mode; so there's an 8x16 variant (with an unusually small x-height), but no VGA-
compliant 8x16. The 8x8 size can also be seen in machines based on the Phoenix *system* BIOS v3.x,
as the default for CGA graphics.
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
PhoenixEGA 8x8 Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 PhoenixEGA 8x8 ■ AaBbCcDd 0
Correct
5:6 PhoenixEGA 8x8 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456
PhoenixEGA 8x8-2y Square
8x8; CP437 1:2 PhoenixEGA 8x8-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:12 PhoenixEGA 8x8-2y ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
PhoenixEGA 8x14 Square
8x14; CP437 1:1 PhoenixEGA 8x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
3:4 PhoenixEGA 8x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
PhoenixEGA 9x14 Square
9x14; CP437 1:1 PhoenixEGA 9x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
2:3 PhoenixEGA 9x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
PhoenixEGA 8x16 Square
8x16; CP437 1:1 PhoenixEGA 8x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:6 PhoenixEGA 8x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
An ambiguous categorization here; Phoenix seemed to have its fingers in every pie in the VBIOS
kitchen at some point, and most of them are all over the place in terms of charset design. However,
this set most closely descends from the older Phoenix EGA/system BIOS fonts, with enough differences
to make it count. The particular Phoenix firmware it comes from was for a Biostar Venus 3D Voodoo
Rush board, of all things.
Various 3D boards based on Verite 1000 / 2x00 chipsets (Sierra Screamin' 3D, Intergraph Intense 3D
100, QDI Vision-1, etc.) use these charsets, which are nicely readable with a squarish/more angular
take on the IBM VGA character design, including stylized punctuation marks and special chars. There
are no alternate wide glyphs for 'M', 'T' and their likes, as there usually are for the 9-dot-wide
variants.
REALMAGIC GX/64:
The entire point of the RealMagic series was its hardware MPEG video decoding, so it may come as a
surprise that this card's VGA BIOS bothers with a triviality like the appearance of text modes.
Actually, this is a close relative of the Rendition Verite font set (and others from the same
general Phoenix VBIOS lineage), with a few minor adjustments, and this time we do get alternate
wider glyphs in the 9x14/9x16 versions.
Correct
3:4 Sigma RM 9x8 ■ AaBbCcDd 01234567
Sigma RM 8x14 Square
8x14; CP437 1:1 Sigma RM 8x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:6 Sigma RM 8x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Sigma RM 9x14 Square
9x14; CP437 1:1 Sigma RM 9x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
3:4 Sigma RM 9x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Sigma RM 8x16 Square
8x16; CP437 1:1 Sigma RM 8x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:6 Sigma RM 8x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Sigma RM 9x16 Square
9x16; CP437 1:1 Sigma RM 9x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
3:4 Sigma RM 9x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
STB SYSTEMS
───────────
STB AUTOEGA:
STB had a few models with this designation, based on C&T's 82C435 EGA chipset, and at least some of
them could be populated with extra RAM chips *and* clock crystals to support higher resolutions.
The ROM for this one copies IBM's 8x8 font, but the 8x14/9x14 sizes do their own thing with the
design.
TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS
────────────────────
The very first (S)VGA chipsets from Trident came with matching firmware, which customized the font
styles as well. All standard VGA text sizes got a similar treatment, in a kind of rough-looking
sans serif type:
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
TridentEarly 8x8 Square
8x8; CP437 1:1 TridentEarly 8x8 ■ AaBbCcDd
Correct
5:6 TridentEarly 8x8 ■ AaBbCcDd 01234
TridentEarly 9x8 Square
9x8; CP437 1:1 TridentEarly 9x8 ■ AaBbC
Correct
3:4 TridentEarly 9x8 ■ AaBbCcDd 01234
TridentEarly 8x14 Square
8x14; CP437 1:1 TridentEarly 8x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:6 TridentEarly 8x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
TridentEarly 9x14 Square
9x14; CP437 1:1 TridentEarly 9x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456
Correct
3:4 TridentEarly 9x14 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
TridentEarly 8x16 Square
8x16; CP437 1:1 TridentEarly 8x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:6 TridentEarly 8x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
TridentEarly 9x16 Square
9x16; CP437 1:1 TridentEarly 9x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456
Correct
3:4 TridentEarly 9x16 ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
There were also some proprietary TVGA text modes that called for an 8x11-dot cell. The 1:1 aspect
is as seen in proprietary mode 51h (640x480), but mode 55h (1056x480) had a roughly 3:5 pixel
aspect.
This one looks much rougher than the others; I'd say it crosses over firmly into "ugly", but
thankfully it didn't see a lot of use.
Trident's inexpensive video solutions didn't go out of their way to distinguish themselves in terms
of speed and performance. Fittingly, later TVGA-based cards make their text characters less
distinctive as well, sticking very closely to IBM's VGA and co. with only some token modifications
here and there.
The aforementioned 8x11 size was also changed. Different firmware used different fonts for that
one; this one is taken from an Octek TVGA8900B card (with an additional fix in some of the accented
characters, to make the baselines consistent).
TSENG LABS
──────────
The ET2000 was Tseng Labs' first real integrated chipset, and featured a superset of EGA
capabilities. The EVA-480 board could pull off extended resolutions like 640x480, and had a special
daughterboard(!) for 100% CGA/HGC support.
On top of that, the firmware included a couple of condensed fonts (6x8 and 6x14) for 132-column text
modes. These only worked on multisync monitors – in fact, this board was rebranded as the NEC
MultiSync Graphics Card BG-I and marketed for use with NEC's original MultiSync.
WYSE WY-700:
Originally a terminal manufacturer, Wyse was noted for its hi-res text displays. The WY-700 was one
of the high-end graphics solutions that appeared for the emerging GUI, desktop publishing and CAD
markets in the mid-'80s, before VGA, SVGA or VESA were a thing. It could emulate standard
CGA/monochrome on its specialized 1280x800 "paper-white" monitor, so it featured a large 16x16
character set, for either 80x25 or 80x50 text mode.
This came in two hardware charsets: a thick serif font, which can pass as a higher-resolution
version of the IBM MDA font, and a thin sans-serif one which is probably less of an eye-strain at
80x50.
Some video hardware manufacturers were pretty promiscuous with their charset designs, so tracing
their origins can get touchy. This font, for instance, first(?) cropped up in a Wang Laboratories
VGA card circa 1991 (the 3050 / WVGA-16HR), but derivative variants show up in the VGA BIOS of
seemingly unrelated products, e.g. desktop and mobile chips from the mid-late '90s: Chromatic
Research's Mpact2, NeoMagic's 2160 and 128XD, and Silicon Motion's SM910.
This version is a bit more polished than Wang's, and comes from the Mpact2 firmware, where the
bitmap data has this string appended: "VGA FONT 1.05.02 02/16/93 ACM". So for naming purposes, I'll
go with that.
These computers generally ran some kind of x86 CPU, and their own customized versions of MS-DOS, but
only had limited degrees of IBM PC compatibility. That puts these fonts less firmly within the
project's scope, but it's not as if they're collected anywhere else, plus some of these machines were
more interesting than a vanilla PC clone, so let's bring 'em on.
ACORN COMPUTERS
───────────────
What's an Acorn machine doing in a PC-focused collection, you ask? Well: this 8-bit computer came
with an 80186 board that functioned as a PC-compatible extension running Digital Research's DOS Plus
(and GEM). Compatibility was far from 100%, due to architectural limitations; that included its CGA
emulation, which had some color and speed constraints, and letterboxed the 200 CGA scanlines within
the 256-line screen.
The built-in 8x8 font is similar to the usual BBC Micro one, but with the DOS code page 437 charset.
The hardware couldn't do 16 colors in text modes, so high-intensity text was made bold instead:
There was also what DOS Plus called "Mode 7" (actually Mode 3 in Beeb terms); this was faster, and
filled the screen vertically, at the cost of introducing 2 lines of space between each row of text.
The desktop Apricots all supported a hi-res 800x400 monochrome monitor, giving 80x25 characters at
10x16 pixels each. Models with the color option added lower resolution fonts: 8x8 on 200-line
displays, and 8x10 on 256-line ones (which made the pixels almost-square at 320x256, or 16:15 to be
exact).
The 286-based Xen was more of a PC-AT competitor, and it retained the hi-res mono option, but the
color modes were brought closer to EGA at 640x350, and the corresponding font was accordingly 8x14
dots in size.
APRICOT PORTABLE:
The portable version was somewhat different in that it didn't have a true text mode - it permanently
ran in 640x200 graphics mode, and as every pixel was addressable, the text could be customized with
loadable soft fonts. It was mostly seen with Apricot's default 200-line font (above), but at least
one version of the system disk swapped it for this one:
ATARI CORP.
───────────
ATARI PORTFOLIO:
This was the world's first true palmtop, originally released in the UK by DIP Research but then
licensed to Atari. Its 8088 CPU ran a customized DOS from ROM, and its monochrome LCD panel (no
backlight) could pull off 240x64-pixel graphics, or 40x8 text characters of 6x8 pixels each.
The video system on this dual-CPU computer (Z80+8088, for running both CP/M and MS-DOS) was related
to Digital's VT100/VT220 terminals, and could display text in four different column widths. 40/80-
column text uses 10-dot-wide character cells, and 66/132-column text shaves off one dot of spacing.
Like the terminals, each pixel is doubled horizontally so that one bitmap dot becomes two on the
screen (although the effect on double-width text isn't the same as on the terminals[→]).
The Rainbow's character set[→] is also based on the DEC standard, not on the IBM PC one. This means
that the CP437 version here is a custom adaptation, but all of the original characters (and more)
are still available in the 'Plus' fonts.
FUJITSU
───────
A successful line in Japan with quite a few models. Display options varied, but most modes had
square-pixel resolutions, so no aspect correction should be needed for the fonts. The FM-Towns
didn't have a full CP437 encoding, so rather than 100% faithful conversions, the versions here are
ADAPTED/REMAPPED; they only cover the half-width character forms.
HEWLETT-PACKARD CO.
───────────────────
HP 150 TOUCHSCREEN:
HP's first MS-DOS PC, from 1983, was an 8-Mhz 8088 office machine touting an IR touch system for its
monochrome CRT. Its 80-column text was especially sharp; there are 9x14 dots per character, but
each scanline may be shifted by half a dot, which effectively doubles the horizontal resolution.
The attention to detail didn't stop there: each dot is also stretched wider by ~1/3[→], making
vertical and horizontal strokes equally wide despite the pixel aspect ratio. (Bitmap font formats
can't emulate that very well, so only the outline fonts replicate this dot-stretching here.)
The 150 can use several character sets[→] simultaneously, but none of them match up with the IBM
PC's; so once again the CP437 version here has been remapped for that code page, but the 'Plus'
version has a much more complete selection.
MINDSET:
This innovative but short-lived 1984 machine offloaded quite a few tasks to custom chipsets, Amiga-
style. These coprocessors also handled advanced graphics at 320 or 640 pixels across, and 200 (or
400 interlaced) lines vertically. "Text mode" was emulated in graphics, so it supported custom
character sizes and designs - even proportional fonts, but the system font was a monospaced 8x8.
NEC's 8086-based model from '84 was praised for being technically superior to contemporary PCs, and
the display was no exception, with low (320x200), medium (640x200) or hi-res (640x400) output in
either mono or color, and separate text/graphics buffers.
The APC III is closely related to the PC-9800 series marketed by NEC in Japan, and its fonts appear
to be CP437 adaptations of that platform's native character sets.
PHILIPS :YES:
The :YES was an 80186 machine with proprietary on-board video allowing 160/320/640x252 graphics.
Consequently, characters are 8x10 pixels each for a total of 25 text rows, at an almost-square pixel
aspect ratio. The 40/80-column text mode font ('T') is slightly different from the one used in
graphic mode ('G').
There was an optional add-on for hi-res mono support (probably with a matching font), but that's MIA
as of this writing.
RESEARCH MACHINES
─────────────────
RM NIMBUS PC-186:
A semi-compatible mainly seen in the British educational market, with a graphics subsystem
supporting 320x250 or 640x250 RGB output. For standard 40x25/80x25 text mode, the PC-186 used an
8x10 character cell, like some of the other "incompatibles" in this section. The PC2 model was
presumably similar.
ROBOTRON A7100:
This tenuously PC-compatible machine from 1985 was manufactured in East Germany, and officially ran
on a Soviet clone of the 8086 CPU, although most units apparently shipped with actual 8086s imported
'unofficially'. Video (like most other components) was not PC-standard; the basic card provided
80x25 text on the 640x400 monochrome display, using 8x16-dot characters. A later model, the A7150,
had better compatibility and better graphics, but used (pretty much) the same default font.
SIEMENS AG
──────────
SIEMENS PC-D:
The PC-D was yet another 80186 machine that ran its own customized version of MS-DOS; video output
was monochrome at a 640x350 resolution, with a character size of 8x14 pixels to match. The system
font is a readable, thin-stroke type which sort of resembles classic engineering/technical drawing
text.
TANDY CORP.
───────────
TANDY 2000:
For a 1983 computer the 2000 was certainly powerful, and no slouch in terms of visuals either, with
a hi-res display and various add-on options providing 640x400 graphics in color or monochrome. The
character generator was based on RAM rather than the typical ROM, so custom fonts could be
programmed. In text mode, this is the default 8x16 font loaded on boot:
Graphics mode uses a slightly different font, contained in the BIOS ROM. As with IBM's BIOS
graphics modes, only the first 128 characters are covered, unless the software provides the rest;
this version fills out the code page by analogy with the text-mode font:
Font/Charsets: Aspect: Sample text:
-------------- ------- ------------------------------------------------------------
Tandy2K G Square
8x16; CP437 1:1 Tandy2K G ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Correct
5:6 Tandy2K G ■ AaBbCcDd 0123456789
Tandy2K G-2x Square Tandy2K-2x G ■ AaBbCcDd 0123
8x16; CP437 2:1
Correct Tandy2K-2x G ■ AaBbCcDd 012345678
5:3
Other than the 8x16 graphics-mode font, the 2000's BIOS also sets up an 8x8 one, which is normally
unused. As per the manuals, it's exclusive to the "medium-resolution graphics option board", AKA
the "TV/Joystick Option", for 320x200 graphics on a TV set. It's unclear whether this mythical card
was ever released; but that's no reason to keep the font obscure, so here's a version with the non-
ASCII characters similarly fleshed out:
TELENOVA
────────
Another computer aimed at the educational market, this time the Scandinavian one, the Compis (AKA
Scandis) natively ran CP/M-86 from ROM, but it also had its own port of MS-DOS - which supported the
PC's CP437 character set seen here. (Graphically, it could pull off 640x400 and even a monochrome
1280x800 'ultra hi-res' mode.)
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
─────────────────
These were two more 8088-based MS-DOS PCs which traded IBM compatibility for enhanced features (the
later 286-based 'Business Pro' model would be fully compatible). Video was 720x300 in either color
or mono; notably, even the portable had a color version at that resolution – in 1984.
That made the 9x12 text nice and sharp, although the lowercase letters and the caps/numerals have
completely different styles for some reason.
TOSHIBA T300:
Toshiba's 1983 not-quite-compatible machine one-upped the PC in a few respects, among them a faster
6 MHz 8088 and a selection of improved graphics adapters, from 320/640x200 to a 640x500 option
showing 16 colors from a palette of 256. Text modes were all 25 rows, so those 500 scanlines make
me unsure about the correct aspect for the 8x16 font.
WANG LABORATORIES
─────────────────
Synonymous at the time with word processing, Wang's foray into general-purpose computing spawned the
8086 PC and the 286 APC, whose IBM compatibility didn't extend to the hardware level. The popular
option was monochrome, at an 800x300 resolution. The color option provided NTSC or analog RGB
output at 320/640x225 pixels, yielding an 8x9 character cell and a nearly-square pixel aspect.
These were introduced in 1982, with an S-100 bus sporting two CPUs – 8085 and 8088. The video
hardware could manage up to 8 colors at a standard resolution of 640x225, giving approximately a 1:2
pixel aspect ratio; for a conventional 80x25 text screen, that meant 8x9-dot characters.
The default font has single-dot strokes, but there's a thicker alternative which is very similar to
IBM's 8x8 BIOS font, despite the extra scanline: