pbmtext

pbmtext - render text into a bitmap

pbmtext [?font fontfile] [?builtin fontname] [text]

Takes the specified text, either a single line from the command line or multiple lines from standard input, and renders it into a bitmap.

By default, pbmtext uses a built-in font called bdf (about a 10 point Times-Roman font). You can use a fixed width font by specifying ?builtin fixed.

You can also specify your own font with the -font flag. The fontfile is either a BDF file from the X window system or a PBM file.

If the fontfile is a PBM file, it is created in a very specific way. In your window system of choice, display the following text in the desired (fixed-width) font:

    M ",/^_[‘jpqy| M

   /  !"#$%&’()*+ /
    < ,-./01234567 <
    > 89:;<=>?@ABC >
    @ DEFGHIJKLMNO @
    _ PQRSTUVWXYZ[ _
    { \]^_‘abcdefg {
    } hijklmnopqrs }
    ~ tuvwxyz{|}~  ~

   M ",/^_[‘jpqy| M

Do a screen grab or window dump of that text, using for instance xwd, xgrabsc, or screendump. Convert the result into a pbm file. If necessary, use pnmcut to remove everything except the text. Finally, run it through pnmcrop to make sure the edges are right up against the text. pbmtext can figure out the sizes and spacings from that.

pbm(5), pnmcut(1), pnmcrop(1)

Copyright (C) 1993 by Jef Poskanzer and George Phillips