Re: [Devel] FNT encodings

[Werner LEMBERG]

> "Windows Font Mapping" article says, that OEM_CHARSET is used for
> the charset of vector fonts, like the Modern.fon, Roman.fon, and
> Script.fon on Windows.

I have a bunch of bitmap-only fonts which use OEM_CHARSET...

> "CreateFont" documentation says: The OEM_CHARSET value specifies a
> character set that is operating-system dependent.

Urgh.

> "IFIMETRICS" documentation from the "Windows Driver Development Kit"
> says: This font supports an OEM-specific character set. The OEM
> character set is system dependent.

Urgh, urgh.

> In general OEM, as opposed to ANSI, denotes the second default codepage,
> that most international versions of Windows have. It is one of the OEM
> codepages from
> 
>     http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/cphome.mspx,
> 
> and is used for the "DOS boxes", to support legacy applications. A
> German Windows version for example usually uses ANSI codepage 1252
> and OEM codepage 850.

With other words, there is no possibility to find out the character
set if one sees a FNT file without context.  Depending on the Windows
localized version, there might be dozens of, say, 8514oem.fon files
which all use the OEM_CHARSET enumeration value but have different
character sets.  A brilliant design.

Thanks for the information.


    Werner