FONT INDEX: Select a font to see a detailed preview and try it out for yourself.

All fonts include the full CP437 (DOS/US) character range; fonts labeled " Plus " have extended Unicode versions, too.

" 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.

I. Fonts from the IBM PC & Family

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.

IBM PC System BIOS 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample IBM BIOS

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 IBM BIOS-2x

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

2:1 Correct

5:3 IBM BIOS-2y

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

IBM First-Generation Video - CGA/MDA 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.



CGA (Color/Graphics Adapter) and PCjr: 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 IBM CGA

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 IBM CGA-2y

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 IBM CGAthin

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 IBM CGAthin-2y

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

MDA (Monochrome Display/Printer Adapter): 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample IBM MDA

9x14; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

2:3

II. Fonts from PC-Compatible Computers

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 Inc. Acer 710: Acer's 'Turbo XT' machine from ~1987 includes an on-board video controller for CGA, MDA, and Hercules compatibility. For now, only the CGA fonts have been extracted for this collection. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Acer710 CGA

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Acer710 CGA-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Amstrad Consumer Electronics Amstrad PC1512 / PC1640 / PPC: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Amstrad PC

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Amstrad PC-2y

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

AST Research AST Premium Exec: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample AST Premium Exec

8x19; CP437, Plus Square

1:1

AT&T Information Systems 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample AT&T PC6300

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 AT&T PC6300-2x

8x16; CP437 Square

2:1 Correct

5:3

Compaq Computer Corp. Compaq Portable III, Portable 386: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Compaq Port3

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Compaq Port3-2x

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1

Compaq-DOS (alternate fonts): 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample CompaqThin 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 CompaqThin 8x14

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 CompaqThin 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1

Corona Data Systems / Cordata 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Cordata PPC-21

16x13; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

1:3

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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Cordata PPC-400

16x16; CP437, Plus Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Data General Corp. Data General/One (first model): 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. Perhaps that was the reason for the alternate font with its heavier weight. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample DG One

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 DG One-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 DG One Alt

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 DG One Alt-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

ITT Information Systems 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 ITT Xtra

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ITT Xtra-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Kaypro Corp. Kaypro 2000 (graphics mode): 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Kaypro2K G

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:4 Kaypro2K G-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:8

Leading Edge Hardware Products Leading Edge PC Model M: See the Sperry PC (HT3070-03), a somewhat improved version marketed by another vendor.

Leading Edge PC Model D: 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.) Font/Charsets Aspect Sample LE Model D CGA

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 LE Model D CGA-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 LE Model D Mono

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3

Micro Byte Systems Micro Byte PC230: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample MBytePC230 CGA

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 MBytePC230 CGA-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 MBytePC230 EGA

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 MBytePC230 Mono

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3 MBytePC230 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12

Nixdorf Computer AG Nixdorf 8810 M15: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Nix8810 M15

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6

Nixdorf 8810 M16: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Nix8810 M16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6

Nixdorf 8810 M35: 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 Nix8810 M35

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Nix8810 M35

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Olivetti Personal Computers Olivetti M24: See AT&T PC6300, the rebadged model for the US market.

Olivetti M15, M15 Plus: These two 80c88-based portable 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Olivetti M15

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Olivetti M15-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Olivetti M211v, M316, D33: Like AST's Premium Exec, these VGA-equipped laptops increase the character dimensions to 8x19 square pixels, so that 25 rows of text can fill up the 640x480 monitor. They do play around with the design a bit more, though: Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Olivetti MxVGA

8x19; CP437 Square

1:1

Sanyo Business Systems 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 SanyoMBC16

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 SanyoMBC16-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Seequa Computer Corp. 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample SeequaCM

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 SeequaCM-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample SperryPC CGA

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 SperryPC CGA-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 SperryPC 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12

Tandy Corp. Tandy Video I - early Tandy 1000 series (1000, A, HD, EX, SX, TX, HX): One peculiarity of the 1000 line is the 225-line text modes - using an 8x9 character cell to improve readability. All but the earliest models (pre-EX) boot into 225-line mode by default, so the 8x9 variant is more commonly seen, but it is possible to set "TV mode" for standard 8x8 text using 200 lines. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Tandy1K-I 200L

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Tandy1K-I 200L-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 Tandy1K-I 225L

8x9; CP437 Square

1:1 Tandy1K-I 225L-2y

8x9; CP437 Square

1:2

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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Tandy1K-II 200L

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Tandy1K-II 200L-2y

8x8; CP437, Plus Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 Tandy1K-II 225L

8x9; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Tandy1K-II 225L-2y

8x9; CP437, Plus Square

1:2

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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Tandy1K-II Mono

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3

Toshiba Corp. Toshiba Satellite series: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample ToshibaSat 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ToshibaSat 9x8

9x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 ToshibaSat 8x14

8x14; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ToshibaSat 9x14

9x14; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 ToshibaSat 8x16

8x16; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ToshibaSat 9x16

9x16; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

Toshiba T-series: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample ToshibaTxL1 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ToshibaTxL1 8x16

8x16; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ToshibaTxL2 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ToshibaTxL2 8x16

8x16; CP437, Plus Square

1:1 Correct

5:6

Miscellaneous clones - BIOS/OEM fonts 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).

Copam Electronics BIOS: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Copam BIOS

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Copam BIOS-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

DTK/ERSO XT clone BIOS: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample DTK BIOS

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 DTK BIOS-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

Phoenix Technologies BIOS (v2.x): 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). Some later iterations (e.g. v3.13) use a different 8x8 font which is identical to that of the Phoenix EGA. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Phoenix BIOS

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Phoenix BIOS-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

VTech Laser XT BIOS: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample VTech BIOS

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 VTech BIOS-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

III. Fonts from 3rd-Party Video Hardware

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 manufacturers never really bothered to depart from IBM's original character designs, but there are quite a few exceptions.

Acer Inc. Acer VGA: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Acer VGA 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Acer VGA 8x8-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 Acer VGA 9x8

9x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

American Megatrends, Inc. Video cards w/AMI EGA BIOS: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample AMI EGA 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 AMI EGA 8x8-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 AMI EGA 8x14

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 AMI EGA 9x14

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3

ATI Technologies ATI Wonder (and later) video cards: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample ATI 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ATI 8x8-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 ATI 9x8

9x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 ATI 8x14

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ATI 9x14

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 ATI 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 ATI 9x16

9x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

ATI Small Wonder Graphics Solution: 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.) Font/Charsets Aspect Sample ATI SmallW 6x8

6x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:8

Eagle Computer Eagle Spirit CGA board (alternate fonts): 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample EagleSpCGA Alt1

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 EagleSpCGA Alt1-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 EagleSpCGA Alt2

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 EagleSpCGA Alt2-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 EagleSpCGA Alt3

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 EagleSpCGA Alt3-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12

Epson Corp. Epson MGA Q205A: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample EpsonMGA

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 EpsonMGA-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 EpsonMGA Alt

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 EpsonMGA Alt-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 EpsonMGA Mono

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3

Everex Systems Everex Micro Enhancer: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample EverexME 5x8

5x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 EverexME 7x8

7x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 EverexME 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1

Paradise Systems Paradise VGA Plus: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Paradise132 7x9

7x9; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:5 Paradise132 7x16

7x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:5

Phoenix Technologies Video cards w/Phoenix EGA BIOS: EGA cards based on Phoenix's 82C435 controller have 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. Unlike standard EGA chipsets this controller also supported a 400-line text mode, so there's an 8x16 variant (with an unusually small x-height), but no VGA-compliant 9x16. 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 Phoenix EGA 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Phoenix EGA 8x8-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 Phoenix EGA 8x14

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 Phoenix EGA 9x14

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3 Phoenix EGA 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6

Trident Microsystems Trident TVGA series: Trident's inexpensive (S)VGA chipsets largely didn't do much to distinguish themselves in terms of speed and performance. Fittingly, they didn't go out of their way to make their text characters distinctive either, sticking very closely to IBM's VGA and co. with only some token modifications here and there. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Trident 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Trident 9x8

9x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 Trident 8x14

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Trident 9x14

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 Trident 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Trident 9x16

9x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

TVGA 8800/8900 chipsets had some extra text modes that called for an 8x11-dot cell. Different models used different fonts for this; most are either ugly, or simple dupes of the 8x8 font with more padding. This is about the only one that approaches legibility, taken from an Octek TVGA8900B card (and slightly modified here).

The 1:1 aspect is as seen in proprietary mode 51h (640x480), but mode 55h (1056x480) had a roughly 3:5 pixel aspect. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Trident 8x11

8x11; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:5

Rendition Inc. Rendition Verite chipsets: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Verite 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Verite 8x8-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:12 Verite 9x8

9x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 Verite 8x14

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Verite 9x14

9x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4 Verite 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Verite 9x16

9x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

Wyse Technology Wyse WY-700: Originally a terminal manufcaturer, 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Wyse700a

16x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Wyse700a-2y

16x16; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 Wyse700b

16x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Wyse700b-2y

16x16; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

IV. Fonts from PC "Semi-Compatibles"

These computers generally ran some kind of x86 CPU, and their own customized versions of MS-DOS, but only had limited degrees 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.

ACT / Apricot Computers Apricot line (PC, Xi, F1, F2, Xen): 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). Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Apricot Mono

10x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

2:3 Apricot 200L

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Apricot 200L-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 Apricot 256L

8x10; CP437 Square

1:1 Apricot 256L-2y

8x10; CP437 Square

1:2

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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample ApricotXenC

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

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: Font/Charsets Aspect Sample ApricotPortable

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

Fujitsu Fujitsu FM-Towns series: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample FMTowns re. 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 FMTowns re. 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 FMTowns re. 8x16-2x

8x16; CP437 Square

2:1

Mindset Computer Corp. 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Mindset

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Mindset-2x

8x8; CP437 Square

2:1 Correct

5:3 Mindset-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12

NEC Corp. NEC APC III: 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample NEC APC3 8x8

8x8; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 NEC APC3 8x8-2y

8x8; CP437 Square

1:2 Correct

5:12 NEC APC3 8x16

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 NEC APC3 8x16-2x

8x16; CP437 Square

2:1 Correct

5:3

Philips Information Systems 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Philips :YES G

8x10; CP437 Square

1:1 Philips :YES G-2y

8x10; CP437 Square

1:2 Philips :YES T

8x10; CP437 Square

1:1 Philips :YES T-2y

8x10; CP437 Square

1:2

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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample RM Nimbus

8x10; CP437 Square

1:1 RM Nimbus-2y

8x10; CP437 Square

1:2

Siemens 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. Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Siemens PC-D

8x14; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

3:4

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; this is the default 8x16 font loaded on boot: Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Tandy2K

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6 Tandy2K-2x

8x16; CP437 Square

2:1 Correct

5:3

Telenova Telenova Compis / Compis II: 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.) Font/Charsets Aspect Sample Compis

8x16; CP437 Square

1:1 Correct

5:6