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From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Gordon Hlavenka)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: VGA boards and screen fonts
Message-ID: <26cc53fe-21eb.1comp.sys.ibm.pc-1@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: 17 Aug 90 21:55:04 GMT
References: <548@mstr.hgc.edu>
Lines: 53


> ...  *But* I'm not
>going to give up my lovely sanserif screen font without a fight.  The
>question, therefore, is: can I get the same choices under VGA?

The answer is:  Sort of.  PC Magazine put out a program a couple of years
ago called FONTEDIT.  This program allows you to create your own fonts for
EGA/VGA use.  The fonts are saved as a COM file; executing the file sets the
font.

But--   The font thus selected is the _only_ one on the screen; no mixing in
italics, for instance.  Also any application which resets the video adapter
will reset to the default (hardware) font.

The first problem has been addressed.  I saw a program out there which
leaves a portion of itself resident, and will reload the font if it gets
trashed.  The address given for VFONT (freeware) is:

                                Ralph B Smith Jr
                                clySmic software
                                 P. O. Box 2271
                               Empire State Plaza
                                Albany, NY 12220

>Then a second question: if I choose to work in mono mode (I hope that's
>the right phrase) will the resolution be degraded or will it still be
>VGA or SVGA quality?

The VGA supports many screen resolutions; SVGA even more.  Among these are
the lousy CGA fonts at 640X200.  But the "standard" VGA text is as crisp as
your Hercules board.  For graphics, you get whatever the card/monitor
combination will support.  If you're planning on keeping your TTL Mono
monitor, you probably won't see much diffreence.

>I'm running a Hercules Graphics Plus card with a mono monitor.  I'm
>very happy with it because I can use the RAMFONT drivers to give me
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>a screen font that I like.  Moreover, WP 5.1 and NotaBene support
>the card.
>
>But my friends tell me that I'm simply not in the swim without a VGA
>card and monitor and I'm beginning to believe them.

Why listen to your friends?  Keep the hardware you like until you have an
actual _need_ for something else.  If all you do is Word Processing, the
color / graphics capabilities of a Super-VGA setup are probably overkill. 
(I'll get flamed for that by someone...)  Don't run out and buy new stuff
just to "be in the swim."  That's stupid.

-----------------------------------------------------
Gordon S. Hlavenka            cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Disclaimer: I've fallen!  And I can't get up!
            So how could I have expressed an opinion?