Microsoft Bitmap Font Format
| Format type | Font |
|---|---|
| Max glyph count | 256 |
| Minimum glyph size (pixels) | 0×0 |
| Maximum glyph size (pixels) | 65535×65535 |
| Access mode | Indexed |
| Metadata? | Y |
| Bitmap glyphs? | Yes |
| Vector glyphs? | No |
| Compressed glyphs? | No |
| Hidden data? | Yes |
| Games |
Microsoft Bitmap Font Format stores bitmap font data. These font files have the same MZ signature as Microsoft executables, but use a *.fon extension. The same extension and signature is used by Microsoft vector fonts, but the vector format is different enough to warrant its own page. Multiple font sizes can be stored in the same file. The format appears to have been created for Windows 2.0, although a similar bitmap font was used for Windows 1.0 which appears to be based on a bitmap font created by Bitstream.
Although the font format was designed for Windows, numerous DOS programs have made us of it over the years. The format was also often included in the Windows installer of later DOS games.
Tools
The following tools are able to work with files in this format.
| Name | Platform | View images in this format? | Convert/export to another file/format? | Import from another file/format? | Access hidden data? | Edit metadata? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fony | Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | A full-featured Microsoft Bitmap Font editor. |
- All file formats
- All font formats
- Bitmap fonts
- Uncompressed fonts
- Sparse fonts
- Indexed fonts
- Afrika
- Blitz
- Casino Blackjack
- Hugo's House of Horrors
- Hugo II: Whodunit
- Hugo III: Jungle of Doom!
- Kick Off 96
- Lunar Command
- Lunar Command II
- Masque Video Poker
- Modern Conquest
- Nigel's World
- Nitemare-3D
- Space Flight Simulator
- Vegas Knight's New Kasino Keno
- VGA Bingo
- Weird Island