Routines (alphabetical) > Routines: S > SHOWFONT

# SHOWFONT

The SHOWFONT procedure displays a TrueType or vector-drawn font (from the file `hersh1.chr`, located in the `resource/fonts` subdirectory of the IDL distribution) on the current graphics device.

This routine is written in the IDL language. Its source code can be found in the file `showfont.pro` in the `lib` subdirectory of the IDL distribution.

## Examples

To create a display of the Helvetica italic TrueType font on the screen:

SHOWFONT, 'Helvetica Italic', 'Helvetica Italic', /TT_FONT

To create a display of Font 3 for PostScript:

; Set output to PostScript:
SET_PLOT, 'PS'
; Specify the output filename. If we didn't specify this, the file
; would be saved as idl.ps by default:
DEVICE, FILENAME='font3.ps'
;Display font 3:
SHOWFONT, 3, 'Simplex Roman'
; Close the new PS file:
DEVICE, /CLOSE

To display the Unicode code page for Mathematical Operators in the DejaVu Sans TrueType font:

SHOWFONT, 'DejaVuSans', 'DejaVu Sans', /TT_FONT, OFFSET='2200'x

This produces the following display:

## Syntax

SHOWFONT, Font, Name [, /ENCAPSULATED] [, /OFFSET] [, /TT_FONT]

## Arguments

### Font

The index number of the font (may range from 3 to 29) or, if the TT_FONT keyword is set, a string that contains the name of the TrueType font to display.

### Name

A string that contains the text of a title to appear at the top of the font display.

## Keywords

### ENCAPSULATED

Set this keyword, if the current graphics device is “PS”, to make encapsulated PostScript output.

### OFFSET

For TrueType fonts, set this keyword to an integer giving the offset at which to start displaying characters. This keyword is ignored for vector fonts. The default is 32 (the "space" character). If OFFSET is set to 32, then the next 224 characters are displayed, otherwise the next 256 characters are displayed.

### TT_FONT

If this keyword is set, the specified font will be interpreted as a TrueType font.

## Version History

Pre-4.0 | Introduced
8.2 | Added OFFSET keyword

## See Also

EFONT, PS_SHOW_FONTS