Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format - Overview

Overview

The current version of BDF is 2.2. No future revisions are anticipated. Earlier versions were referred to as the Character Bitmap Distribution Format.

The X Window Consortium adopted BDF 2.1 as a standard for X Window screen fonts, but is now moving towards other standards.

Version 2.2 added support for non-Western writing. For example, glyphs in a BDF 2.2 font definition can specify rendering from top-to-bottom rather than simply left-to-right.

A BDF font file contains three sections:

1. a global section that applies to all glyphs in a font;
2. a section with a separate entry for each glyph; and
3. the ENDFONT statement.