[Texas] Changing the font of the Console module

[Walker Hale IV]

Short Answer:

Give up. You are so deep into Windows API nastiness that you can't see daylight.


Long Answer:

You can't do anything in Python that you can't do in C.

Fredrik Lundh's Console module does not support setting the font. This
module is mostly some C code that accesses a few of the console
functions in Win32.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682073(VS.85).aspx

Any deficiencies in this module might be overcome by calling Win32
functions directly using either the ctypes module or using the pywin32
library:

http://docs.python.org/library/ctypes.html

http://docs.python.org/using/windows.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/
http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/pywin32/PyWin32.HTML
http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.6/pywin32/win32console.html

In fact you could use either ctypes or pywin32 as a replacement for
the Console module, but the API wouldn't be as nice.

Now pywin32/win32console does not contain all of the functions in
Win32. In particular, the one function for dealing with fonts is
missing...

Microsoft discourages using custom fonts in consoles.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/05/16/2659903.aspx

The only way a font can appear in a console is if that font has been
added to a magic spot in the registry. This makes the font available
in the Properties page for the console (when you open the menu in the
upper-left).

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/WindowsNT/RegistryTips/Miscellaneous/ConsoleFonts.html

Theoretically, C code can set a console to use one of those specially
registered fonts, but I haven't found any examples of people
successfully doing it.


Bottom Line:

You are at the beginning of a long, hard road. Python will neither
help nor hurt you. The problems you face are the same as for a C
programmer.

If you still want to attempt this you will need to:

* Add your font to the magic spot in the registry, giving it a number.
* Verify that you can use that font in a standard console window by
selecting it in the properties dialog.
* Write special code using ctypes to
** create a new console buffer
** set the font number for the buffer to the corresponding font number
in the registry using SetCurrentConsoleFontEx
** install the new buffer into your console

Or something like that. And it still might not work!

-- 
Walker Hale <walker.hale.iv at gmail.com>

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 9:58 PM, Rage Creation <ragecreations at gmail.com> wrote:
> Using the Console module as described here:
> http://effbot.org/zone/console-handbook.htm
> Is there a way to change the system font so that all fonts used within the
> program follow that?
> Or a way to modify the Console module to adjust what font its using (it has
> to be reading a font from somewhere, right?)
> Thanks,
>
> Anthony
>
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:06 AM, Walker Hale IV <walker.hale.iv at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Are you referring to the console module for Jython or something else?
>>
>> In general, adding an attribute that does not already exist to a
>> module will have no effect.
>>
>> --
>> Walker Hale <walker.hale.iv at gmail.com>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 3:20 PM, Rage Creation <ragecreations at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Hello everyone, I am a new Python coder using the Console module with a
>> > (hopefully simple) question:
>> > I want to use a fixed-width font for my program, but the Console module
>> > seems to lack a font attribute. I tried using sys.font = "White Rabbit"
>> > (my
>> > fixed width font) and it ran with no errors but the output did not
>> > change. I
>> > also looked inside of Console.py but there was no setting of a font
>> > there,
>> > either.
>> > Any advice?