# Change Terminal Text Size



## TylerGriffiths (Mar 20, 2012)

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I thought here would be the most appropriate place.

I wanted to know if there is any way of changing the font size when running FreeBSD without a gui. On my 1440x900 monitor, the text comes up in about 30pt or so, but when I used Gentoo from the install cd the text was much smaller, even though it was commandline too. 

Can the font size be made smaller in FreeBSD?


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 20, 2012)

TylerGriffiths said:
			
		

> I wasn't sure where to put this, so I thought here would be the most appropriate place.



Well, it certainly wasn't. The first post in that sub-forum:  Posting in Howtos & FAQs:



> Threads in this sub-forum are for explaining 'how to' do certain things on FreeBSD, not for asking 'how to' do something.



Moved to General.


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## OH (Mar 20, 2012)

Search for vidcontrol in this forum, you'll find lots of topics


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## wblock@ (Mar 20, 2012)

TylerGriffiths said:
			
		

> I wasn't sure where to put this, so I thought here would be the most appropriate place.
> 
> I wanted to know if there is any way of changing the font size when running FreeBSD without a gui. On my 1440x900 monitor, the text comes up in about 30pt or so, but when I used Gentoo from the install cd the text was much smaller, even though it was commandline too.



Linux often uses a bitmap console.  FreeBSD uses actual text mode.  A graphic mode can be used, but it's not particularly versatile.  Using X For A High Resolution Console On FreeBSD shows how to use X for an equivalent hires console without a full GUI.



> Can the font size be made smaller in FreeBSD?



It's really about increasing the screen resolution, which ends up making the fonts look smaller.


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## freethread (Mar 21, 2012)

There is a trick to use 8x8 fonts (and perhaps 8x14 too). *A*lso your kernel must be compiled with VESA and SC_PIXEL*_MODE* (this should be the default in 9.0-RELEASE), it works on real and virtual machines.

*U*se *vidcontrol* to change text mode with 8x8 font:
[CMD=">"]vidcontrol 80x50[/CMD]
*T*hen set a graphics hires mode
[CMD=">"]vidcontrol MODE__nnn_[/CMD]
where nnn is one of the graphics mode, to list all available modes:
[CMD=">"]vidcontrol -i mode[/CMD]

Hope it works for you too.


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