The following X clients, available in the public domain, display information about the font path and fonts:

• xset(1)-displays information about the current font path
  

• xlsfonts(1)-lists the fonts known to the X server
  

• xfd(1)-displays the characters in a font
  

• xfontsel(1)-displays samples of a font
  

The xset command displays the font path and other current server settings.

# xset q
.
.
.
Font Path:
    built-ins,/usr/lib/X11/ncd/fonts/pcf/misc/,/usr/
    lib/X11/ncd/fonts/pcf/dw100dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/ncd/
    fonts/pcf/100dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/ncd/fonts/pcf/dw75dpi/,
    /usr/lib/X11/ncd/fonts/pcf/75dpi/

The xlsfonts(1) command lists the fonts currently available to the X server. It has many options for narrowing the search, but its basic form lists the names of all fonts known to the X server:

# xlsfonts

When run with the argument -fn pattern, xlsfonts lists only fonts that match pattern. The pattern may include the wildcard characters * (matches any sequence of characters) and ? (matches any single character). Quote these characters to prevent the shell from expanding them. For example, the following command lists all fonts with names that include the word helvetica:

# xlsfonts -fn '*helvetica*'

The xfd(1) command displays all the characters in a font; its basic syntax is:

xfd -fn font_name

For example, the following command displays all the characters in the 6x13 font:

% xfd -fn 6x13

The font specification can include wildcard characters as shown in the example above for xlsfonts.

Displaying Samples of a Font and XLFD Names-xfontsel

The xfontsel(1) client displays the fonts known to the X server, allows you to examine samples of a font, and shows the XLFD name for a font. The command's basic syntax is:

xfontsel -pattern font_specification

The font specification may include wildcard characters. For example, the following command displays a window in which you can select samples of various bold fonts:

% xfontsel -pattern `*bold*'