Italics (and Other Fonts) on a Monochrome Monitor

Article: Q11274
Version(s): 3.00 4.00 5.00 5.10 6.00 6.00a
Operating System: MS-DOS
Flags: ENDUSER | s_quickc
Last Modified: 15-JAN-1991

Question:

On some Microsoft products (such as Microsoft Word), I have seen text
represented in italics on a monochrome monitor without a graphics
adapter. How can I get italics on the monitor using Microsoft C or
Macro Assembler?

Response:

These products create the italics font internally, in graphics mode
(regardless of whether or not you have a monochrome monitor or color
monitor attached), then it is mapped into the BIOS graphics ASCII
table and presented on the screen.

To get italics on the screen, you must first create this graphics font
(or purchase a library of fonts from a software vendor), then map the
graphics font to the BIOS graphics font table.

It is possible to incorporate many desired fonts into your application
by writing your application to interface with Microsoft Windows.