Copyright © 2015-2024 Bill Kochman

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Let me first mention that if you are using a very recent Macintosh computer which runs a very recent version of macOS, you will more than likely not even need to refer to this tutorial. The reason for this is simple. In the nine years since I first wrote this tutorial, Apple has apparently made sufficient improvements to the Terminal app that, insofar as using the Terminal to telnet to BBSes around the world is concerned, it works right out of the box, and displays PC-ANSI graphics brightly and beautifully.

On the other hand, for those of you who may still be using older Macintosh models, which run older versions of macOS -- and thus older versions of the Terminal app -- and who may still be having PC-ANSI graphics display issues, allow me to suggest that you take a look at the four fonts which are found in the "PC-ANSI Terminal Fonts" file directory on the Armageddon BBS. I found those four fonts back in 2015 after spending a number of hours scrounging around on the web. In fact, I found, and tried using, a number of other fonts as well. However, the four fonts which are in that file directory are the only ones that properly display PC-ANSI graphics to one degree or another. The reason for this is simple: Not all fonts -- in fact, very few of them -- contain the "code page 437" PC-ANSI characters, which are necessary for properly displaying PC-ANSI graphics on a BBS.

As you will see, all four fonts are TrueType fonts. Macintosh and Windows users should encounter no problems with using TrueType fonts on their machine. I cannot vouch for other operating systems because I have no experience with them.

Of the four fonts I found, the one which works the best -- at least in the macOS Terminal on my iMac years ago when I was running Yosemite 10.10.2 -- is the "ASCII.tff" font, which is included in the file called "ASCII-TTF-PC-ANSI-Graphics.zip". As such, I suggest that you try using that one first.

I suggest that you have the ASCII.ttf font set to 24-point with "Antialias text" enabled on the "Text" tab for the "Homebrew" theme, which is my default Terminal app theme. Please note that when you install the ASCII.tff font in the "Font Book" app, the name it will display is "New". Don't ask me why that is, because I really don't know. It just works.

The next best font to use is in a zipped archive called "Modern-DOS-437-9x14-TTF.zip". With this particular font, the letter and number characters look more blocky if you use a large font size. Having said that, you may want to consider setting the font size to 12-point to 14-point point in your Terminal's theme settings.

I found that the least impressive of the four fonts is the "Moder-DOS-437-TTF.zip" file; at least on my machine. Your mileage may vary.

Whichever font you decide to use, once you download it, on macOS machines you need to place the font file -- the one with the .ttf extension -- in your "Fonts" folder inside your "Library" folder, which is located inside of your "Home" folder. The Home folder is the folder inside of the "Users" folder which bears your user name. For example:

/Users/JoeSchmoe/Library/Fonts/ASCII.ttf

A more simpler way to do it is by unzipping the font archive, and then double-clicking the font itself, which has a "ttf" file extension. Upon doing so, the Font Book app will launch, and you can use the "Install" button to install the font on your system

Please note that the four fonts mentioned above are available on the Armageddon BBS, as well as on my "Armageddon RETRO Server", which is a Hotline server. As I said, it was hard work finding those four fonts years ago, so I hope that you meet with some degree of success by using one of them.

If you have not yet read my "Mac OSX Terminal Settings" tutorial, you can read it online here on this same website. You will find a link to it lower on this same page. If none of the four aforementioned fonts work for you, then even more so, I encourage you to read the Terminal settings tutorial, and implement the various settings which I outline therein.


Happy BBSing, and thanks for stopping by!