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Fontasm 1.0
Documentation.
Copyright (c) 1988 by Stephan HADINGER. All rights reserved.
This documentation and the software described in it are developed and copyrighted
by Stephan HADINGER.
(c) 1988 TML System, Inc. Certain portions of this software are copyrighted by
TML Systems, Inc.
Hardware requirements: - An APPLE IIGS* with at least 768K. - A 800K 3.5" disk
drive. - A printer (optional).
Firmware requirements: - ProDOS 1.5 or later and the associated tools (System
Disk 3.1 or later), or any GS/OS version.
FONTASM is compatible with GraphicWriter 2.0, MultiScribe GS, Medley, AppleWorks
GS, DeluxePaint, PaintWorks Gold,...
Thanks to : B. FOURNIER, S. BONAZZA, Y. KOENIG and my parents for their help.
Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, ImageWriter, LaserWriter are trademarks of Apple
Computer Inc. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems. AppleWorks GS,
MultiScribe are trademarks of Claris.
Fontasm is a ShareWare software. This means that you can copy it and give it to
anyone freely. But when you receive it, you can use it freely during two weeks.
Then if it satisfied you and if you wish to use it longer, please send a $20
check to :
S. HADINGER 8 grande rue B2 69340 FRANCHEVILLE FRANCE
You will then registration letter and I will make you know any future
enhancements or new versions of this soft. Otherwise, if you don't want to keep
Fontasm, just delete it.
N.B. : You must never change anything on the FONTASM-disk if you give it to
someone else.
I would be glad to know your opinion about Fontasm, what you like in it or not,
what enhancement you wish. Please tell me if you have discovered any bug. All
known bugs have been yet removed. Fontasm represents a great amount of work, over
5500 PASCAL lines and 500 ASSEMBLY lines. I am a French 19 years old student and
I have made Fontasm alone so it is only with your help that I can continue
writing such programs.
Thank You
This disk contains both French and English versions of Fontasm, the French
version is in the file "FONTASM.F.SYS16".
Introduction.
The FONTASM program for Apple IIGS is the perfect complement for a GS specific
word processing program. It allows you to edit, customize and create standard
font files which are used in all GS desktop programs and word processors, and it
offers a smart cut/paste feature for character managing within a font. Its only
limitations are your computer's memory and the size of the character which must
not exceed a 128 * 128 dot matrix size. You will boost your word processor to its
limits and achieve better printing quality with ImageWriter printers because it
will correct all your fonts (and they need it).
Its unique auxiliary font feature permits you to create mixed fonts which contain
characters from a font and others from another font.
As a bonus, it also gives you the ability to easily print your complete
collection of GS fonts, to repair damaged fonts. It will also help you converting
Macintosh fonts into the GS font file format.
Chapter 1.
About fonts.
1.1 The font files.
Fonts are ProDOS files (file type $C8) which have the Font icon when you are in
the Finder. Each font file normally contains a complete character set, which
includes normal ASCII characters, special Macintosh-style characters and
international characters. It may however contain some logos or icons. The font
file format has been defined by Apple Computer so it is now a standard on Apple
IIGS. Nearly all GS desktop programs (especially word processors) use this file
format, either by accessing them directly or by using the Font Manager (TOOL027).
This avoids chaos of font standards as it appeared on the original Apple II. In
order to use these fonts in any Apple IIGS program you must put all the fonts you
will need in the SYSTEM/FONTS folder of your boot volume. Then reboot so that the
Font Manager recognizes them. However this does not apply to FONTASM which can
use any font file in any folder, since it does not rely on the Font Manager to
load fonts. The GS font format is not very different from the Macintosh font
format so it is quite easy to convert Macintosh's fonts to GS' fonts (see section
9.4).
1.2 Terminology.
Fonts are divided into several categories which are called Families. A font
family contains all fonts whose characters have the same type of drawing. For
example : Helvetica, Times, Script, ... are font families. Each font family has a
generic number which is unique and specific to this family, it is called the
family number. For example the Helvetica family has the family number 21 and
Shaston -2. Different fonts of a same family must have the same family number and
exactly the same family name (each space, capital or small letter and symbol
counts). You must not use fonts which have same family number but different
family names or vice-versa, otherwise you may cause big troubles to the Font
Manager. In a given family, fonts may have different sizes which represents the
size of the characters they contain. Font size is an integer number given in
typographic Points. A Point is about 1/72 inch. However the font size is a
theoretical size that you, and the font designer, arbitrarily decide. It may not
reflect the true size of the characters. So characters of given family with a
size of 9 may be bigger than other characters of another family with a size of
12.
Warning : You must always keep a font family coherent. Different fonts of a given
family must have a size that reflects their actual size in front of the other
fonts of this family. For example Helvetica 24 must always be twice as big as
Helvetica 12, and Times 18 must be about 1.5 time as big as Times 12.
A font of a given family and a given size may also have style modifications. It
is an alteration of the characters' drawing such as Bold, Underline, Italic,
Outline, Shadow which are the currently defined style modifications. These style
modifications are cumulative. You should not be too worried with style
modifications since most of the font files are originally Plain, that is without
any style modification. You may apply all modifications later in your program or
in a word processor.
1.3 ImageWriter printing, a bit of Warning.
If you use Apple's ImageWriter* printer or any equivalent dot-matrix printer (not
PostScript laser printers) you should be careful about font sizes. When you ask
for normal quality or draft printing there is no problem. But when you print text
and you choose the superior quality in the print dialog, the Font Manager will
substitute the font you are printing with the font of the same family with a
double size (if a such font exists). It then reduces the font image and prints in
a 144 dots-per-inch resolution instead of a normal 72 dots-per-inch resolution.
This gives a far better printing quality. So you must maintain a very strict
correspondence between a font of a given size and the font with the double size.
You may however have problems during superior quality text printing such as bad
justifying or underlining being cut between words, even if it looks good on the
screen. This happens because the characters' width of the nominal font are not
exactly half the width of the characters' of the double size font. To repair
this, use the 'Adjust a couple of fonts' option in the utility menu (see section
9.3).
Warning : To achieve good text quality printing with a dot matrix printer, always
use the vertical condensed option in the page setup dialog of your program or
word processor. If you keep the normal vertical resolution, the characters will
look too tall on the printer. But if you choose the vertical condensed option,
the printing will be the same quality as the Macintosh printing.
1.4 LaserWriter printing, a bit of warning.
If you use the LaserWriter, LaserWriter Plus, LaserWriter II or any equivalent
PostScript laser printer, you must not modify font files from a font family which
exists in the laser printer as PostScript fonts. When writing characters on the
screen, a word processor uses the font files called bitmap fonts. In the font
files, the characters are drawn using a dot matrix of variable size. So when
using FONTASM, you will change only these dot matrix drawing. This causes no
problem when printing on a dot-matrix printer since it also uses these bitmap
fonts. But a laser printer has its own internal fonts which uses vectorial font
definitions, and give it the ability of drawing these fonts at any size you want.
So if you change the bitmap fonts corresponding to these PostScript fonts, you
will change the characters aspect on the screen but you will absolutely not
change the laser printer's fonts. You will have differences between the screen
and the actual printing.
So please do not modify font families which have a corresponding PostScript
family. These font families and their family numbers follow :
(LaserWriter fonts) - Times* (20). - Helvetica( (21). - Courier (22). - Symbol
(23).
(LaserWriter Plus fonts additive fonts). -New Century Schoolbook* (34). -ITC
Bookman( (14). -ITC Avant Garde( (33). -Helvetica Narrow (15). -Palatino( (16).
-ITC Zapf Chancery( (18). -ITC Zapf Dingbats( (13).
Chapter 2.
A quick start-up.
2.1 Using the finder.
Just boot the 3.5" disk containing Fontasm and the Finder should come up. If the
Fonts folder is not open, i.e. if you don't see any window with the 'Fonts'
title, open the 'Fontasm' disk (double-click on the item you want to open it when
you are in the Finder), open the 'System' folder, then open the 'Fonts' folder.
You should now see a window with the 'Fonts' title, containing several file with
the font icon, they are the font files.
2.2 Font editing.
Open a font file (by double-clicking on it) and it will automatically launch
Fontasm. Wait a few seconds while Fontasm is loading. You should see a welcoming
window, and then the blue desktop appears with a menu bar on top of it. Don't do
anything, you will notice that the disk drive is still working because FONTASM
loads the font you have opened. A window appears asks you to wait for a few
seconds. A blue bar is growing rightward in the middle of the window.
When the blue bar reaches the right edge of the rectangle it grows in, the window
disappears and another window comes up showing you three lines of height columns.
You are now into the selection window without doing anything, see how it is easy
to use. You can use the vertical scroll bar at the right edge of the selection
window to make the character you want to edit appear. The plain green rectangles
mean that the corresponding character is currently undefined in the font you are
working with (see next chapter for more details). When you have found your
character, just double-click on it and you will come in the character window.
The big left window is the window you draw in, the 'reduced view' window shows
you a reduced view of the character you are currently drawing, the 'clipboard'
window is only used during cut/paste operations. You can draw or modify the
character by simply clicking in the character's rectangle to draw a dot, or
maintaining the button pressed and moving the mouse to draw freehand lines or
whatever drawing you want. Release the mouse button when you have finished. You
can draw other points or lines by repeating this sequence. If you have made a
mistake, you can come back to the character preceding your last drawing operation
by selecting the 'Undo' option in the 'Edit' menu.
When the character is finished or when you want to abort editing, just click into
the window's close box. You will be asked if you want to save back the character
before leaving. Answer Yes or No by clicking in the corresponding button, or
click in 'Cancel' if you want to go back to the editing. If you leave the editing
you will come back to the selection window. You can edit other characters as you
like, or view the entire font at once by selecting the 'Display font' option in
the 'Font' menu. To save the font, use the 'Save' or 'Save as' option in the
'File' menu. 'Save' will save the font back to the file you have opened. 'Save
as' gives you the ability to save it in another file or on another disk. To edit
other fonts use the 'Close font' option of the 'File' menu, then the 'Open'
option in the same menu and select the other font you wish to edit. To go back to
the Finder select the 'Quit' option in the 'File' menu.
2.3 Font viewing.
When you are in the Finder click on a font file, it appears highlighted, and
choose the 'Print' option in the 'File' menu. It automatically launches Fontasm.
Wait a few seconds while Fontasm is loading. You should see a welcoming window,
and the blue desktop appears with a menu bar on top of it. Then Fontasm loads the
font you have selected and displays it in a window. It is ready to be printed.
The print command will print what you see in this window. Before printing select
your printer with the 'Choose printer' item of the 'File' menu. Then select the
'Page setup' item in the same menu and choose the 'Vertical condensed.' option in
the page setup dialog. You can also select the 50% reduction mode if you like.
Finally select the 'Print' command in the same 'File' menu. You don't need to
select color printing. Whatever printing quality you choose, Fontasm will replace
it by the draft mode printing which gives best performance when using an
ImageWriter II dot-matrix printer ; this does not apply to laser printers. After
clicking in the 'OK' button, another windows appears asking you if you want
double-width printing. Select double-width printing if you have chosen the 50%
reduction mode in the page setup dialog, otherwise you should not select it. Turn
your printer on, make sure it is connected to your computer, and click in the
'OK' button to make the printing start. To view or print another font, click in
the close box of the font window, choose the 'Display font' command in the
'Utilities' menu and select it. To go back to the Finder select the 'Quit' option
in the 'File' menu.
Chapter 3.
Getting started.
3.1 The program.
Fontasm is a standard ProDOS 16 (or GS/OS) application of about 80 kilobytes. It
is not copy protected and it can be installed on 800K floppy disks as well as on
hard disk drives. To install it on a hard disk drive, copy the 'FONTASM.SYS16'
and 'FONTASM.BOOST' files which contains the program from your original disk to
your hard disk drive.
N.B. : It is very important that these two files are in the same folders
If you use the finder you may also copy the 'ICON.FONTASM' file located in the
ICONS folder of the Fontasm disk, into the ICONS folder of your hard drive. This
file contains Fontasm's icon and it will allow you to launch Fontasm by simply
opening a font file. You may use Apple's Icon Editor to customize this
auto-launching facility.
Note : when, in this document, I refer to word processors, I mean GS specific
word processors which use the standard tools for screen displaying and printing.
It does not apply to word processors which work on Apple II computers other than
GS (e.g. AppleWorks GS, GraphicWriter II, MultiScribe GS, Medley,...).
3.2 System version.
You must use at least ProDOS 1.5 or later and its associated tools and drivers
that you will find on the System Disk 3.1 or later (don't use prototype
versions). I recommend you GS/OS which is Apple's future operating system and
which is faster then ProDOS 16. If you have booted with old tools, an alert
window will appear when launching Fontasm, asking you to boot with the correct
system version.
3.3 Always work on copies.
Fontasm is not copy-protected so the first thing you must do before using it is
to copy the disk, with the Finder or whatever disk utility you want. Then put the
copy in a safe place. Before using Fontasm, make also copies of all the fonts you
plan to modify or repair. This avoids accidents, and when a font is modified on
disk, you cannot go back to the earlier unmodified font.
3.4 Error handling.
Whenever an error occurs, Fontasm displays an alert window signaling you this
error. Disk errors such as 'Disk protected' errors, Tool errors such as 'No
memory left', or Fontasm specific errors (see Appendix B) such as 'Font too
large' are all displayed. Click in the 'OK' button or press "Return" when you
have read the error message. There are two error levels.
- When the first line of the alert window is 'Error' or 'ProDOS error', this
means that the current operation has been aborted and cannot be completed.
- When you just see the 'Warning' message, Fontasm warns you that something
unnormal happened, but it could correct it and the current operation can be
completed.
3.5 The auxiliary font.
Fontasm offers you a convenient feature of copying the current font into an
auxiliary font (see section 6.7). This auxiliary font will not be erased until
you explicitly ask it or you quit Fontasm, even if you close the current font and
load another. Then with any other font, you will have the possibility to recall
characters individually from the auxiliary font and to copy them into the current
font (see section 7.4.5.4). This is useful when you want to create a mixed font
containing characters from a given font, and other characters from another font.
3.6 The non-breaking space.
Every font must contain the normal space character (ASCII code = 32), and should
contain the non-breaking space (ASCII code = 202) -which is not always the case-.
The non-breaking space looks like the normal space but if it is placed between
two words, a word processor will never cut these two words. It is very useful to
write, for example, APPLE II without having the word Apple at the end of a line
and the II at the beginning of the next line. Whenever Fontasm detects that in a
font the normal space or the non-breaking space are undefined, it opens a dialog
window asking you to enter the new spaces' width. This is equivalent to the
'Spaces...' command of the 'Special' menu.
3.7 Undefined characters.
Fontasm permits you to edit all the 255 characters which can be defined in a font
file. But most fonts contain undefined characters. They appear as plain green
rectangles in the character selection window. The number of undefined characters
may vary from fonts to fonts. When programs try to draw undefined characters,
they are replaced by the undefined replacement character. This replacement
character is located at the first position in the character selection window, the
equivalent of the Null character (ASCII code = 0), and it is named 'Undef'.
3.8 Menus.
Fontasm's menu bar offers you several menus which are described in details in the
following chapters. All menus are specific to Fontasm except the 'Edit' menu
which can also be used with new desk accessories (NDA), and the Apple menu. The
Apple menu contains the 'About Fontasm...' option which opens a dialog window
showing you the current Fontasm version and the copyright notices. The two
following options '640 x 200' and '320 x 200' can only be used when displaying
fonts (see section 9.1).
3.9 Font's height.
All characters of a given font have the same height (in pixels), even if they are
not drawn using this whole height. There may be some blank areas on top or bottom
of any character. Thus when using fonts in a word processor, all characters of a
given font will occupy the same vertical distance, CAPITALS as well as small
letters or symbols. The height of a font is a constant that you may only change
using the 'Change height' command in the 'Font' menu. The maximum height is 128
(it is also the height of the maximum character matrix size), and the minimum is
2.
Chapter 4.
The 'File' menu.
This menu is always accessible in Fontasm and contains all the file handling and
printing.
4.1 'Open...'
This option lets you select and load the font file you want to edit. The standard
file selection window appears, asking you to select a font file. You may select
it from any disk and any folder you want, not only from the SYSTEM/FONTS folder.
When you have found the font you want, double-click on it or click on it and
click in the 'OK' button. It is loaded into memory. A window announces you that
Fontasm is working, and the horizontal blue growing bar shows where the process
is. When the blue bar reaches the right side of the rectangle it grows in, this
window disappears and the character selection window appears (see section 6.3 to
select a character).
4.2 'Close font'
Choose this option when you want to stop editing a font or when you want to edit
another. This option can only be chosen when there is a font in memory. If you
have modified a font but not saved it, a dialog window appears asking you if want
to save it. Click in the 'Yes' button or press the "Return" key to approve. Click
in the 'No' button to abandon all the editing you have done on it (Warning :
Fontasm will not be unable to undo). Click in the 'Cancel' button if you do not
want to close the font.
4.3 'Save'
Use this command to save back to disk the font currently being edited. It will
save it back to the file Fontasm has read it from, so it will overwrite the
original file. If you want to save it on another disk or into another file select
the 'Save as...' option (see next section). Fontasm may automatically recode the
font before saving it, but you must not be worried about that.
4.4 'Save as...'
This command works like the 'Save' command, except it opens the standard file
saving dialog to ask you where to save the font. Click in the 'SAVE' button to
save the font, or in the 'Cancel' button to cancel saving.
4.5 'Choose printer...'
This option displays the standard printer selection window, asking what printer
and what port you want to use, whether to use AppleTalk or not, and your user's
name (needed by AppleTalk). Always select this command before the first printing
operation to make sure Fontasm knows to which printer you are connected and which
port you use.
4.6 'Page setup...'
It displays the standard page setup dialog corresponding to the printer you are
using. Always select it before any printing operation to make sure you have
chosen the right page size and the right setup option, depending on which window
you want to print.
4.7 'Print...'
This command displays the standard print dialog corresponding to the printer you
are using. The only windows you can print in Fontasm are the character window
(see chapter 7) and the font displaying window (see section 6.1). See the
corresponding sections for the page setup parameters you must set or not.
4.8 'Quit'
Choose it if you want to quit Fontasm and go back to the Finder or whatever
program that launched Fontasm. If you have modified but not saved the font or a
character, Fontasm will open a dialog window asking you if you want to save it
(Yes) or not (No), or if you want to cancel quitting (Cancel).
Chapter 5.
The 'Edit' menu.
This menu offers the cut/paste, copy, clear and undo features. These options are
only effective with the character selection window (see section 6.3) and the
character window (see chapter 7). In the first case the clipboard is not visible,
but it is visible in the second case. The undo and the add options are only
available with the character window. Fontasm currently uses only private
clipboards and cannot therefore exchange clipboards with other applications.
5.1 'Undo'
When drawing a character, this option undoes the last drawing operation, that
means that Fontasm redraws the character like it was just before the last drawing
operation.
5.2 'Cut'
This option copies the current character to the clipboard, and clears it.
5.3 'Copy'
This option only copies the current character to the clipboard, leaving it
unchanged.
5.4 'Paste'
This option gets the character currently in the clipboard and copies it to the
current character, overwriting the old one.
5.5 'Clear'
This option clears the current character. This option is also accessible by
pressing Open-Apple-delete.
5.6 'Add'
The Add option is only available during character drawing. It works like Paste,
except it does a logical Or between the current character and the clipboard,
copying the resulting character into the current character. This means that a
pixel will be black if the same pixel in the current character or in the
clipboard is black ; it is white otherwise.
5.7 New desk accessories.
New desk accessories are available in the Apple menu. They may also use all items
of the 'Edit' menu which are public, except the 'Add' command which is private to
Fontasm. This is why this menu is always left active.
Chapter 6.
The 'Font' menu.
This menu contains all font handling operations. Items of this menu can be
selected only if there is a font currently in memory.
6.1 'Display font...'
This option opens a window showing the coded font currently in memory. The first
line tells you the font's family name, size and family number. The following
lines display all the defined characters of the font (as they will appear in you
word processor), except the spaces characters and blank characters. The
last-displayed character is the undefined replacement character if it exists.
You can print this window to keep track of your collection of fonts for example.
To do this simply choose the 'Print' item in the 'File' menu. But before any
printing make sure you have chosen the right printer and printing port in the
'Choose printer' option in the 'File' menu. Then select the 'Page setup' item in
the same menu. Select the right page size. You must choose the Vertical Condensed
option in order to have good looking characters on the printer. This also applies
to word processors when printing with the ImageWriter and the LaserWriter. You
may or not choose the 50% reduction option.
Finally choose the 'Print...' item in the same menu. Select the number of copies
you wish, and select 'All' in the page range item. You do not need to choose
color printing on ImageWriter II. If you are using an ImageWriter printer or any
equivalent dot-matrix printer, always choose the draft quality mode when printing
this window. If you select another mode, Fontasm will replace it with the draft
quality. After the standard print dialog, Fontasm displays another dialog asking
you whether you want or not double-width printing. This option will print twice
as much characters on each line than normal printing. You may choose this mode
only if you have selected 50% reduction mode in the page setup dialog. It permits
you, when in this mode, to print on the full carriage width and not only half.
Make sure your printer is on and connected, then click in the 'OK' button or
press "Return" to start printingJ; or click in 'Cancel' to cancel printing.
Note : make sure you have enough memory free before any printing. Normal width
printing requires 64K, and double width printing needs 128K.
Note for ImageWriter users : when you choose the 50% reduction mode in the page
setup menu, the printed characters will have the same resolution and the same
aspect as they would be printed by a word processor in superior quality mode. If
you do not choose it, they will look as if printed in normal quality mode.
6.2 'Test font...'
This option opens a dialog window with a editing line, and the viewing rectangle
beneath it. You may type any sentence you wish in the editing line, it will be
immediately drawn in the viewing rectangle using the coded font in currently
memory.
Note : You can only enter characters which are defined in the current font. If
you type a character and nothing happens, that means that this character is
undefined in the font currently in memory.
6.3 Editing a character.
This command opens the character selection window if it is not currently visible.
This window allows you to select a character and to enter the character window
(see chapter 7). The selection window shows you 24 characters at a time (3 lines
and 8 columns). The large squares contain the current character drawing of the
font, and the horizontal rectangles on their tops tell which character it is and
what is its ASCII code. When you open it for the first time it shows the capital
letters (ASCII codes from 64 to 87). You may see other characters by using the
vertical scroll bar at the right edge of the window. Click in the arrow boxes to
scroll one line at a time, click in the page scrolling areas (the grey surfaces
on top and bottom of the white rectangle -the thumb- indicating where you
presently are) to scroll three lines at a time, or directly click in the thumb
and put it where you want, maintaining the mouse's button pressed.
When you click on a character it appears highlighted. At that moment you can make
cut/paste operations on this character for characters moving/copying/deleting
(see chapter 5). When a character appears highlighted press the "Return" key to
edit it, or simply double-click in the character you want to edit. You will come
up in the character window (see chapter 7).
6.4 'Modify parameters...'
This item opens a dialog windows letting you edit the font's parameters. Click in
the 'OK' button or press "Return" to confirm, 'Cancel' to cancel modifications.
6.4.1 Name.
This is the font's family name. You can enter any name you want up to 25
characters.
Note : all the fonts of a given family must have the same family number and
exactly the same family name ; every character, capital or small letters, spaces
and symbols count.
6.4.2 Size.
This is the font's size in typographic points. It is a theoretical size and you
may enter whatever value you want between 2 and 99.
Note : most word processors do not handle fonts with sizes higher than 32 or 48.
So you can change their size (it is only the typographic size that it will
change, not the characters' actual drawing) to use them in your favorite word
processor.
Warning : you must keep coherent sizes within a family. That means that if change
the size of a font, you must also change the size of all other fonts in its
family, in order to keep constant ratios between the different sizes. For example
if you have Calligraphy fonts with size of 24, 36, 48 and 72, you may change the
sizes to 12, 18, 24, 36. Beware of keeping the one-to-two ratios of couple of
fonts when you print on ImageWriter dot-matrix printer. This means that if you
have Venice 14 and 28, you may change them to sizes of 12 and 24, or 9 and 18,
and always keep the one-to-two ratio.
6.4.3 Family.
This is the family number of the font. You may enter any value between -32768 and
32767, except 0, -1 which are reserved for the system's use. Don't also use the
font family number -2 which is reserved for the Shaston system font. Some family
numbers are also reserved for font families and you must not modify these
especially when you are using a laser printer (see section 1.4 for a
non-exhaustive table).
Warning : fonts with the same family name must also have the same family number.
Otherwise you may cause troubles to the Font Manager.
6.4.4 Style.
This is the style in which the font was designed. In most cases this will be 0
which means no special style. You must enter a four-digits hexadecimal number.
The currently defined values are :
- $0001 : bold. - $0002 : italic. - $0004 : underline. - $0008 : outline. - $0010
: shadow.
Other styles may be defined latter in the Font Manager. These values are
cumulative if a font has several style modifications. This feature allows you to
create pre-styled font. You can create for example pre-italicized fonts. Then if
you ask italic text drawing, the font manager will not italicize the normal font
but will directly use the pre-italicized font. This also avoids that a
pre-italicized font from being italicized a second time. However the Font Manager
has no way to de-style a pre-styled font. So you must always keep the not-styled
font. This can be an interesting feature but you normally do not need to use it.
It is most of the case preferable to let the Font Manager do the style
modifications by itself.
6.4.5 Type.
This field normally contains the font's type, but is currently ignored by
QuickDraw II and the Font Manager. However we provide the possibility of changing
this field if this situation may change in the future.
6.4.6 Height.
This field shows the current font's height but can not be modified in this dialog
window. If you want to change the font's height, select the 'Change height...'
command in the 'Font' menu.
6.4.7 Ascent and Descent.
A font has a constant height, this means that all characters in the font have the
same height. The font has also a base line (see section 7.4.1) which is located
at the same location in all characters of a font. This base line is the line
where you normally write. Capitals letters are generally situated above the base
line but small letters such as 'g' or 'j' may descend underneath. The base line
also tells to the Font Manager where to underline (it underline one pixel under
the base line). The Ascent and Descent fields let you change the base line's
location. Ascent is the distance in pixels between the base line and the font's
top, Descent is the distance between the base line and the font's bottom. It
should be noted than we always have Ascent + Descent = Font's Height. So whenever
you change any of these two fields, Fontasm automatically changes the other so
that this rule is satisfied. You may enter in these two fields any integer value
between 0 and the current font's height.
6.4.8 Leading.
This is the vertical space in pixels between two lines. You may enter any integer
value between 0 and 128.
Note : this is only a consultative information. A word processor may use it or
not.
6.5 'Change height'.
A dialog window appears showing you in the editing line the current font's height
and asking you to type the new height. Click in the 'OK' button to proceed and in
the 'Cancel' button to keep the current height. The character selection window
then appears. The maximum size is the height of the maximum character's matrix
size, that means 128, and the minimum is 2. If you select a new height that is
bigger than the old height, all the characters will have extra space under them.
If the new height is smaller, the low part of all characters will be truncated.
Always make sure that you have enough memory left when selecting a huge height
(at least 100K memory free is a good value).
6.6 :'Double font'
This option double the font's size, height and the drawing of each character. The
old characters' pixels now have a 2*2 size. This option may be useful when you
are using an ImageWriter-like dot-matrix printer. The Font Manager replaces the
current font with a double-sized font when printing in superior quality. So for a
given font, if the double-sized font does not exist, this option will create it.
You can then polish this new font, redraw certain characters and remove the
stairs-looking lines. With this option and a bit of hand work, you will achieve a
far better printing quality than using only normal-sized fonts.
6.7 'Copy into auxiliary font'.
This command copies the current font into the auxiliary font (see section 3.5). A
window appears signaling you that the copying is in progress, and a growing bar
shows at what point the process is. The auxiliary font can be used within the
character window. This command can only be selected if there is a font currently
in memory and if the auxiliary font is empty. The auxiliary font will not be
erased if you close the current font and load another. The only way to clear it
(to free some memory) is to quit Fontasm or to select the next Command.
6.8 'Clear auxiliary font'.
This command clears the auxiliary font and frees the memory it used. It can be
selected only if the auxiliary font is not empty.
6.9 'Fill with auxiliary font'.
This command replaces all the undefined character with the corresponding
character in the auxiliary font, if there is one.
Chapter 7.
The character window.
7.1 The windows.
When the character window appears, the character selection window disappears.
Three different windows are visible, the actual editing window and two other
small windows.
7.2 The reduced size window.
This window offers a reduced view of the character being edited. This character
looks bigger than the characters displayed in the selection window (horizontally
twice as large) because it is not the character as it is drawn by a word
processor on the screen, but it is the aspect of the character which will
actually be printed. This is more convenient since fonts are essentially created
to be printed and not to be exclusively drawn on a screen. This window can be
moved anywhere on the screen.
7.3 The clipboard window.
This window shows the current clipboard and is used by commands of the 'Edit'
menu. This window may be moved anywhere on the screen. The Add command is useful
if you are sending letters to foreign countries and you need characters with
accents. You can draw an accent in the drawing window and copy it into the
clipboard. Then edit a letter you want to put the accent on, use the Add command
to add the accent saved in the clipboard, and save the letter back to the font.
You can repeat this last sequence with all letters you want to add the accent to.
7.4 The editing window.
This is the big square window in the left part of your screen. Its title shows
the current character being edited and its ASCII code. This window can be moved
anywhere on the screen by clicking in the title bar and moving the mouse ; it can
be resized by clicking in the grow box. Use the horizontal and vertical scroll
bars to view the part of the character you want to see.
7.4.1 The drawing area.
The character's image appears in a gray rectangle which is the drawing area. Its
height is the font's height since all characters in a font have the same height.
Its width is the size of the maximum matrix size, i.e. 128.
The horizontal green line with arrows on its left and right edges is the base
line. This line must touch the base of capital letters. Some characters such as
'j' or 'g' may however descend under this line. You can modify the position of
this line by using the 'Modify parameters' option in the 'Font' menu (see section
6.4). The base line will be in the same position for all characters of the font.
The vertical green line with arrows on its up and down edges is the character's
origin line. The intersection of this line and the base line gives the
character's origin. When a character is drawn, it is placed in a location where
its origin coincides with the current pen location. Therefore the origin can be
on the left, the right or between the character's pixels, and the character may
extend on the preceding or the next character's pixels when drawn by a word
processor. The vertical dark blue line with "T" on its up and down edges is the
character's end line. The intersection of this line and the base line is the next
character's origin. The character's width is the difference between the end line
location and the origin line location in pixels, that is the distance between
these two lines. The width represents the pen's displacement when a character is
drawn. The width is always a positive integer value. To modify the location of
these two lines, use the 'Change dimensions' option in the 'Misc' menu of the
editing window.
7.4.2 How to draw.
To draw in the drawing area, put the arrow on the pixel you want to change and
click on it. Its color will immediately change, and the modification will also be
visible in the Reduced View window. If you maintain the mouse's button pressed,
you can continue drawing other pixels with the same color by moving the mouse.
Release the button to stop drawing. You can draw plain rectangles. Press the
Apple key and maintain it pressed. Then click on the first rectangle's corner and
maintain the mouse's button pressed. Move the mouse to the rectangle's opposite
corner, the frame of the rectangle will be shown to help you. Release the button.
The rectangle you have defined is filled with the opposite color of its first
corner (i.e. the pixel you have first clicked in). If you have not released the
mouse's button and you want to cancel the rectangle filling operation, move the
mouse outside the editing window, the rectangle's frame will disappear, then
release the button. To draw more easily you can turn the grid on by selecting the
grid item in the 'Misc' menu of the character window. All drawing operations are
always shown in the Reduced View window. If you make a mistake, choose the 'Undo'
item in the 'Edit' menu to cancel the last drawing operation (see section 5.1).
7.4.3 Printing the character.
The 'Print' command in the 'File' menu will print the whole content of the
editing window (not only its visible part on the screen). Before printing make
sure you have chosen the right printer (see section 4.5). Go to the page setup
dialog (see section 4.6). Select your paper's size and the normal vertical
sizing. It is preferable to select the 50% reduction mode but not necessary.
Select the 'Print' command and the print dialog appears. Select the number of
copies and choose 'All' in the paper range section. It is not necessary to select
color printing. For ImageWriter users choose the printing quality but never
choose the draft mode. If you choose draft printing, Fontasm will automatically
replace it with normal quality printing. Make sure your printer is on and
connected. Click in the 'OK' button or press "Return" to start printing.
7.4.4 The menus.
The editing window has its own menus, and the menu bar is situated just below the
title bar. Use these menus like normal menus. However the normal system menu bar
is still active.
7.4.5 The 'Char' menu.
This menu contains all the character saving and retrieving options.
7.4.5.1 'Close editing'.
This item is equivalent to clicking in the close box of the editing window. If
you have modified the character and not saved it, a dialog appears and asks you
if you want to save it back to the font (Yes), to keep the original character
(No) or to cancel closing (Cancel). The editing window, the reduced view window
and the clipboard window are closed and selection window appears again.
7.4.5.2 'Save character and continue'.
This option saves the character back to the font.
7.4.5.3 'Save character and close'.
This option saves the character back to the font and quits the character edition.
The editing window, the reduced size window and the clipboard window are closed
and the selection window appears again.
7.4.5.4 'Get a character from auxiliary font'.
This command opens a dialog window asking you which character you want to get
from the auxiliary font (see section 3.5). You can either enter the character
directly or enter its ASCII code. Click in the 'OK' button and the corresponding
character of the auxiliary font will replace the current character. This command
can only be selected if the auxiliary font is not empty.
7.4.6 The 'Misc' menu.
7.4.6.1 'Change dimensions'.
This command opens a dialog showing you the current origin line's and end line's
locations, and asking you for their new locations. The locations must be between
0 and 128. The end line's location cannot be lower than the origin's line
location.
Note : the character's width is the difference between the end line's location
and the origin line's location. Click in the 'OK' button or press "Return" to
confirm the new locations.
7.4.6.2 'Grid'.
This option turns on or off the drawing grid which can help you drawing
characters.
7.4.6.3 'Previous character'.
This option saves the current character and brings the preceding character in the
ASCII table.
7.4.6.4 'Next character'.
This command saves the current character and brings the following character in
the ASCII table.
7.4.7 The 'Special' menu.
This menu handles all the character shifting and doubling operations.
7.4.7.1 The 'Shift ...' commands.
These four commands lets you shift the character image upward, downward,
rightward and leftward by one pixel or more if you select more.
7.4.7.2 'Repeat...'.
This option opens a dialog asking you to enter how many times you want to repeat
the next shifting operation. You can enter any value between 1 and 127. Click in
the 'OK' button or press the "Return" key to confirm. The next shifting operation
you will use will be repeated. This is convenient if you want to shift a
character 10 times to the right without selecting 10 times the 'Shift right'
command. Only the next shifting will be repeated, further shifting will be normal
(i.e. one pixel).
7.4.3 'Double horizontally'.
This command doubles horizontally every character's pixels.
7.4.4 'Double vertically'.
This command doubles vertically every character's pixels.
Note : if you want to double the size of a character, select successively the two
double options.
Chapter 8.
The 'Special' menu.
This menu contains font modification operations and is only accessible if there
is a font currently in memory. These modifications will never modify undefined
characters (see section 3.7).
8.1 'Shift ...' operations.
The 'Shift right' and 'Shift left' operations open a dialog window asking you how
many pixels you want to shift the font. The default value is one. You can enter
any value between 1 and 127. Click in the 'OK' button or press "Return" to
confirm. Fontasm will then shift every character in the font except undefined
ones.
8.2 'Shift margins...'.
This command allows you to shift each character's origin and end. The dialog
window asks you how many pixels you want to shift those two values. These values
are not absolute values but offsets, they are values to be added to the origin
and the end of every character. You may enter any value between -128 and 128.
Note : you change a character's width by changing its end. That means that the
offset given for the character's end directly modifies its width. You may use
this command to make fonts look extended or condensed. However a width cannot be
negative, so Fontasm will replace any negative value by zero.
8.3 'Non-proportional font...'
This option creates fixed-width fonts. Type the new characters' width in the
dialog window. Click in the 'OK' button or press the "Return" key to confirm.
Fontasm will give the entered width to all defined characters in the font and
thus create a non-proportional font. Non-proportional fonts are useful when
printing program listings or documents containing arrays.
8.4 'Double horizontally'.
This option doubles the widths and the pictures of all defined characters in the
font. A window shows you where the doubling process is. Horizontal doubling make
the characters much more readable on the screen, and they have the same aspect as
the characters being actually printed with the unmodified font, but they produce
poor printing quality.
8.5 'Spaces...'.
This command opens a dialog window letting you directly and quickly modify the
normal and non-breaking spaces' width. Click in the 'OK' button to confirm. This
dialog window can also appear when Fontasm detects that the spaces are undefined.
If this happens, this window is preceded by a warning alert window saying 'Spaces
are undefined.'
Chapter 9.
The 'Utilities' menu.
This menu is available only when there is no font currently in memory.
9.1 'Display font'
This is the same command as the 'Display font...' in the 'Font' menu, except that
you do not need to have a font currently loaded in memory. Fontasm asks you to
select the font through the standard file selection window. While your are
viewing a font, you may change to 320*200 mode by selecting the '320 x 200' item
in the Apple menu. To go back to 640*200 mode select the '640 x 200' item in the
same menu. The 320*200 mode makes characters much more readable and you can see
characters' details you would not in 640*200 mode. The mode switching has no
influence on printing. The Display command is to be used for fast viewing and/or
fast printing of your entire collection of fonts.
9.2 'Modify parameters'
This is the same command as 'Modify parameters' in the 'Font' menu, except you do
not need to have the font currently in memory. It asks you for the font you want
to modify (see section 6.4 for details). Click in the 'Save' button or press
"Return" to save the modified font back to disk, or in the 'Cancel' button to
cancel modifications.
9.3 'Adjust a couple of fonts'.
When your are printing on an ImageWriter or any equivalent dot-matrix printer in
the superior quality mode, the Font Manager replaces the current font with a
double-sized font and prints it in a 144 dots-per-inch resolution. However
problems like bad justifying or underlining line cuts can appear in superior
quality although normal quality printing works fine. This happens when the
characters' width of the normal font are not exactly half the width of characters
in the double-sized font. To repair this use this command.
Fontasm first asks you the double-sized font (size 2x), then the normal-sized
font. You must give two fonts belonging to the same font family otherwise Fontasm
will return you an error. Fontasm displays the number of modifications it makes
on each font and asks you to successively save back to disk the corrected
double-sized font and the corrected normal-sized font. If you want to abort this
operation click in the 'Cancel' button.
Note : if you want to adjust two couples that overlap, for example Calligraphy
12, 24 and 48, always go in the descending order. This means that you must first
adjust fonts with sizes 48 and 24, and the 24 and 12.
9.4 'Convert font : Macintosh -> GS'
This option will help you converting Macintosh fonts to GS fonts, but you will
need a Macintosh computer. You also need the Font Munger and Passport (renamed as
Apple File Exchange) programs for Macintosh (available at APDA). These programs
work on Macintosh computers, not on GS. Use Font Munger to change formats of all
fonts you want to convert (select the 'Font Manager Format' and 'Create Cortland
Binary Font' options in the File menu). Convert the resulting files into GS
ProDOS file format using Passport.
The resulting ProDOS files are still not compatible with the Font Manager (they
have the file type $E1 and the first 512 bytes must be taken out). At this moment
select the conversion command, and it will do the two last conversions. After
selecting the Passport-ed files, Fontasm displays a window showing the font name
and its size. It then asks you into which file you want to save the converted
-Font Manager compatible- font.
Appendix A.
Keyboard equivalents to menu items.
Main menu : ("a" stands for Open-Apple)
a ? - Displays the about window. a > - Selects the 640*200 display mode (see
9.1). a < - Selects the 320*200 display mode (see 9.1). a C - Copies the current
character into the clipboard (see 5.2). a D - Displays the font currently in
memory (see 6.1) or a font you choose (see 9.1). a E - Displays the character
selection window (see 6.3). a G - Helps converting Macintosh fonts to GS fonts
(see 9.4). a K - Closes the font currently in memory (see 4.2). a M - Modify
parameters of the font in memory (see 6.4) or of a font you choose (see 9.2). a O
- Opens a font file (see 4.1). a P - Prints the front window if it is printable
(see 4.7). a Q - Quits Fontasm (see 4.8). a S - Saves the font currently in
memory (see 4.3). a T - Lets you test the font in memory (see 6.2). a V - Pastes
the clipboard on the current character (see 5.4). a X - Cuts the current
character (see 5.2). a Z - Undoes the last drawing operation (see 5.1). a Delete
- Clears the clipboard (see 5.5).
The character drawing window's menu. a D - Shifts character down (see 7.4.7.1). a
K - Closes the current character's editing (see 7.4.5.1). a L - Shifts character
left (see 7.4.7.1). a R - Shifts character right (see 7.4.7.1). a S - Saves the
character back to the font (see 7.4.5.2). a U - Shifts character up (see
7.4.7.1).
Press a . (open-apple period) during printing to abort printing.
Appendix B. Fontasm's specific error messages.
BitMap too big - the characters' drawings use too much memory, you must delete
some characters.
Different family - the 2x-sized font has not the same family number as the
x-sized font.
Different font name - the 2x-sized font has not the same font name as the x-sized
font.
Empty font - the current font is empty.
Font too big - the font in memory is too big (greater than 64K), please delete
characters.
Font > 32Kb - this is just a warning ! It tells you the current font is greater
than 32K. The Font Manager will not be able to scale such a font. Please refer to
Apple IIGS Technical Note #15 for more details.
Height too big - the height must be between 2 and 128, the loading process is
aborted.
Incorrect family number - the loaded font has an incorrect font family number,
the loading process is aborted.
It's not half size - the x-sized font is not half as big as the 2x-sized font.
Memory low - the total memory free is below 100K. Please quit Fontasm, it may
crash.
No character is defined - there is not a single defined character in the font.
No window to print - there is no window currently open, and thus no window to
print.
Spaces are undefined - the normal space or the non-breaking space are undefined.
This window cannot be printed - the current active window cannot be printed.
DBytes = 0 - you should never see this error.
Appendix C.
Tricks.
C.1 A better underlining. When you print in superior quality on an ImageWriter or
an equivalent dot-matrix printer (not on laser printers), the underlining line
may seem too close to the character. To avoid this add one to the Descent of the
font which is twice the size the font you selected in your word processor. For
example if you print in Helvetica 12, add one to the Helvetica 24 font's Descent
in order to have good looking underlining lines.
Note : this trick does nothing on laser printers.
Warning : you should normally not modify such parameters, so always keep a copy
of the font you modify and put back the original Descent value if you want to use
the font for a purpose other than printing.