Risc World 3/Risc World 3.iso/SOFTWARE/ISSUE6/FTRIXPRO/!iSVManual/Manual

Text File | 1997-09-01 | 15KB | 376 lines

Manual for FontTrix PRO
FontTrix PRO is a multitasking application
designed to allow quick and easy modification of
existing outline fonts in order to create new
weights. To load FontTrix PRO simply double
click on its icon and it will then load onto the
icon bar. Clicking SELECT on its icon will open
up the main control window. (Clicking Adjust will
open up the editor window - see later).

FontTrix v FontTrix PRO
FontTrix & FontTrix PRO have a very similar user
interface, the difference is in the files they
produce. FontTrix produces transformed fonts
that can be displayed by the font manager.
FontTrix PRO produces “real” fonts that can be
loaded into !FontED or another Font Editor. Fonts
produced by FontTrix PRO can also be used on
machines with Risc OS 2 (providing an OS 2 font
is used as a source).

What is a Transformation?
A transformation of a font means pulling its
shape around. A simple example is extending
it, increasing the X value of each XY pair so
that the letters in the font are longer. Pre-
defined transformation as used by the weight or
family windows are refered to as styles.
For a more detailed explanation see the section
entitled “The Editor Window”.

The Main Control window
This contains a view of the currently select
font as well as four buttons that will each
open up one of the FontTrix PRO font creation
windows. Pressing MENU in this window will
open up a menu from which a new source font
can be selected. IMPORTANT - if the source font
icon is blank then select a font NOW before
continuing with the application.

The Family Window
This can be opened by clicking on the Family button
in the main control window. The Family window
allows you to quickly create up to 26 new weights
from the source font. Each weight can be selected
or deselected by clicking on the appropriate radio
button. The ALL button will turn on all of the weights,
the NONE button will clear all of the weights and the
TOGGLE button will flip the state of each button

Making a new family
Once you are happy with the selection of new weights
that you wish to make simply click on the Make Family
button and FontTrix PRO will automatically make the new
weights for you and save them into the same !Font
directory as the source font. Sometimes the new font
will have a name that is longer than 39 letters and
FontTrix PRO will then ask if you want to shorten the
name or abort the manufacture of the particular weight.

The Weight Window
This can be opened by clicking on the Weight Window
button in the Main Control window. This part of
FontTrix PRO allows you to make over 5000 new weights
from your source font - however not all of these
weights would prove very sensible. The source font
is shown ay the top of the window the new font
name is shown underneath and the style selector
is underneath this.

The Weight Style Selector
As you can see the style selector allows up to 3 new
pre-defined styles to be made in the new weight. At the
moment they are all blank - however if you press MENU
on the first style menu button a style menu will
open showing you the possible styles. If you choose
a style it will be selected and the name will appear
in the relevant style icon. Up to 3 new styles can
be selected in any order you like
eg.) Trinity.Medium.Compressed.SemiScript.Oblique

Show Example
Clicking on this icon will open a window showing
the new weight for your source font. The sample
window displays an anti-aliased sample of your new
font BEFORE you have even made it. The sample will
also update in real time. If you choose a new style
to add to the new weight you are making the sample
window will show the new weight almost instantly.

Making a new weight
Once you are happy with your new weight clicking
on the Make Weight button will make the new weight
for you and save it into the same !Fonts directory
as the source font. If the new name is over 39
letters in length you will be asked if you want the
font made with a truncated (shortened) name. If you
click on Cancel the font will not be made.

Choosing Weights
If you click on the Random Weight button FontTrix PRO
will choose a new weight at random and show it in the
sample window if the sample window is open. New
weights can only have one occurrence of each style.
For example if you try and make the Font
Trinity.Medium.SemiLight.SemiLight.Oblique FontTrix
PRO will remove the second SemiLight from the name.

Editor... button
This button will take the sum of all the current
styles selected, combine them as one and then export
this style to the transformation editor. From
here the style an be changed, or saved to disk for
use later. See the section on the Transformation
Editor for more information.

The Custom Window
The custom window can be opened by clicking on the
Custom Window icon in the Main Control Window. The
custom window is designed to allow you to produce
customized weights for any font you like. As you can
see there are 6 slider bars each of which will adjust
one aspect of you new font.

The Custom Example
Clicking on the Show Example window will open up an
antialiased example of your new font. Any changes to
the fonts characteristics made with the slider bars
will be displayed in this window in real time.
This allows you to fine tune your customized font easily
and quickly before actually making it.

Width & Height
The slider bars can be moved or dragged using the
SELECT button on the mouse.
Width & Height - these two slider bars will alter
the width and height of the letters in your font.
Note that they will NOT alter the character offset
so if you make a font wider the letter spacing
will stay the same and characters may overlap.

Oblique Angle & Vertical Angle
These allow you to alter the angle of the letters
in your new font. A Normal oblique font will have
a an oblique angle of between 10 and 25 degrees.
The vertical angle changes the amount the each
character rises from the baseline along its width.
If you set a negative Oblique angle the font will
slant backwards - this can be used to straighten up
an existing Oblique or italic font.

Tracking
This will alter the letter spacing of your new font.
So if you are extending the width of a font by 120%
you will also want to extend the letter spacing by
the same amount. To see the difference between the
width and tracking settings try dragging both of
the bars with the example window open.

Making a custom font
A custom font can be made simply be setting up the slider
bars as appropriate and then typing in the new name of
the font into the Weight Name Icon and clicking on the
Make Custom Font button. The font will be made with
the name you have supplied. The name must be legal.
Trinity.Medium.Rotated.Example is legal.
Trinity.Medium.Rotated example  is not legal.
All names can only have 11 letters between each full stop
and have to be less then 39 letters in total.

Send to editor
This button will take the current settings from the
custom font designer and export them into the
transformation editor. When you click on this button
the transformtion editor will open with the same
settings as were in the custom designer. See the
next few pages for information on the editor.

The Editor Window
This window allows you to edit any of the styles already
defined in FontTrix PRO or to make new styles up easily.
This operates a little differently to the other Windows.
It allows you to produce transformations that contain
mathematical formulae. In simple terms the editor
provides you with a 6 entry transformation matrix that
can be used to alter a fonts appearance.

How does the editor work
When you first open the editor you will see the current
transformation “(none)”. (a=1 b=0 c=0 d=1 e=0 f=0)
If you make a font with this transformation it will be
an exact copy of your source font. Next to the name
of the transformation is a MENU button. Clicking on
this will open up the same style menu as is shown
in the Weight window. Choose Extended from the menu.
The transformation will now change to
(a=1.3 b=0 c=0 d=1 e=0 f=0).

How does the math work?
In the editor window you can see two equations, these
show you how the transformation works.
X=(X*a)+(Y*c)+e  Y=(X*b)+(Y*d)+f
In the example above choosing Extended from the menu
you can see that each X position in the font will be
multiplied by 1.3 thus making each character longer.
Select the other transformations from the menu in
sequence to see how they work.

Transformations on disk
Supplied with FontTrix PRO are a set of transformations
in a directory called Matrices. These can be loaded
by dragging them to the FontTrix PRO icon on the icon
bar, or by dropping them in any window. The editor
window will automatically open, if it is not already
open. Transformations can be saved by clicking on the
Save Transformation button and dragging the file icon
to an open filer window.

Making your own transformations
You can easily make your own transformations by first
entering a name in the relevant icon (up to 11 chars)
and then entering each definition in the icons on the
editor window. The only variables that can be used
are X & Y but the following math signs can be used
+ - / * =
Also the following commands can be incorporated
ABS DIV INT MOD RND SGN SQR ACS ASN ATN COS
DEG EXP LN  LOG PI  RAD SIN TAN

Warning (RND(x) command)
If you make a transformation with the RND (Random)
command (for example the scrunched matrix supplied
on disk) then it is possible for the font bounding
boxes to become distorted. Any font made using this
command should be loaded into Acorns !FontED
application. Wait until the font is loaded (!FontED
will beep) then save the font back. This will
correct any bounding box errors. Alternatively you
can use the Set BBox to maximum option (see options).

Options
Clicking on the Options icon in the Main Control
Window or in the Transformation Editor window
will open up the options window. This allows
you to set up a couple of FontTrix PRO’s automatic
features easily. It also has options concerned with
scaffolding, kerning and outlines. Clicking on the
Save button will save your options to disk so that
whenever FontTrix PRO is loaded it will be set up
as you want.

ReScan FontPath
This will be on by default - when a new font is made
from any part of FontTrix PRO it will be saved into a font
directory and that directory will be rescanned so that
the new font is available immediately. This option will
ONLY work if you use the Acorn !Font directories.
If you use a FontManager or !MoreFonts from Computer
Concepts then turn this option off BEFORE making
any fonts.

Auto Truncate Font Names
This will tell FontTrix PRO to shorten any new font names
of over 39 Characters automatically without checking
first. If this option is off and you make a font of
over 39 letters then FontTrix PRO will ask you if you
want the font name truncated (shortened) or do not
want to make the font. If this option is set then all
names will be truncated for you without a prompt.

Scaffold Options
Remove scaffold tree will remove any global scaffolds
from with in the font, this can be used to get round
the !FontED - “Cyclic scaffold link” bug.
Remove linear links will remove any linear scaffold
links within a characters scaffolding, it can be used
to repair a font with “Invalid linear links”.

Other Options
Blank kern pairs will leave all kern pairs intact
but will reset their offsets to zero, effectively
removing them.
Attempt to close paths will try and ensure that all
character Outlines start and end at the same XY
coordinates. This is only really needed if you are
producing a random shift of outline XY pairs - eg
the Scrunched matrix supplied on disk.

Set BBox to maximum
This will reset the characters outline Bounding Box
to the largest possible extent - we recommend that
this option is always on when you make a new
weight using the Transformation editor as some
mathematical transformation can cause bbox problems
(see the warning about the RND(x) command).

Leave char widths intact
Some transformations made with the editor can have
undesirable effects on character widths (eg the
Ghostly Matrix supplied on disk). Clicking this
option will tell FontTrix PRO to leave all character
widths as it found them.

Export to FontED
When this option is ticked any font that is produced
will be automatically exported to !FontED when the
font has been finished. This option will obviously
only work if !FontED has been “seen” by the filer
before trying to export the font.

Auto save
This option toggles the way that fonts are saved by
FontTrix PRO. If this option is on then the font
will be automatically saved back into the font folder
in a new directory. If this option is off then when
the font is made a save dialogue box will open which
will allow you to save the Outlines and Intmetrics
of the font out by hand.
Auto save should be off if you are using !FontDIR or
Easyfont, or if you are trying to change the ROM fonts.

Scaffolding
The fonts made by FontTrix PRO will use the hinting from
your source font. However there are some restrictions
to this “Automatic” hinting process. Some scaffold
links will have to be detached in order to make the
font properly. Extended or Condensed fonts will have
the full hinting of the original font, Oblique fonts
will have the X scaffold links disconnected. FontTrix
PRO will try and keep as much hinting as possible from
the source font.

Skeletons
Any skeletons found in the source font will be used
in the new font and will be automatically repositioned
and have scaffold links adjusted in the same way as
the outlines of the font.

Using your new fonts
Any fonts created by FontTrix PRO can be used in
the same way that any other font can be used.
Unlike the fonts made by FontTrix the fonts made
by FontTrix PRO are real fonts and hence can be
used without the source font being present.

FontDIR & EasyFont
These applications provide a sensible front end
and control system for the Acorn font manager.
However they are both READ ONLY filing systems
and as such nothing can be saved back into them.
If you do want to use Font Trix PRO with any
fonts in one of these packages then you have will
have to install them in the normal Acorn !Fonts
folder or ensure that the autosave option in
FontTrix PRO is off (see autosave option).

Legal Note
Some Font manufacturers forbid the dis-assembly
or modification of their fonts. Before using Font
Trix PRO please ensure that you have permission to
use it on the source font. Fonts produced with
FontTrix PRO can be distributed provided such
distribution does not break the licence conditions
of the source font used.

FontTrix PRO is © iSV 1993/1994/1995
If you do discover any problem then please do
report it to us. iSV software can be contacted
at
86 Turnberry
Home Farm
Bracknell
Berks
RG12 8ZH
TEL [phone]