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FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 1 FONTEDIT version 1.0 Copyright 1989 Alexander Walter FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 2 1. Acknowledgments............................................3 2. Miscellany.................................................3 3. Requirements and Limitations...............................3 4. Introduction and Features..................................4 5. Guide to Operation.........................................4 5.1. Basic Screen Layout...................................5 5.2. Main Menu.............................................6 5.2.1. Pixel Edit.......................................6 5.2.1.1. Invert...........................................7 5.2.1.2. Area Operators...................................7 5.2.1.2.1. Polygon Fill & Clear...........................8 5.2.1.2.2. Rectangle Fill & Clear.........................9 5.2.1.2.3. Ellipse Fill & Clear..........................10 5.2.1.2.4. Pixel Edit....................................11 5.2.1.3. Clear Character.................................11 5.2.1.4. Row/Col Ins/Del.................................11 5.2.1.5. Quit & Save.....................................12 5.2.1.6. Toggle Pixel....................................12 5.2.1.7. Quit, no Save...................................12 5.2.2. Magnification..................................13 5.2.3. New Font........................................13 5.2.4. Create New Char.................................13 5.2.5. Delete Character................................14 5.2.6. Quit............................................14 5.3. Notes................................................14 6. Sample Session............................................15 FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 3 1. Acknowledgments FONTEDIT is copyright 1989 by Alexander Walter. All rights reserved. The purchaser is granted the right to make one copy for backup or archival purposes. The run-time file BRUN40.EXE is copyright by Microsoft and is distributed with this package in accordance with the QuickBasic 4.0 licensing agreement. Thanks to Charles Nicol II and Jay Latham for beta-testing and many helpful user-interface suggestions. 2. Miscellany FONTEDIT is available directly from the author for $30. Please send check or money order to: Alexander Walter 182 ILER Dr. Middletown, NJ. 07748 phone support is available at (201) 389-6755 or (201) 671-5080. If you encounter any problems or bugs with FONTEDIT, please report them to the author along with a description of the steps that led up to it. If you have any suggestions for new features, pass them along. 3. Requirements and Limitations FONTEDIT requires a graphics display, CGA or higher. A Hercules graphics display can be used provided you use a CGA emulator on it. Several such emulators are available through shareware or the public domain. FONTEDIT requires approximately 180K of available RAM, i.e., memory not used by DOS or TSRs. FONTEDIT can be run from one floppy disk drive; however, since HP font files can be large, hard disk usage is recommended. The font file being edited with FONTEDIT must be of the HP Laserjet format. This includes Series II and above. Postscript font files are not supported. You cannot change the built-in Courier and TTY fonts of the laser printer. Version 1.0 of FONTEDIT does not yet support changing the character FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 4 spacing for proportionally spaced fonts. Version 1.0 of FONTEDIT cannot create a new font file from scratch - you must edit an already-existing fontfile. However, version 1.0 allows you to add and delete characters from a font file. Purchasers of version 1.0 will be entitled to a free upgrade to the next version of FONTEDIT. 4. Introduction and Features FONTEDIT is a tool to view and edit laser printer soft font files for the Hewlett-Packard laser printer. Such a tool can be used to touch-up existing characters in a file, define special characters in a font file, or create an entirely new fontface. For example, using FONTEDIT you could add Greek characters to a font file you already have; you could define special characters such as the Gantt chart symbols used by Timeline and other project management software; or you could produce a stylized version of your company's name or logo. FONTEDIT is distinguished in its price category by the features offered: - Can view and edit both portrait and landscape fonts. - Handles up to 45 point size. - Handles both fixed-width and proportional fonts. - Automatically detects a mouse if present and uses it. - Allows both pixel-level editing of individual characters and fill & clear area operations. - Requires only CGA graphics. Hercules graphics can be used provided a CGA emulator (not supplied here) is used. - Can insert or delete rows and columns of individual characters. - Can delete characters from a font. - Can define new characters to add to a font. - Handles font files which consist of several fonts grouped together. - Menu-driven user interface, available at all times. - Built-in DOS access. 5. Guide to Operation Before beginning, it is a good idea to back up both FONTEDIT and the FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 5 font file you will be editing To begin FONTEDIT, simply type FONTEDIT as the DOS prompt. You may follow it with the name of the font file to edit. If you don't, FONTEDIT will ask you to supply a font filename. While you are prompted for a filename, FONTEDIT displays a message whether a mouse driver is installed or not. If you have a mouse but have forgotten to install the driver, you can exit FONTEDIT at this point by pressing CTRL-C. Either on the command line or when FONTEDIT asks for a filename, you may supply a filename containing wildcards and, optionally, a drive designator. FONTEDIT responds with a list of matching filenames from which you can point and shoot with a mouse. If a mouse is not installed, you can choose a filename by moving the reverse-video highlight with the arrow keys and pressing Enter. If a drive designator is not specified, the default drive is used. If you make a mistake in the wildcards, you can press Space Bar and reenter the wildcards or a filename. After loading the font file, if it contains multiple font definitions you will be asked which font you want to view and edit; after you answer you will see the main menu (described below). If the font file contains only one font definition, you will immediately be at the main menu. If ASCII 65 (capital "A") is defined for the font file you are editing, it will be displayed. At any time after this point, you may temporarily escape to DOS by pressing ALT-D. Upon completion of editing, saving of your work, and exiting FONTEDIT, you can download to your printer the newly edited font file. Normally, this is done by using either the DOS command: copy /b fontfile prn or by using whatever font downloading utilities you usually use. 5.1. Basic Screen Layout The basic screen layout is a status line at the top; on the top right are the menu choices available via the Function Keys, RETURN, or ESC; on the middle right is information about the font being edited; and on the bottom right is information about the displayed character. The rest of the screen is used to display a magnified version of the characters. At times the bottom line is used for messages. The displayed character and the border around it is referred here as the character box. The character box is surrounded by a larger box which is referred here as the cell box. The cell box denotes the largest character size which any character in this font can be. The information area on the right of the screen shows the size of the cell box and character box. For portrait fonts, the baseline is shown on screen. The baseline is the FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 6 level of the bottom of characters without descenders, such as "x", "c", or "r". Characters such as "p", "q", and "y" normally have descenders which extend below the baseline. The magnification factor is automatically chosen at start-up to provide a size which fills up the screen as much as possible while maintaining a "pleasing" ratio of width to height. The character box is displayed with grid lines superimposed as an editing guide for the user. If the magnification is such that the character box would become congested while the grid lines are displayed, the grid lines are suppressed. 5.2. Main Menu The status message at the top of the screen says "Press a character to display it." The main menu contains the following choices: F2 = Pixel Edit F4 = Magnification F6 = New Font (note: you see this choice only if the font file defines more than one font) F7 = Create New Char. F8 = Delete Character ESC= Quit At this point you can either begin to operate on the character displayed, or press a letter or number key to display that character. If the ASCII value corresponding to the key you pressed is not defined in the font, there will be no response. To display any ASCII characters defined in your font file, including those such as ASCII 127 which don't have an associated key on the keyboard, you can also press and hold the ALT key, type the 3-digit ASCII value on the numeric keypad, then release the ALT key. Again, if that ASCII value is not defined in the font, there will be no response. 5.2.1. Pixel Edit Edit is a choice from the main menu, and operates on the character displayed. Upon entering the edit mode, the status message at the top of the screen says either: "Pixel Editing. Left Button: Set Pixel Right Button: Clear Pixel" if a mouse is installed, or: "Pixel Editing. Use arrow keys to move crosshairs"; if no mouse is installed. The following menu choices are displayed: F2 = Invert F3 = Area Operators F4 = Clear Character FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 7 F5 = Row/Col Ins/Del F10= Quit & Save RET= Toggle pixel (note: you will see this menu choice only if no mouse is installed) ESC= Quit, no save At this point, the mouse arrow cursor will be visible if a mouse is installed. If no mouse is installed, you will see a crosshair which you can move with the arrow keys on the numeric keypad. You can begin editing individual pixels by either moving the mouse arrow and clicking, or by moving the crosshair and pressing RETURN to toggle the pixel underneath on or off. The character box can be moved around within the cell box by pressing CTRL-UP, CTRL-DOWN, CTRL-LEFT, or CTRL-RIGHT. If your keyboard has two sets of arrow keys, the arrow keys on the numeric keypad must be used. As you move the character, the left offset and top offset are updated in the character information display. 5.2.1.1. Invert Invert is a function chosen from the Pixel Edit menu. It will change all "on" pixels to "off" pixels, and vice versa. It operates on the character presently displayed, including any editing changes already made up to that point. 5.2.1.2. Area Operators Area Operators is a choice from the Pixel Edit menu. It allows you to fill (turn "on") or clear (turn "off") a large group of pixels at once. Several types of shapes are available. Upon entering the edit mode, the status message at the top of the screen says: "Area fill & Clear. Choose a shape with F keys." The following menu choices are displayed: F3 = Polygon F4 = Rectangle F5 = Ellipse ESC= Pixel Edit At this point you can either choose one of the shapes shown, or escape back to pixel editing. Any area operations you have completed but now wish to undo must be undone by escaping to Pixel Editing, and then escaping from Pixel Editing back to the Main Menu. Caution - this will also undo any other unrelated editing changes for that character. All area operations act on a character using the aspect ratios presently in use. For instance, if you choose a circular fill area operation (a FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 8 special case of the ellipse fill), but the character is displayed such that it is wide and flat, the filled area will appear circular on screen. However, once is is printed, the filled area would appear more like a tall, upright ellipse rather than a circle. The default aspect ratio has been chosen to eliminate this potential problem. 5.2.1.2.1. Polygon Fill & Clear Polygon fill and clear allows filling and clearing of areas of arbitrary, closed shape. The shape should be a polygon that does not loop onto itself such as a figure eight. For such a polygon, only one of the interior loops would be filled or cleared. Upon entering Polygon Fill & Clear, the status message at the top of the screen says either: "Polygon fill. Left Button: Mark vertex Right Button: Close polygon" if a mouse is installed, or simply: "Polygon fill." if no mouse is installed. The menu keys display the choices: With Mouse: Without Mouse: F10= Close Polygon RET= Mark vertex ESC= Cancel Polygon ESC= Cancel To begin marking the polygon to fill or clear, go to a vertex of it and either press the left mouse button (if using a mouse), or press RETURN (if not using a mouse). The first vertex will blink as a marker to you. Then go to each succeeding vertex in order and either press the left mouse button or press RETURN. As you mark each vertex, a partially drawn polygon will be superimposed on the character displayed. At any time you can abort the polygon fill & clear operation by pressing ESC. After you have marked each vertex, it is not necessary to go back to the first vertex; simply press the right mouse button (if using a mouse), or press F10 (if not using a mouse). The polygon will automatically be completed between the last vertex marked and the first vertex. At this point, the character is temporarily suppressed, leaving displayed the outline of the character box and the polygon just marked. You now have the option of: - Filling the interior of the polygon; - Clearing the interior of the polygon; - Filling the exterior of the polygon; - Clearing the exterior of the polygon. FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 9 The menu choices will show: F3 = Fill F4 = Clear Move the mouse or crosshairs to either the interior or exterior of the polygon, and press either F3 or F4. After a few seconds, the character will be redrawn with the affected pixels either filled or cleared. You will be returned back to the Area Operations menu. 5.2.1.2.2. Rectangle Fill & Clear Rectangle fill & clear allows filling of rectangular (including square) regions, and operates in a similar manner as polygon fill & clear, except that only the two diagonally opposite corners of the rectangle need to be marked. They can be either upper left - lower right, or lower left - upper right. Upon entering Rectangle Fill & Clear, the status message at the top of the screen says either: "Rectangle fill. Left Button: 1st corner Right Button: Opposite Corner" if a mouse is installed, or simply: "Rectangle fill." if no mouse is installed. The menu keys display the choices: With Mouse: Without Mouse: RET= Mark Corner ESC= Cancel Rectangle ESC= Cancel Rectangle To begin marking the rectangle to fill or clear, go to a corner of it and either press the left mouse button (if using a mouse), or press RETURN (if not using a mouse). The first corner will blink as a marker to you. Then go to the diagonally opposite corner and either press the right mouse button or press RETURN. At any time you can abort the rectangle fill & clear operation by pressing ESC. At this point, the character is temporarily suppressed, leaving displayed the outline of the character box and the rectangle just marked. You now have the option of: - Filling the interior of the rectangle; - Clearing the interior of the rectangle; - Filling the exterior of the rectangle; - Clearing the exterior of the rectangle. The menu choices will show: FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 10 F3 = Fill F4 = Clear Move the mouse or crosshairs to either the interior or exterior of the rectangle, and press either F3 or F4. After a few seconds, the character will be redrawn with the affected pixels either filled or cleared. You will be returned back to the Area Operations menu. 5.2.1.2.3. Ellipse Fill & Clear Ellipse fill & clear allows filling of elliptical (including circular) regions, and operates in a similar manner as rectangle fill & clear, except that only the center of the ellipse and a point on it need to be marked. Upon entering Ellipse Fill & Clear, the status message at the top of the screen says either: "Ellipse fill. Left Button: Center of ellipse" if a mouse is installed, or: "Ellipse fill. Go to center of Ellipse & mark it." if no mouse is installed. The menu keys display the choices: With Mouse: Without Mouse: F3 = Wider, Flatter F3 = Wider, Flatter F4 = Taller, Thinner F4 = Taller, Thinner F5 = Refresh Charac. F5 = Refresh Charac. F10= Ellipse OK RET= Mark Corner ESC= Cancel Ellipse ESC= Cancel Ellipse After you mark the center of the ellipse it will blink as a marker to you. The status line will change to read: "Ellipse fill. Right Button: Ellipse OK" if you are using a mouse, or: "Arrow keys: Define size F keys: Shape of Ellipse" if no mouse is installed. Move the mouse cursor or crosshairs to define the size of the ellipse; as you move, the ellipse is continually redrawn to show you where it will go. The default shape is circular, but you can change the shape by repeatedly pressing the F3 and/or F4 keys. At times, the redrawing process of ellipse may make it hard to make out the character underneath. If this becomes the case, press F5 to refresh FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 11 the character display. When you have made the ellipse the right size and shape, press the right mouse button (if using a mouse), or the F10 key (if not using a mouse). At this point, the character is temporarily suppressed, leaving displayed the outline of the character box and the ellipse just marked. You now have the option of: - Filling the interior of the ellipse; - Clearing the interior of the ellipse; - Filling the exterior of the ellipse; - Clearing the exterior of the ellipse; The menu choices will show: F3 = Fill F4 = Clear Move the mouse or crosshairs to either the interior or exterior of the ellipse, and press either F3 or F4. After a few seconds, the character will be redrawn with the affected pixels either filled or cleared. You will be returned back to the Area Operations menu. 5.2.1.2.4. Pixel Edit This menu choice from the Area Operations menu allows you to return to pixel editing. While in pixel editing you can, for instance, do detailed pixel by pixel touch-up work of the areas worked on by the area operators. 5.2.1.3. Clear Character This function is chosen from the Pixel Edit menu. It allows you to "clear" (turn off) all pixels within the presently displayed character box. 5.2.1.4. Row/Col Ins/Del Row/Col Ins/Del allows you to change the size of the character box by inserting or deleting rows and columns. Rows and columns are inserted or deleted under the current location of the mouse cursor or crosshairs. By moving the mouse or crosshairs you can insert or delete rows and columns anywhere in the character box. Row/Column insert/delete acts upon the image of the character as displayed. Since landscape fonts are displayed sideways, deleting a row on the screen corresponds to deleting a column in the printed version of the character. FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 12 When inserting or deleting rows or columns, the upper left corner of the character box is anchored. The character box grows downward and/or to the right, and contracts upward and/or to the left. It will not grow beyond the limits of the cell box, and you cannot contract it to zero rows or columns. You can move the upper left corner of the character box by pressing CTRL-UP, CTRL-DOWN, CTRL-LEFT, or CTRL-RIGHT. If your keyboard has two sets of arrow keys, the arrow keys on the numeric keypad must be used. When inserting rows or columns, the row or column under the mouse cursor or crosshairs will be replicated. Upon entering row/column insert/delete, the status message at the top of the screen says: "Insert & Delete Rows or Columns. Go to row or column and use F keys." The menu choices will show: F5 = Insert Row F6 = Delete Row F7 = Insert Column F8 = Delete Column F10= Size OK ESC= Abort Rows and columns are inserted and deleted as described above by pressing the F5, F6, F7, or F8 keys. When finished, press F10. If you decide not to accept the changes you made, press ESC. If you press ESC, the character will be restored to the size it had prior to beginning row/column insert/delete. Any editing changes made prior to beginning row/column insert/delete will also be restored. 5.2.1.5. Quit & Save This function saves your editing changes to this character, terminates Pixel Editing, and returns you to the main menu. 5.2.1.6. Toggle Pixel This function can be chosen only if using FONTEDIT without a mouse. It allows you to toggle the pixel underneath the crosshairs either on or off. 5.2.1.7. Quit, no Save This function terminates Pixel Editing and returns you to the main menu without saving any of your changes to the character displayed. FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 13 5.2.2. Magnification Magnification is used to change the size of the characters displayed on the screen. Normally, it will not be necessary to use this option, since FONTEDIT will automatically choose magnification factors which fill up the screen as much as possible while maintaining a "pleasing" ratio of width to height. The smaller the magnification factor, the smaller the character display will be, and vice versa. This feature could be used to approximate on screen how the printed character will look, although because of the screen's resolution it is not possible to duplicate the 300 dot per inch resolution of the printer. When this option is selected, FONTEDIT will display the present magnification factors and prompt you for new factors. The factors are displayed in the form X,Y. This means that every pixel in the character is composed of "X" rows and "Y" columns of pixels on the screen. Magnification factors of 1,1 are the smallest that can be displayed; the largest depends on the point size of the font being displayed. Magnification factors are inputted in the form X,Y including comma. If either X or Y is omitted, the present value is used. Pressing Return without supplying X or Y will keep the present values. 5.2.3. New Font New Font is a choice made from the Main Menu, and can be made only if the the font file being edited contains multiple font definitions. If it does and you select New Font, you will be presented a list of the available fonts along with their point size and orientation (portrait or landscape). Make your choice by number. You will be returned to the Main Menu, and if "A" is defined in the new font, it will be displayed. 5.2.4. Create New Char. Create New Character is a choice from the Main Menu. It allows you to define characters for ASCII values which previously had no symbol in the font. All members of the Laserjet family can print characters with ASCII values from 32 - 127, and 160 - 255 inclusive. Additionally, the Laserjet Series II and above can print characters with ASCII values from 1 - 6, 16 - 26, and 28 - 255 inclusive. In the interest of compatibility with the Laserjet Plus, FONTEDIT does not presently allow creation of characters with ASCII values outside the range of 32 - 127, and 160 - 255 inclusive. You can, however, still edit those characters if they are already defined in your font file. When you choose the Create New Character option, you will be presented a FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 14 list of the available, unused ASCII values in the font. To pick, point and shoot with the mouse, or else if no mouse is installed, move the reverse-video highlight with the arrow keys and press ENTER. Press ESC at any time to abort back to the Main Menu. After you pick an ASCII value to define, FONTEDIT will create a blank character with a default size of half the cell box width and half the cell box height. You will then be put into Pixel Editing mode, where all the pixel editing tools, including resizing the character box and moving it around within the cell box, are available to you. When you are done, exit from Pixel Editing as usual, and you will be at the Main Menu. If at this point you change your mind about defining a new character, you can delete it using the Delete Character option described below. 5.2.5. Delete Character Delete Character is a choice from the Main Menu. It allows you to delete the definition of a character from the font after confirmation from the user. The definition of the character is removed from the font file, and the font file will become smaller. The deleted ASCII value becomes available to the Create New Character option. 5.2.6. Quit Quit is a choice from the main menu. It allows you to exit from FONTEDIT and will complete writing the changes you made to the font file. 5.3. Notes FONTEDIT uses the temporary files FE{TMP}.$$2, FE{TMP}.$$3, and FE{TMP}.$$4, which are erased upon completion. If these files already exist on your computer they will be overwritten. FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 15 6. Sample Session The best way to describe FONTEDIT is to walk through a sample session. An existing font file must be on hand; as of now, FONTEDIT cannot create a new font file from scratch. Before beginning, make a copy of your font file and use the copy in this sample session. The objective of this sample session will be to create a special symbol used when printing Gantt timing charts. The symbol we will create is ASCII 127. This symbol is a hollow, upward-pointing triangle and is used by the on-screen display of Timeline to signify a milestone. However, most font files do not include this character, so we must either make do with a substitute or define our own. When printing a Gantt file to disk, Timeline uses ASCII 127 as the milestone character, so we will edit ASCII 127. Start up FONTEDIT and choose your font file. When you get to the main menu, try displaying ASCII 127. Since it is not represented by a key on the keyboard, you will have to hold down the ALT key, press 127 on the numeric keypad, and then let go of the ALT key. If nothing happens on the screen, this means ASCII 127 is not defined in the font file. You will have to Create a New Character. If so, choose F7 from the main menu. Highlight "127" from the list you see and either click the mouse or press ENTER. You will now be in Pixel Edit mode for ASCII 127. If ASCII 127 already exists in your font file, press F2 from the Main Menu to begin editing it. In Pixel Edit mode, perform the following steps to create a hollow, upward pointing triangle. At all times we will be choosing from the menu options displayed along the top and top right of the screen. - Press F4 to clear the character entirely. - Press F3 to begin Area Operations. - Press F3 to choose a polygon shape. - Go to the top of the character box and mark this as the apex (top) of the triangle by either pressing the left mouse button (if a mouse is installed), or by pressing RETURN (if no mouse is installed). - Go to the lower left corner of the character box and mark it as the lower left corner of the triangle by pressing either the left mouse button or RETURN. - Go to the lower right corner of the character box and mark it as the lower right corner of the triangle by pressing either the left mouse button or RETURN. - Complete the triangle by pressing either the right mouse button (if using a mouse), or F10 (if not using a mouse). - Move the mouse cursor or crosshairs to the interior of the triangle and press F3 to Fill it. We now have a solid, upward pointing triangle on screen. But we want a hollow triangle. So we will repeat the process above for a smaller triangle within the solid triangle, but instead of filling it we will clear it. FONTEDIT, (C) by Alexander Walter page 16 - Press F3 to choose a polygon shape. - Go to a point about 4 pixels below the apex of the solid triangle and press the left mouse button or RETURN. - Go to a point about 4 pixels above and to the right of the lower left corner of the character box and mark it as the lower left corner of the triangle by pressing either the left mouse button or RETURN. - Go to a point about 4 pixels above and to the left of the lower right corner of the character box and mark it as the lower right corner of the triangle by pressing either the left mouse button or RETURN. - Complete the triangle by pressing either the right mouse button (if using a mouse), or F10 (if not using a mouse). - Move the mouse cursor or crosshairs to the interior of the triangle and press F4 to Clear it. - Press ESC to go to Pixel Editing. You can do pixel-by-pixel touchup of the character if you wish. - Press F10 to save your changes At this point we should now have displayed and saved a hollow, upward pointing triangle. We could continue to define new characters, but lets stop; this is enough for a demonstration. - Press ESC to quit. When prompted for confirmation, press "Y". Your fontfile has now been edited to define ASCII 127 as a hollow, upward pointing triangle. Download it to your laser printer as usual, and whenever you print a document using this font, all ASCII 127s will be displayed as a hollow, upward pointing triangle.