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- =============================================================================
- High-Resolution, Anti-Aliased System Font Module v0.01
- © 1992 AjC of DoggySoft
- =============================================================================
-
- This application is PUBLIC DOMAIN ( Freeware ). You may freely copy and
- distribute this application, but don't you change the files, or charge for
- it, you scamps. You can, though, pass on extra font files in the directory
- - I have supplied !SysFont22.Font. PD library owners, please write to us for
- the latest versions of all our PD and Shareware/demos of commercial stuff
- before you distribute.
-
- This module is a MUST for all owners of Multisync, VGA and SVGA monitors -
- you lucky, lucky people ! Doesn't your Desktop look beautiful with all its
- high resolution icons ! Don't you just get mega thrills from a !Sprites22
- file ! But there's one cloud on the high resolution horizon, isn't there -
- The System Font. Yeuch ! Isn't it blocky ! Isn't it horrible ! Acorn have
- got the right idea in swapping the ☓ character and such like for sprites in
- the templates since RISC OS 3.00, but still the title bars and most of the
- text everywhere is in the System Font. And when you go into a HiRes MODE, it
- looks blocky. When you have such beautiful Anti-Aliased HiRes Outline Fonts,
- it's not exactly stunning.
- Now comes the module of your dreams ( as long as you have very strange
- dreams about modules to change the System Font ). Just double-click on the
- !SysFont22 icon and see that blocky font disappear and be replaced by a
- lovely font which, if you have the Default font, looks suspiciously like the
- Mac's font. It was, in fact derived from an Outline Font by Richard Hallas -
- thanks - which was derived from the Mac font, with lots of changes to fit in
- with the Latin1 set.
- You can design your own fonts. Create a sprite file containing lots of 8*16
- MODE 20 sprites, with a mask but no palette. They should be titled with the
- ASCII code of the character they represent. Code 127 and those below 33 are
- ignored. You need not design sprites for every single character, any other
- characters are printed as normal. To use your designed sprites, load the
- module and do a *SysFont <H|L> <filename> to use the sprite file <filename>.
- To turn the effect on, do *SysFont H, and *SysFont L turns it off. Why turn
- it off ? Well, if you are doing pure text editing, it can be quite slow.
- ( Well, plotting sprites IS slower than just printing text ! ) You will
- generally be okay with an ARM3. You also might want to turn it off because
- you want to use a 256-colour MODE. Oh, stop moaning, if you really want a
- 256-colour HiRes System Font, design the sprites for a font in MODE 21. If
- we were to go around converting sprites all the time, it would be even slower.
- There may, though, be an option for this in the future - this is only a very
- early copy, which was programmed in one day on a wild idea inspired by Jon
- Marshall's stupidity, not understanding system fonts. In fact, most of the
- day was spent designing the font ! There are a few bugs in this, but they are
- minor, and I really must get my amazing !Hacker version 3.01 - now with the
- brilliant user-friendly WIMP GUI and tons more features than Hacker v2.02
- ( advertise, advertise ), and still only £5 - finished. Nearly there, now...
- but still I take a day off The Hacker to do this amazing thing. And I have
- got three lots of Christmas exams ( a horrible new idea invented by Doctor
- Challoners Grammar ) on Monday. Do you think I have revised ?
-
- Ho hum, send your suggestions, money, orders for The Hacker, money, requests
- for us to send your PD library our amazing DoggySoft PD, money, requests for
- DoggySoft T-shirts ( you will not get them, but you can ask anyway ), money,
- requests for DoggySoft lampshades ( you will not get THEM, as they do not
- exist ), money, money, or money to me, Andrew Clover, ( or AjC as I am
- abbreviatedly known, or Oliver, Alan or LEN, as people have called me in the
- past. Oh yes, I was going to give you the address, wasn't I.
-
- DoggySoft,
- 7, Blackhorse Crescent,
- Amersham,
- Bucks,
- HP6 6HP.
-
- Be seeing you.