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Quick Font! QFONT DOCUMENTATION Demo/Beta version 1.4 July 4, 1989 Pre-release version 1.5 July 22, 1989 Copyright 1989 by Jamestown Software 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison WI 53719 608-271-2090 Jamestown Software will not be liable for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use QFONT, even if Jamestown Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. - Page 1 - INTRODUCTION: ------------- QFONT is a soft font editor for downloadable soft fonts for HP LaserJet laser printers and compatibles. This version is the fourth in a series: the first was only used internally, the second (QFONT 1.3) was released with a number of features not implemented. Version 1.4 was completely rewritten to add virtually all the missing features from version 1.3, plus add some new things. This release (QFONT 1.5) now has all functions fully implemented, plus a number of new features not originally planned. QFONT supports Hercules Mono, EGA and VGA displays -- with or without a mouse. We highly recommend the use of a mouse, but for evaluation purposes you can (with some difficulty) use the program without a mouse. This documentation is admittedly very limited. We are still not certain how the program will be distributed, but in any case, registered and pre-registered users will receive the final "shipping release" including a complete printed and illustrated manual, supporting programs and sample fonts. Version 1.3 offered a pre-registration price of $50 (which includes all preliminary releases up to and including the shipping release), with the final registration set at $80. This version is the second of the promised preliminary releases and is being shipped to all early registered users. Registration is now $80, with the same offer: register now and get all preliminary releases, plus the shipping release. Other preliminary releases may or may not be posted on the Jamestown Software BBS for general download. SPECIFICATIONS: --------------- Required computer...: IBM compatible, MS/PC-DOS 3.x. Memory .............: 512K. Video ..............: Hercules Mono, EGA, VGA. Mouse ..............: Microsoft or compatible (strongly recommended, but not required). Printer ............: HP Laserjet or compatible. Maximum Font Size...: about 2" (144 point) depending on style. Orientation.........: edits portrait fonts only; save as landscape built in. SCREEN LAYOUT: -------------- - Page 2 - The screen is divided into four logical areas. 1. Upper left is a character display. 2. Lower left is an information and icon area. 3. Across the top right is a pull-down menu selection bar. 4. Remainder of the screen is the main edit area. PULL-DOWN MENUS: ---------------- FILE -- general and file handling choices. EDIT -- character editing choices. TRANSFORM -- character modification and distortion. PREFERENCES -- default choice for transformation actions. INFO -- general help and information. The choices for each of the menus are described below. New and substantially different features to version 1.4 are single- starred (*), and new 1.5 features are double-starred (**); FILE: ----- OPEN FONT FILE -- To load a font to be edited. A window will be displayed where you may select a file. QFONT assumes fonts with a ".SFP" extension, but you may change the file mask for other files. Subdirectories are shown with a small dot in front of their name. You may change subdirectories by clicking on their name, and may change drives by clicking in the "New Drive" box. SAVE -- Saves the current font under it's original name. You will be asked if you also wish to save a backup of the original file. SAVE AS... -- Saves the current file under a new name. The original file remains current. *MAKE LANDSCAPE -- Saves the current file as a landscape file, or one in landscape orientation. QFONT will edit only portrait orientation files, but you may save as landscape at any time. **NEW -- Create a "blank" font file so a new font may be created. The basic parameters of the current file are used. You may wish to "modify header" to establish something different. **MODIFY HEADER -- Change the font header information. If you change "Spacing", you can change proportional spaced fonts - Page 3 - to fixed spacing. You will be asked to confirm your request because usually this conversion is less than perfect. QFONT will make all reasonable changes to switch from one spacing type to the other. Pitch (HMI) is the width used by the printer when it receives any undefined character. *TEST SPACING -- Allows you to enter text and view the spacing between characters for possible left-offset and delta-x adjustments. **PRINT CHARACTER -- Prints a actual-size sample of the current character and optionally, an enlarged version. **DOWNLOAD FONT -- Built-in font downloader will download the active font (including modifications) and optionally, print a sample of all characters. **SHOW CLIPBOARD -- Displays the current contents of the clipboard which is the last block either "cut" or "copied". The clipboard is not emptied when a new font is loaded, so it is possible to load one font, copy a character, load a second font, and then paste the character from the first font into a character from the second font. A window displays the width and height of the clipboard image so you can determine if it will fit in the current character. If it is larger than the current character, you may "modify header" and change the cell width and height as needed. QUIT -- End the program and return to DOS. QFONT will ask if you wish to save any modified characters or files. EDIT: ----- ZOOM -- Define a section of displayed character and show it with enlarged pixels for easier editing. *ERASE BLOCK -- Define an area of the displayed character, then erase all dots within that area. Does not affect any stored block. *CUT BLOCK -- Define an area of the displayed character, store the area for later recall, then erase all dots within the area. Replaces any block currently stored. *COPY BLOCK -- Like cut block, but does not erase the block after it has been defined. Replaces any block currently stored. *PASTE BLOCK -- Recalls the currently stored block and allows it to be positioned anywhere on the currently displayed character. Note: when paste block is active, three selection - Page 4 - boxes are displayed in the information area: MIRROR, INVERT and PATTERN. Mirror flips the block side-to-side, invert flips it top-to-bottom, and pattern stamps a pattern on the block. The block may be pasted as either black or white dots. **DRAW CURVE -- Draws a bezier curve. You select the starting and ending points for the curve, then a third "control point" which determines the arc of the curve. After defining the first two points, the curve will "rubber-band" until the third point is set. The curve may be plotted in either black or white. *DRAW ELLIPSE/ARC -- To draw a circle, horizontal ellipse, vertical ellipse and arcs thereof. This feature is best learned by experimenting. Read the help messages displayed in the top menu bar area for your options, but note that you use both right and left mouse buttons for various actions. Note: this feature may also be selected by clicking on the "target" icon in the information area. *DRAW BOX -- Draw a rectangle of various line widths. *SET DELTAX-OFFSET -- To set the left offset and delta-x values for each character. Left offset is the number of dots from the right edge of the previous character to begin printing the current character. Delta-x is used to set the right edge of the current character. These two values determine the spacing between characters when they are printed. Note: you can view the character spacing of your edited font by selecting "test spacing" from the FILE menu. *SET GUIDELINES -- Use to define temporary vertical and horizontal guidelines to help determine relative positioning from character to character. Note: defined guidelines are cleared when a new font is loaded. *GET NEW CHARACTER -- Use to select a new character to edit. All the characters in the font will be shown in a reduced size so you may select the one you wish to edit. Note: you may simply press any key for immediate display... resizing all the characters for this choice does take a few seconds. SAVE CHARACTER -- Stores the current character, replacing the previously saved version. CLEAR CHARACTER -- Erases all the dots for the current character. Note: the saved version is not replaced until you request that it be replaced. HOLD CHARACTER -- The current character is saved in a buffer for later recall. Useful for possible "undo" if you are - Page 5 - experimenting with some radical changes, or for creating a common character or shape for use among several characters. RECALL CHARACTER -- Recalls the character saved in a buffer with the "hold character" function. Note: the current edit character is replaced, but the saved version is NOT replaced until you confirm that you wish to do so. TRANSFORM: ---------- All transformations of characters may be made on the current character, or a range of characters. When selecting a range, be sure to FIRST define the starting and ending characters in the range, then click on the "range" box. *OUTLINE -- Outlines the character(s) using the current outline width default. Note: the character size is not enlarged through the outline function, so the actual shape of an outlined character and the original solid character are the same. *SHADOW -- The character is first outlined using the current outline width, then a drop shadow is added using the current shadow width. Cell size and deltax are adjusted as needed. **MAKE BOLDER -- The character is made bolder by adding dots to the right and bottom as defined in the current bold/lighten width default. Small characters should first be made bolder before they are outlined. The position of the character relative to the baseline is not changed. **MAKE LIGHTER -- The character is made lighter by removing dots as defined in the current bold/lighten width default. The position of the character relative to the baseline left offset is not changed. REVERSE -- The characters are reversed so they will print white on a black background. Cell size, left offset, and deltax are all adjusted as needed, and an appropriate black "space" character is defined. Note: reverse characters only work if the text is printed "flush left or right" and not "justified" to a particular width. Also note that line spacing must be set to precisely the height of the characters, or a thin white line will show up -- or the bottoms and tops of the characters will disappear. You may set the actual height of the reverse characters by modifying the header and changing the cell height before transforming the font. Reverse type is nice, but tricky to pull off. STAMP PATTERN -- The currently selected pattern is "stamped" on - Page 6 - the character. *SLANT -- The character is slanted to the left or right and results in a pseudo-italic face. Cell size is adjusted as needed. *RESIZE -- Characters may be enlarged or reduced in size in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Increasing the vertical size while decreasing the horizontal results in a "condensed" type face -- or increasing the horizontal while decreasing the vertical results in an "extended" type face. Cell size and baseline are adjusted as needed. Note: reducing usually results in characters that need only a little clean-up, but enlarging often creates characters that require a fair amount of clean-up to look good. Always reduce a type face when possible. In others words, start big and work down. *SHIFT -- Characters may shifted within their cell in all four directions. PREFERENCES: ------------ X:Y STATUS ON/OFF -- When the cursor is within the character edit area, x:y coordinates can optionally be displayed at the top right of the screen. **USE CROSSHAIRS/ARROW FOR EDIT -- When within the character edit area, the cursor can optionally be shown as either an arrow or crosshairs. **SHOW/HIDE GRID -- On a color monitor, the grid in the edit area may be shown or hidden. **SHOW/HIDE TRANSFORM PROGRESS -- When transformations are performed on a range of characters, each character is normally shown at the left of your screen after it has been modified so you can monitor the transformation process. If you have a slower system, you may turn the display of modified characters off and reduce the overall time it takes to perform the transformation. SET FILL PATTERN -- Select your current fill pattern to be used when "stamping" patterns on characters or blocks, or "filling" enclosed areas with the F10 function key. SET OUTLINE WIDTH -- Select the width of outlined characters. **SET BOLD/LIGHTEN WIDTH -- Select the number of dots to use when the "make bolder" and "make lighter" choices are made in the - Page 7 - TRANSFORM menu. SET SHADOW WIDTH -- Select the number of dots to use to create the drop shadow when the "shadow" choice is made in the TRANSFORM menu. INFO: ----- Copyright and other information about QFONT. THE MOUSE AND THE KEYBOARD: --------------------------- Generally speaking, the left mouse button is used for most actions. When in the edit area, the left button will turn a black dot "off", and a white dot "on". If it is pressed and held, dots will be continue to be drawn in black or white, depending on the first dot drawn. The right button is used to draw lines. Position the cursor at the start on a line and press (and release) the right button. Move to the other end of the line and press the right button again. Look at the top of the screen for instructions. Note that to plot the line as black dots you press the left button, or as white dots, by pressing the right button. The cursor will generally change from an "arrow" to a "pointing hand" when different actions can be made. Clicking "outside" an active area will generally abort the action. Always check the menu area for special instructions when performing an action. Function key "F9" will stamp a pattern on the current character. Function key "F10" fill perform a "fill" from the current cursor location. The top menu areas can be selected by pressing alt-F (FILE), alt-E (EDIT), alt-T (TRANSFORM), alt-P (PREFERENCES) and alt-I (INFO). A new character to be edited can be selected by simply pressing the appropriate keyboard key. Note: the "high- bit" characters can be loaded by pressing and holding the alt key and entering the character number on the numeric keypad. If the requested character is not currently defined, nothing will happen. - Page 8 - THE "SCROLL" ICON: ------------------ Because QFONT can edit a character that is larger than can be displayed on the screen, a "scroll" icon is displayed in the top left corner of the information area. It consists of a square with a number, plus triangles pointing up, down, left and right. The number inside the square is the size of each dot in the "grid" of the edit area. QFONT adjusts the grid to be as large as possible for the size of characters displayed, ranging from 1 to 6. You may click on the number if you wish to change the size of the grid. If the entire character can be displayed at a larger size than you request, QFONT will simply ignore your requested size and use the larger size. If only a portion of a character can be displayed, one or more of the triangles will change color. You may click on the highlighted triangle to scroll in that direction. On a color monitor, the portion of the character that is displayed in the edit area is also highlighted in the character display area. If you are in "zoom" mode, the grid size is displayed in the box. Clicking outside the edit area will "un-zoom" the edit area and return it to its previous display. REGISTRATION OF QFONT / SHAREWARE AND SO ON: -------------------------------------------- This preliminary version of QFONT continues to be offered for personal use as "shareware", which is a distribution method whereby you try the program for a short period and if you find it to be of value you send a registration fee of $80 to: Jamestown Software 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison WI 53719 In return, you will receive all further releases up to and including the final "shipping" release, complete with printed and illustrated manual, supporting programs and sample fonts. Registration is required for commercial, corporate and government use. Note that QFONT is a copyrighted program and is NOT "public domain." Technical support is available at: Voice telephone number: 608-271-2090 (real people) Jamestown Software BBS: 608-271-3685 (1200/2400 baud, 8-N-1, 24 hrs) - Page 9 - INVOICE / REGISTRATION FORM Jamestown Software 2508 Valley Forge Drive Madison, WI 53719 Sold to: __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ Date: ____________________________ ================================================================= ____ copies of QFONT (1.5 or newer) @ $80 ea....... _____________ ____ add $3 for 3.5" disk in place of 5.25" ....... _____________ ____ add $7 for delivery outside of US/Canada ..... _____________ SUBTOTAL ..................................... _____________ Sales tax (Wisconsin residents) .............. _____________ TOTAL enclosed ............................... _____________ ================================================================= Thank you for your order. - Page 10 -