Publisher Platinum

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Publisher Platinum / Publisher Platinum.iso / apps / fontprog / fnts5a / fontshow.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-11-08 | 28.8 KB | 613 lines

FontShow Copyright 1991 - Harvey J. Kaye ALL Rights Reserved. FontShow - Font Viewing and Cataloging for Microsoft Windows FontShow Version 5.0 Release notes ============================================================================== General documentation is supplied Windows Write format: FontShow.WRI. Installation: Copy the FontShow.EXE file to your hard drive, use the Program Manager File/New Function to add the file to your program manager screen. See below for suggested locations of files. The following files are included in the distribution: FONTSHOW.EXE - Main executable file FONTSHOW HLP - Help file FONTSHOW.INI - Parameter file sample FONTSHOW.TXS - User customizable text sample 3DLABEL.VBX - Visual Basic extension file MHAD200.VBX - Visual Basic extension file MHEN200.VBX - Visual Basic extension file MHGR200.VBX - Visual Basic extension file MUSCLE.VBX - Visual Basic extension file VBGP.VBX - Visual Basic extension file COMMDLG.ZIP - For Windows 3.0 users, common dialog DLL Required files: FONTSHOW.EXE, ALL *.VBX files and VBRUN100.DLL VBRUN100.DLL is not included in this package, it is the visual basic runtime module. ====================================================================== Note to users of versions earlier than 5.0: Two files included in the older versions: VBTOOLS.VBX and GRID.VBX are no longer required by FontShow. ===> WARNING: Before deleting these files, ensure you have no other ===> application using them. ====================================================================== Please note the VBX (Visual Basic eXtension) files may be used by other VBasic applications. Should you receive these files from another source, please be sure to use the one with the latest date or you could introduce problems. Place the files in the following locations: FontShow.EXE - in any directory FontShow.INI - in the Windows directory. *NOTE: Suggested you use this as an example and allow FontShow to create one with the defaults in the Windows directory. FONTSHOW.TXS - in the Windows directory, (location can be altered on the settings screen) FontShow.INV - Invoice - to be printed FontShow.LIC - Software License and Warranty file - anywhere VBRUN100.DLL - in the Windows System Directory or path (not supplied) *.VBX - in the Windows Directory (or path) FontShow.WRI - in any directory (Windows Write Doc file) FontShow.TXT - in any directory (this file) FontShow also requires Microsoft Windows Version 3.0 or later. Note to ATM Users: Should you receive a UAE or GPF error in ATM using FontShow, it is suggested you upgrade Adobe Type Manager to version 2.02. This release appears to have corrected most problems with poorly converted Type 1 Fonts. Note to Windows 3.0 users: Small bug on the Sample screen, for some reason the sample style 1 control is invisible on startup. I cannot determine the cause, and am not holding the release up for this. It will become visible (in the upper left corner) if you click on it, and it is selected so style 1 is the default. Suggested workaround.. upgrade to Windows 3.1 ;-> ============================================================================== FontShow is shareware, a registration fee of $15 is required if you continue to use this program after an initial evaluation period (not to exceed 30 days) If after 30 days you decide to continue using FontShow, please forward a cheque or money order totaling $15. Please print file FONTSHOW.INV, complete it and include it with your payment. Standard registration does NOT include a diskette, see FONTSHOW.INV for details on how to obtain one. ===> Note: Please do NOT send cash!! European Users: A US. American Express travelers cheque is also acceptable. Payable to: Harvey J. Kaye Address: 633 Bay Street, Suite 1701, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, M5G 2G4 Please note that taxes, if any are required, are included in the above. US. Cheques and money orders are more than welcome. No Cash Please! =============> Note: U.S. Postage to Canada is 40 cents. <================== Please forward any comments, suggestions, problems etc. to the above address. When reporting problems, please be sure to include the FontShow version #, Windows version, basic hardware setup, and a description of what you were doing when the problem occurred. In addition, I need to know what font package you are using and the version. If the problems are in your printouts, please include a copy of the printout with the problem circled. Any other information you might think helpful as well. I also monitor the (RIME) Relaynet and Interlink Windows conferences. Many of you have asked why I keep using Windows Modern font. Well that is because in the ATM environment, ATM substitutes Helvetica for Modern when there is a Modern=Helvetica entry in the ATM.INI file (under the [Synonyms] section. ATM typically adds this entry, I believe if the Modern font is installed in Windows, when you install ATM. Rather than pick Helvetica, which some users do not install, I use Modern, which comes with Windows by default. For those users out there who have removed Modern, ensure there is a Modern=Helvetica entry in the ATM.INI file. OR, alter the Default and Title Header fonts to another font. (These can be changed by running FontShow in setup mode (described below) or by editing the FONTSHOW.INI file and changing the ID_FONT=Modern and M_Font=Modern entries to a more appropriate font. For earlier users of Fontshow, save settings must be executed to create those entries, or use a text editor such as Notepad to add them) Major performance recommendation for FontShow (and most other Windows apps). DISABLE the Windows Print Manager. It does very little for you but slow your printing to a crawl. You may also run into difficulties with batch printing. NOTE: this is NOT true for Windows 3.1, where the Print Manager has been dramatically improved. However, VB applications will still lock out Windows during printing. It is, therefore, NOT advisable, to use FontShow while any other application is running in the background (such as a file transfer). Additional Performance notes: Adobe Type Manager users, set your Font Cache to a minimum of 384K (set from the ATM control panel). Some systems will print blank lines in the font catalog unless the cache is large enough. Laser Printer Memory: For printing at 300 DPI resolution, most laser printers will require a minimum of 1 Megabyte of memory to print most sample pages, because of their complex nature. Postscript Printers: Users report a need to increase the timeout values for large catalog printouts can take a while, depending on machine speed and which font scaling program is being used. Thank-you for trying FontShow!! =============================================================================== Change History =============================================================================== Version 5.0a Changes: --------------------- 1) Minor fix in the font catalog to get around Windows Bold print sometimes 'sticking on' when a bold-only Truetype font is printed in the catalog. 2) Minor fix in the font catalog, when attempting to display an on-screen sample of printer only font. Would return Invalid Property Value and terminate. Corrected. Version 5.0 Changes: -------------------- Note: Printer Setup on Edit screen is grayed out. This function is NOT currently implemented. However it will be implemented as soon as some problems are resolved with a software package I use to provide that function. 1. New toolbar on the main screen, to control most common functions. 2. Full Windows Help file included. 3. ANSI Map printout tidied up, and the use of the Dingbat settings in the INI file removed. You may delete all the FC_Dingx lines (for users of the older versions only) 4. Catalog allows picking and choosing fonts from the list using standard Windows actions. (See Help) 5. Batch Sample pages will honour the sample style selections correctly. 6. Sample style 1 aligns to the baseline, and prints caps only (provided to support caps only fonts). 7. Startup speed improved marginally. Additionally, most printouts will print somewhat faster. 8. Better error handling for missing fonts. 9. Settings screen consolidated into a list box. Will make it much easier to add user options in future releases. By default, details of the settings are only displayed when an individual setting is selected. However you may cause FontShow to display all details by adding Set_Detail=1 to the [FontShow] section of the FONTSHOW.INI file. 10. You can control the fillstyle of the circle on the sample pages, including no fill(fill style=1 on the settings screen). This gets around the Truetype problem with the black circle. You can also control the thickness of the Circle's line. Note: The Truetype support included in Windows 3.1 has one problem: Unless the "Print Truetype as graphic" Windows Option is set, the Show circle FillStyle default of 0 (Solid), causes ONLY a black circle to print. The option of Circle fillstyle has been added to circumvent this, without impacting print speed (which the Print as graphic option would do). In addition, when a non-solid fill style is selected, you can control the thickness of the circle's "border" 11. Click the right mouse button on the controls (on main screen only so far) and you get a quick "what does this control do?" message. 12. Language overrides on the printouts for all the Fixed text areas (Font Catalog/ANSI Character map/Page/Time etc.) for non-English users. These setting are not implemented in the settings screen, they are in the INI file only. See Supplied INI file for default settings. 13. Comment line added to Text Sample. Will read from the (new) comments section of the INI file like this: [Comments] Arial=This is a comment for the Font ARIAL. Times=This font has no punctuation... This will print in the sample text, when a [Comment= control statement is placed in column one. Again this was requested by a non-english user, who needs to comment on whether some fonts have the special characters they use. 14. The font selection boxes can be made bold by a new INI setting SelectBold=1 (in the [FontShow] section). 15. Major screen redesign to make them "prettier", especially at 1024x768. Super VGA or higher is recommended, as the screens are a little cramped at 640x480. 16. Set Colors changed to use the new Windows 3.1 common dialog. For Windows 3.0 users, see the COMMDLG.ZIP file included. 17. Caps only option on main screen(user text). Useful for CAPS only fonts. 18. Save BITMAP sample added to File menu. Will save a small bitmap sample of the selected font. Useful for fonts you want to archive. You can copy the bitmap along with the font, so you can look at what it looks like a year later without having to fish out old printouts. 19. You can now edit FONTSHOW.INI and FONTSHOW.TXS from the main screen, using notepad (or other editor, set from the settings screen) 20. You can copy to the clipboard from the ANSI map.Also Bold/Italic/ Underscore/Strikethrough styles are available, to see if the characters are present in all styles. ANSI Map also displays a large sample of the selected character in the upper right section of the screen. 21. New Keyboard Map printout. Will print a keyboard map with all the characters on a typical enhanced keyboard. In addition it prints an ANSI map of the extended character set. 22. The Main screen position will be saved when the settings are saved. Useful for users of Norton Desktop. 23. The Character map on the Metrics screen will now only display when requested. Will save a bit 'o time on the metrics display. ========================================================================= Version 4.3 Changes: -------------------- 1) Bug fix: Under some circumstances the "Dingbat Font" settings were not being saved. This has been corrected. 2) A new setup feature: When 4.3 is run for the first time, FontShow will prompt for the title and header font setting and the default font setting. This is to hopefully prevent the Invalid property value message some users who have removed Windows fonts have been receiving. If you wish to re-run in setup mode, activate the "Scroll-Lock" key before starting FontShow. For those users without an enhanced keyboard, delete the FS_First=0 line from the FontShow.INI. I hope this clears up the problems some users have had. If not, ensure the Windows MODERN font is installed, and for ATM users, ensure there is a MODERN=someotherfont setting in the [Synonyms] section, so that ATM will substitute something better that the stick lines that Modern provides. 3) New function on the Sample Page screen, DISPLAY ANSI MAP. Click on that button and a grid of all the characters in the font will be displayed. If you want to know the ANSI code of a particular character, simply click on that character. Note: there is an intermittent bug in the grid display that causes it to select a block of characters when you click for the first time. If that happens, just click the character again. 4) There has been a major rewrite of the code, with increasing speed and reduced memory utilization in mind. (25% faster startup on my system) However the memory use reduction is not without its price. The screen-to-screen transitions on some of the less frequently used screens (such as setup) will be slower. This is because they now are loaded as needed, rather than being kept in memory and hidden when not displayed. The main exe file is about 25K larger than the 42a version due to these code changes. Part of the memory change applys a limit of 460 fonts (the current ATM 1.1 limit) If this is a problem, please let me know and I will increase it. 5) The main screen has been re-organized again with some less frequently used functions moved to the menu bar. In addition there is a RUN option on the menu bar, from which you can run the ATM and Windows control panels. If someone can forward me the information on Facelift and SuperPrint, I will add those functions as well (I need the exe name and parameters (if any). 6) The setup screen now has positions for 10 "dingbat" type fonts (used in the Print ANSI map function) 7) In the font catalog, the select all and clear functions are much faster, as well as select all clears the list before it adds all the fonts to eliminate duplicates. As well, the de-select function leaves the first font selected, to enable easier deletion of unwanted fonts. 8) Most of the screens have been re-designed with a 3-D look wherever possible. (This will be enhanced in future versions). 9) Newly added error correction will now revert to the default font whenever a selected font cannot be displayed. In addition, the font combo box will have no font selected at startup. The main window will display the default font. To change the default, use the settings screen. The default font and size are set there, rather than from the main screen when save settings is executed. 10) In the text sample file, a negative extra spacing value can now be specified, allowing from -25 to 25 to be specified. Note that anything more than -3 or 4 will not print very well, however if you want to over print it might be useful. 11) Other miscellaneous changes and adjustments. Version 4.2a Changes(maintenance release): ------------------------------------------ 1) Bug Fix: Users of ATM who had Helvetica as one of the last few font entries in their ATM.INI would receive an "Invalid Property Value" message, and FontShow would terminate. This has been corrected. 2) The Font Selected on the main screen, will become the default font when the save settings function is invoked. FontShow will bring up the default font (if it is still available) whenever FontShow is started or whenever the font list is rebuilt. 3) The maximum user text saved has been increased from 63 to 127 characters. Version 4.2 Changes: -------------------- 1) Print Function from the main screen has been enhanced to allow printing to the screen. Use the control menu to select the destination. Use Control - Clear Print Window to clear the screen. This function is intended to be used as a means of comparing fonts on the screen. Note that the print to screen function can only be so large, if it is larger than Windows will allow, a message will be displayed. Try reducing the point size. 2) Right Margin Offset setting has been changed to allow 100ths of inches (ie. 0.25"). 3) The pop up window for batch sample pages has been eliminated, the style selection is now made directly from the Catalog screen. 4) A bug has been reported in Publisher's PowerPak, that causes FontShow to pick up each PowerPak font 6 times. Code has been added to eliminate duplicate fonts, provided the duplicates are returned by Windows one right after another. The "nnn of xxx" display on the startup screen will decrement the "xxx" number for each duplicate found. This is a PowerPak bug. 5) When Publisher's Powerpak is used, it does not permit the use of the Show Character Circle, the text prints in black in a black circle. Another PowerPak restriction is the point size. Anything printed over 350 points will convert to Windows' SCRIPT font. Displaying the character will result in the bottom portion of the character to be truncated. (These problems will be reported to Atech, currently there is no workaround) Version 4.1 Changes: -------------------- 1) User Text and Point size for the main window will now be saved when Save Settings is executed. 2) Text Color and Save Settings are now on the Control pull down menu 3) New Option: Minimize on Print. If this option is selected on the settings screen, FontShow will minimize whenever print is selected. When printing is complete, the FontShow ICON will flash once per second. 4) New function "ATM Font Check", if enabled (from the Control menu) will check the ATM.INI file for the existence of true Normal, Bold, Italic, and BoldItalic styles. A new frame will be displayed if this option is enabled and will show a "green light" if the style is available, and red if not. Note this involves reading the ATM.INI file every time, so it does add a small amount of overhead. 5) Bug Fix: Paste Link is no longer enabled when FontShow is the application on the clipboard. An "Edit-Copy" followed by "Edit-PasteLink" would fail. (because Fontshow can't talk to itself) After the failure, FontShow would terminate. This has been corrected. 6) Print Function added to the main screen. Clicking on print will send the current text, font, size and bold/italic etc. attributes to the printer. Click again, same thing will happen (and if you've changed anything, it will pick up the new attributes) Don't expect it to word wrap, 'cause it won't. If you want to print wide text, try landscape mode if your printer supports it. Each click of print will print on a new line, click close print to send the text to the printer. If you print more than a page, a page eject will occur automatically. Click close print to send remaining text to the printer. 7) Several boxes and displays have changed. The point size and character selected on the main screen now display as part of the frame caption rather than taking up valuable space on the screen. (It's getting cramped!) 8) New settings options: Top border Width, Vertical Line Width, Horizontal line Width. These settings allow you to control the thickness in dots, of the sample page lines. In addition, they can be suppressed altogether by entering zero as the width. 9) New setting: Right Margin Offset allows an amount (in inches) which FontShow will add to the right margin (for lines and the show character only). (IE: Enter 0.3 and FontShow will add .3" to the right margin) This option has been requested by some users. Normally FontShow uses the margins as supplied by Windows, however this does not seem to be adequate for some printer drivers. 10) Other minor adjustments, and standardization of screens. Control menu expanded, save function moved from the settings screen to the control menu as well as Set Colors. Version 4.0 Changes: -------------------- 1) Full windows clipboard support, including Paste Link. 2) New opening screen 3) Additional font catalog style, will print the font using the fontname as the text, printing as many on the page as will fit. 4) Sample page display will now pop up a "More" button in the bottom left corner of the screen if the sample is more than a screen's worth long. Click the more button to display the rest of the sample. 5) Page numbers and Time/date removed from ANSI maps. Since the map doesn't change for a given font, the date/time info was extraneous. As well the page number is not really required since the map is usually only one page long. 6) Print margins adjusted slightly shorter, for those users of dot-matrix printers. 7) Text display colors can now be saved from the settings screen. 8) Main text display window can have the alignment altered from the default of centered. Options are Left, Center and right. 9) Additional information is displayed on the font metrics screen, as well as a diagram of what some of the numbers mean is displayed. 10) The startup screen may now be minimized during initialization, to allow background startup. 11) Some less frequently used functions have been moved to a menu bar on the main screen. 12) Full DDE support for Excel 3.0 and Word for Windows. The application must already be started, click on "Start Link", select the application desired. After the link is initialized, when you click "Send" the text displayed in the main window along with it's font, size, bold/italic etc. will be sent to the application for which the link is active. Please note that for Winword, the cursor must be in the text area, and for Excel, it must be in a cell. If this is not the case, the application will reject the request, and FontShow will display an error message. 13) The default character on the main window and the show character selected in the settings screen are now the same. 14) Miscellaneous fine tuning and screen layout changes. A new ICON is included if you update the item's property on the Program manager window you should see the new one. I still don't like it, any artistically inclined volunteers out there? 15) Bug correction: The font sample pages printed from the catalog function will now print the titles correctly. Version 3.1 Changes: -------------------- 1) The "show" character printing in a black circle has been made an option. See the settings screen. Should save on ribbons, toner and/or Ink. 2) Bug correction: The font inventory would print in the title font and size if page numbers, date AND time printing were turned off. 3) Bug correction: The settings for Page numbers, date and time printing were not being saved correctly. Version 3.0 Changes: -------------------- 1) A new sample style has been added (#5) that will print a variety of text sizes and styles. 2) The Text sample function has been implemented for all styles. If the "Print Text Sample" option is selected on the settings screen, FontShow will open and read the filename that is entered in the "Text Sample Filename" box. Please see the supplied file "FONTSHOW.TXS". Included in this file are instructions on how to alter the text that is displayed/printed from this file. There is a primitive "word-processing" function included, allowing you to alter the size, style, indentation, font, and letter spacing of the sample text, as well as allowing you to customize the text that is printed. 3) The option to override the sample characters printed in the font catalog is provided on the settings screen. 4) The font metrics screen has been updated to reflect the user selected text colors, and the print overlay bug on that screen has been corrected. 5) The ANSI map function has been changed to use the selected font for printing all output, rather than the title font. This speeds up printing dramatically. This function is overridden for any font known as a dingbat or symbol font. On the settings screen, there are 6 fields for "Dingbat" fonts. If the font selected for the ANSI map matches any of the characters in any of the Dingbat fields, that ANSI map will alternate from the title font to the selected font in the output. An example: 1- If the selected font is Helvetica, the entire map will be printed in Helvetica, because it does not contain Dingbat, Symbol, Carta etc. anywhere in the fontname. 2- If the selected font is BillsDingbats, the map will be printed with the title font for the ANSI codes and the sample character, and will print the sample character in BillsDingbats. This is because the fontname contains the characters string DINGBAT. (Got it?) 6) Several users have requested that the sample page and ANSI map functions be added to the font catalog function. This has been implemented. From the font catalog there are now 4 functions that will be performed on the selected fonts: 1) Print font inventory 2) Print font catalog 3) Print font samples 4) Print ANSI maps In option 3 you have the option of printing ANSI maps as well for all the selected fonts in one pass through the list. FontShow will estimate the time required (based on a 386-20) and give you the option to cancel the operation. 7) Titles and margins for printed and displayed output have been standardized to allow for three-hold punching etc. 8) The show character on the font samples now prints in white inside a solid black circle. This was done just for "style". This will be optional in future releases. This does, however, give you an idea of a font's character alignment and such, some fonts will print in slightly higher or lower position in the circle, which is scaled to the font's average height or width depending on which is greater. One exception is the CARTA font. The height of the Carta font is so large that it prints a circle over 4 inches in diameter. For this reason the circle is scaled back to the actual character size for the Carta font only. If this is required for any other unusual font, let me know. 9) Printing of the show character can be suppressed by setting its size on the settings screen to 0 10) The print buttons have been altered to a 3D picture of a printer, and the display buttons have been altered to a 3D picture of a screen. 11) Other minor visual changes. The startup screen now shows a stop sign, if you want to stop, click on the stop sign. ALT-S still performs that function. The color scheme has been standardized. Version 2.1 changes removed to conserve space --------------------------------------------- History: Version 1.0 Beta release Version 2.0 First public release Version 2.1 Second public release Version 3.0 Current as of Sept. 2, 1991 Version 3.0a Current as of Sept. 2, 1991 Version 3.1 Current as of Sept. 3, 1991 Version 4.0 Current as of Sept. 15, 1991 Version 4.1 Current as of Sept. 21, 1991 Version 4.2 Current as of Sept. 24, 1991 Version 4.2a Current as of Sept. 27, 1991 Version 4.3 Current as of November 3, 1991 Version 5.0 Current as of July 1, 1992 Version 5.0a Current as of November 1, 1992