home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Fonter for Windows
-
- By
- George Campbell
-
- User's Manual
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- Fonter was designed to fill a gap in current Windows 3.0 programs.
- Since Windows can use and display many fonts, especially with
- font scaling software like ATM or FaceLift, it's easy to accumulate
- enough fonts that you soon forget what you have. Even worse, each
- company's fonts use a different character set, especially in the
- extended ASCII characters.
-
- Also, creating a notebook containing samples of all your fonts is
- a time consuming process, if you use a word processor to do the
- job. So here's Fonter, which does all that and more.
-
- Fonter runs under Windows 3.0 and lets you view and print all the
- fonts available for your printer and screen. You can use the
- program in four ways:
-
- 1. As a font viewer, with full access to both a simple
- sample of type for each font, plus an extended ASCII
- character set display, with ASCII codes beside each
- character. View your fonts in sizes from 6 to 36 points.
- NOTE: Printer fonts which lack equivalent screen fonts
- will not appear correctly on the screen, but will print
- correctly. If a font size is not available for the font
- you select, Fonter will print the closest available size.
-
- 2. As a font sample printer, which prints a sample of
- every available font, formatted on an 8.5" X 11" page.
- Again, you can select font sizes from 6 to 36 points.
- NOTE: Fixed size printer fonts can only be printed
- in their default size. Fonter ignores the size you
- choose for these fonts.
-
- 3. As a character set printer. Fonter will print a
- sheet containing either keyboard characters or the
- complete ASCII character set. You'll see the ASCII
- code for each character, it's keyboard equivalent, plus
- the character produced in the selected font. This is
- especially valuable for symbol and dingbat fonts. Here
- you're limited to sizes from 6 to 12 points, so all
- characters fit on a single page.
-
- 4. As a font book printer. Fonter will print a complete
- set of pages showing the character set for your fonts,
- plus the sheet showing all fonts. This takes a long
- time, but the finished product is worth it.
-
- You can easily see the advantage of using Fonter. You can print
- up a notebook of your fonts, with complete character sets, plus a
- single sheet that shows all your fonts at once.
-
- Even better, you can run Fonter, minimize it, then pop it up over
- any Windows 3.0 application for quick reference to your fonts.
- Once you try it, you'll wonder why Fonter wasn't around long ago.
-
- SHAREWARE INFORMATION
-
- Fonter is a shareware program, with a registration fee of only
- $15.00. If you find it useful to you, please register your copy.
- Registered users will receive the latest version of the program,
- along with my undying gratitude.
-
- To register, send a check or money order for $15.00 to:
-
- George Campbell
- 1472 Sixth Street
- Los Osos, CA 93402
-
- INSTALLING FONTER
-
- If you're using Windows, you've probably already installed a
- number of programs. If so, you can skip this section. If not,
- read on.
-
- Fonter was written in Microsoft Visual Basic. To run it, you must
- have Microsoft's run-time module file, VBRUN100.DLL, installed in
- your Windows directory. If you don't have a copy of this file,
- you'll find it on CompuServe and GEnie and on most BBS systems.
- You only need to download it once, since it works with all Visual
- Basic .EXE files.
-
- To install Fonter, either create a directory on your hard disk,
- then copy FONTER.EXE into that directory, or copy the file into
- your Windows directory.
-
- Next, start Windows and bring up the Program Manager, if that's
- not your default startup program. Click on File in the Program
- Manager's menu, then click on New and Then on OK.
-
- In the next window, type FONTER, then press the <Tab> key and
- enter the full file specification for FONTER.EXE to let Windows
- know where the program is.
-
- Click OK and the Fonter icon will appear in the program group that
- was active at the time you installed it. You may have to scroll
- to find it, but then you can move it wherever you like. Just
- remember to check the "Save Changes" box when you quit Windows to
- preserve the location of the icon.
-
- USING FONTER
-
- Fonter is very, very simple, and takes care of most chores without
- any input from you, but there are several items to talk about.
-
- First, start Fonter like any other Windows program. Just double
- click on the icon. You'll see Fonter's window.
-
- Fonter starts out in Screen Mode, as indicated in the Mode text
- box at the upper right of the window. This mode allows you to view
- fonts in the Font Sample box at the bottom right of the screen.
-
- Next, look at the top line of the screen. You'll see the familiar
- control bar, plus a minimize button. You can minimize Fonter at
- any time, then expand it by double clicking on its icon.
-
- Fonters menu bar contains just two commands, Options and About.
- The About command displays a box containing my shareware request,
- plus copyright information.
-
- If you click the Options menu command, a submenu will drop down.
- Here are the commands, from top to bottom, with descriptions of
- their functions.
-
- *Screen Display Only -- This command switched Fonter back from
- any other mode to the screen mode, the same as when you first
- ran the program.
-
- *Print All Fonts -- This command sets up Fonter to print a sheet
- or sheets containing samples of every available printer font for
- your current printer. Normally, when you click this command, you
- will see a brief description of the command's function. Just
- click OK to activate this mode. You'll see "Print all Fonts" in
- the Mode box. While in this mode, you can set the font size for
- printing, using the drop down list under the word "SIZE." The
- "FONT" list box is also active, but only affects the font sample
- display.
-
- *Print Character Set -- this command lets you print a sheet containing
- samples of the character set for the current font. Like the previous
- command, this one opens a box which describes the command's function.
- Again, click OK to activate the mode. The Mode box will reflect the
- current mode at all times. In this mode, you can set FONT and SIZE,
- in their respective drop-down list boxes. If you don't do this,
- the program will default to 12-point Courier. In order to keep the
- entire character set on a single sheet, you're limited to font\
- sizes between 6 and 12 points. Notice the "CHARACTER SET" buttons
- at the bottom left of the Fonter Window. Click either of these to
- tell Fonter whether to print just the keyboard characters or the
- full ASCII and extended ASCII character set.
-
- *Print Font Book -- This command prints a complete set of
- character set sheets for your printer, plus the Font list sheet
- described above. You'll see a message box, which can't be turned
- off, then when you click OK, the process begins. NOTE: On my
- HP LaserJet II, with a 25-Mhz machine and about 100 fonts, this
- process took over seven hours, so run this one at night or
- sometime when you don't need your system. If you need to cancel
- the operation, just click with the hourglass over the EXIT button.
- The program will abort at the end of the next font.
-
- *Display Message Boxes -- This command toggles back and forth between
- displaying the message boxes for the two previous commands. If it's
- checked, the boxes will display. Click on it to remove the
- check if you'd rather skip the message boxes. The Font Book
- message box will appear each time you give that command, just to
- make sure you recognize the long time it takes to run. At some
- point, you'll probably want to turn this off as a default. To do
- this, go back \ to the Program Manager, click once on the Fonter
- icon, then click File and Properties in Program manager. In the
- Command Line box, add a space and the letter N to the end of the
- line. Don't forget the space! From then on, Fonter will start up
- with this command unchecked.
-
- *Display ASCII Number List -- This final command in the Options
- menu toggles the screen display of ASCII characters in the Font
- Sample box. If it's checked the entire character set will appear
- in the Font Sample box for the current font. You can scroll down
- to view the ASCII code for each character. If it's not checked,
- you'll just see a brief sample of the font's appearance. Note that
- displaying the ASCII code list takes some time each time you
- change fonts, so you may want to leave this option unchecked most
- of the time. Also, the CHARACTER SET buttons control how much of
- the ASCII code is displayed.
-
- PRINTING WITH FONTER
-
- If fonter is in either the "Print All Fonts" or "Print Character
- Set" modes, as shown in the Mode box, you can print by clicking
- the START button. You'll see the familiar hourglass mouse pointer,
- and won't be able to do anything else until it's gone.
-
- BE PATIENT!
-
- Printing either the character chart or the font sample sheets takes
- some time. This is especially true if you're using ATM or have tons
- and tons of fonts. The font sample sheets take an especially long
- time, since Fonter has to load each font. Also, remember again
- that printing a font book can take HOURS!
-
- YOUR MACHINE IS NOT LOCKED UP!
-
- The process can take several minutes, but the results are worth
- it.
-
- Once the pages go to the Print Manager or other spooler, the
- arrow pointer will return and you may either select another font
- or option or exit the program.
-
- EXITING FONTER
-
- To quit Fonter, just click the EXIT button. You can quit anytime
- the arrow cursor is visible, even if your pages haven't emerged
- from the printer.
-
- CAUTION: Don't quit Fonter by rebooting your computer. If you
- do, or indeed, quit Windows itself by rebooting, you'll leave a
- huge swap file in your Windows directory. If this should happen,
- delete the file before restarting Windows. This isn't a Fonter
- thing, but is in Windows itself.
-
- REMEMBER: BE PATIENT DURING PRINTING!
-
- THANKS for trying Fonter. Remember--if you like this program,
- or any other shareware program, you have a responsibility to
- register your copy. That's what keeps us shareware programmers
- in business, after all.
-
-
-