Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaUtilCD2.iso/Misc/PFONTM-A.DMS/in.adf/Chapter07

Text File | 1995-11-12 | 48.2 KB | 1,012 lines

"Personal Fonts Maker -  7. PFM: The Preferences Menu"

 7.  PFM: The Preferences Menu
  7.1  Load Preferences
  7.2  Save Preferences
  7.3  Font Description
       7.3.1  X Max
       7.3.2  Y Max
       7.3.3  X Dpi
       7.3.4  Y Dpi
       7.3.5  Prologue
       7.3.6  ON Sequence
       7.3.7  OFF Sequence
       7.3.8  Epilogue
       7.3.9  Range
  7.4  Italic Factor
  7.5  Coordinates
       7.5.1  Start 0:0
       7.5.2  Start 1:1
  7.6  Grid
       7.6.1  Lines
       7.6.2  Dots
  7.7  Workbench
       7.7.1  Open
       7.7.2  Closed
  7.8  Icons
       7.8.1  No
       7.8.2  Yes (Default Font Icon)
       7.8.3  Yes (Character Font Icon)
  7.9  Joined Fonts
  7.10 Stretch
       7.10.1 Proportional X
       7.10.2 Maximum X
       7.10.3 Recall & Stretch
  7.11 File Requester
       7.11.1 Expand Path
       7.11.2 List Icons
       7.11.3 Double-Click
       7.11.4 Confirm Overwriting
  7.12 Language
  7.13 Audio
  7.14 Colour Bias



"Personal Fonts Maker -  7. PFM: The Preferences Menu"


7.         PFM: The Preferences Menu

   All the functions described in this chapter deal with program and font
parameters. Section 2.6 should be carefully read for a better
understanding of the sections contained here. The menu is called
"Preferences" because the functions which can be accessed through this
menu allow the user to custom-tailor the program to the most different
needs and tastes.


7.1        Load Preferences

   As already explained in section 2.6 ("Program and Font Parameters"),
all parameters of the Personal Fonts Maker can be saved to a file.

   The standard file requester, described in section 3.23, is used to
select the file to be loaded. By default, the drawer where the program
loads and saves parameter files is "PFM_Prefs", in the "PFM" volume.

   As described in section 2.6, the Personal Fonts Maker has two font
environments. Each of the two has a full set of font parameters,
completely independent of the other environment. The program parameters,
however, are shared by the two environments. When a parameter file is
loaded, it affects the program parameters used by both font environments,
but only the font parameters of the current font environment. If a
parameter file contains some font parameters which are to be used from
both environments, that file must be loaded two times: once from each font
environment. The "StartupF1.prf" and "StartupF2.prf" files in the
"PFM:PFM_Prefs" drawer contain the initial settings for the two
environments. The Personal Fonts Maker automatically tries to load these
two parameter files when the program is started.

   A parameter file can contain the user interface preferences, the FFDL
sequences for a particular printer, format information for the dynamic
view screen or just a nice screen colour setting. All these parameters,
and many more, can also be stored together in the same file. This is
usually the case of the files containing the program's initial default
parameter settings (sections 1.11 and 2.6).

   The Personal Fonts Maker does not put a minimum or maximum limit to the
number of parameters which can be set in a file. If the file being loaded
contains only a few assignments, the program will modify only the
variables referenced to in the file. No other program or font parameters
are modified.

   It is often useful to extract and use only some parameters from a
longer parameter file. If, for example, a file contains definitions for
screen colours, audio volume, font format and FFDL sequences, but only the
latter are to be loaded, the variables must be "filtered". A second
requester, displayed after the file requester, allows the user to select
the variables which will be considered when the program reads a parameter
file. The requester is called the filter requester.

   The filter requester contains two groups of gadgets. On the left, the
gadgets referred to program parameters, on the right those relative to
font parameters. Each gadget has a four character abbreviation associated
with a variable, as described in section 2.6. The gadgets can either be
highlighted or not highlighted. The parameter name in highlighted gadgets
is light green on a darker background. Only the parameters associated with
the highlighted gadgets are read by the program. All other parameters in
the file are skipped. This makes it possible to selectively load only part
of the parameters in a file, without affecting the other variables.

   When a gadget is selected with the mouse it changes state. A
highlighted gadgets becomes non-highlighted, and vice versa. As there are
more than 25 gadgets in the filter requester, the program offers some
shortcuts to quickly change the state of an entire group of gadgets. When
the <Cursor Left> key is pressed, all program parameter gadgets become
non-highlighted. Pressing the <Cursor Right> key, the same happens for the
font parameter gadgets. While the <Shift> key is held down, the two cursor
keys can be used to highlight the gadgets.

   The loading of a parameter file can be cancelled by selecting the
"Cancel" gadget of either the file requester or the filter requester. As
described in section 2.6, if an error is found in the selected parameter
file all parameters in the file are ignored and an error message is
displayed. This cannot happen if the parameter file was written by the
Personal Fonts Maker, but is not impossible if the user typed the file
using a word processor or a text editor. Appendix G explains the possible
error messages.

   One of the most common uses of this function is to select different
FFDL sequences and font formats. The Personal Fonts Maker comes with
several predefined parameter files which can be used to download fonts in
different formats to the most different printers.


7.2        Save Preferences

   This function is the opposite of "Load Preferences". The font
parameters of the current font environment and the program parameters can
be saved to a file to be loaded again when necessary.

   The standard file requester (section 3.23) is used to specify where the
file is to be saved, and with what name. As described in section 7.11.4, a
warning message can be displayed if a file with the same name would be
overwritten by the new file.

   The filter requester (section 7.1) allows the user to determine which
variables are to be saved in the selected file. Only the variables
associated with the highlighted gadgets are saved. If the file is loaded
again later, the parameters associated with the gadgets which were not
highlighted when the file was saved are not affected, even if the same
gadgets in the filter requester of the load operation are highlighted. It
is important that when a parameter file is created, only the parameters
which are really necessary for the purpose of that file are stored. All
other parameters should be deselected with the filter requester. For
example, if a file intended to describe a particular font format is saved,
the colour settings should not be included, as a subsequent loading of
that file could cause the user interface colours to be changed even if
this was not expected. In general, it is advisable to have all gadgets
highlighted only to save the initial startup parameter files.

   The operation can be interrupted by selecting the "Cancel" gadget of
either the file requester, the overwrite warning message or the filter
requester. Sections 14.1 ("Problems with disks") and appendix G contain
useful information on how to deal with problems and errors which may be
encountered during the save operation.

   As explained in section 2.6 ("Program and Font Parameters"), a
parameter file is a plain ASCII text file. When the Personal Fonts Maker
stores a parameter file, it does not put any comments in the file, and
uses only a minimum of spaces and empty lines to make the file more
readable (for the user). If a word processor or text editor is used to
write a parameter file, and the same file is then loaded and saved again
by the Personal Fonts Maker, comments, additional spaces and new lines are
stripped. Lower case letters in variable names are converted to capital
letters.

   This function can be used to store the initial default values for all
parameters used by the Personal Fonts Maker. Once the parameters are set,
they can be stored in the "StartupF1.prf" and "StartupF2.prf" files, in
the "PFM_Prefs" drawer of the "PFM" volume. These are the parameter files
which the Personal Fonts Maker tries to load after it is started. Section
1.11, 1.12 and 2.6 contain additional information on this operation.


7.3        Font Description

   This function displays a requester which allows the user to modify the
font description parameters. The parameters which can be set include all
font parameters, except those regarding the character set (section 4.8),
the grid of the character editing box (section 7.6) and the italic factor
(section 7.4). Font parameters differ from the remaining program
parameters since there are two sets of font parameters (one for each font
environment), while the program parameters are shared by both font
environments.

   This requester allows the user to define not only the sizes and the
proportions of the font, but also how a font in that format is to be
written when the FFDL is used to output the data. Section 2.7
("Programming the Output Format: the Cloanto FFDL") has more on this
subject.

   Before a font in a format other than the current one is designed or
loaded, the new format should be specified through this requester. If this
is not done before a font in a different format is loaded, a requester
appears which allows the user to stretch the font to the current format or
adapt the current font format to that of the selected font, as described
in section 4.3. A similar requester (without the "Adapt" gadget) appears
if the font format is modifed while a font is stored in the current font
environment's memory. If, for example, the user modifies the "Y Max"
parameter (section 7.3.2) while a font is being edited, the program can
stretch the font conforming to the current stretch mode, if allowed by the
user. Sections 4.3 ("Load PFM Font") and 7.10 ("Stretch") explain this
operation in more detail.

   The requester described here contains all the parameters usually
necessary to define the format in which a printer downloadable font is to
be designed and sent to the printer. Different font descriptions can be
created for different printers or different formats of the same printer
(e.g. draft vs. letter quality). These different font format descriptions
can be saved, as explained in section 7.2 ("Save Preferences"), to create
a library of the most used font formats. The Personal Fonts Maker comes
with different font format parameter files, as described in section 12.6.

   The "Font Description" requester contains different string gadgets.
Section 1.9.6 ("String Gadgets") explains how to modify the text in the
string gadgets. The following subsections explain the use of each gadget
in detail.


7.3.1      X Max

   This parameter defines the maximum width, in dots, of the characters in
the font. If the characters are proportionally spaced their width can be
any value from 1 to "X Max". The valid range for "X Max" is from 1 to 255.
If it is necessary to have fixed pitch characters, all characters in the
font should be "X Max" dots wide. Sections 4.6 ("Export Amiga Font") and
8.14 ("Fixed Pitch") contain additional information on fixed-width fonts.

   The "X Max" parameter only limits the range of the "X Size" of each
character. The "Space" and "Kerning" parameters (sections 3.5 and 3.6) can
be used to add additional spaces to the left and the right of the
character, making the total character width larger than "X Max".

   When the font description is used to define the format of printer
downloadable fonts, this parameter is usually the same as the maximum
character width allowed for the particular font format. This limit is
printer specific. For example, some printers cannot handle characters
wider than 36-37 dots in the proportionally spaced letter quality format.
In other printers, the only limit is the amount of available (printer)
memory. On most printers, however, characters cannot be wider than 255
dots, as the character width is stored in a single byte.

   When the Personal Fonts Maker is used to save a font in the Amiga font
format, this parameter is saved as the Amiga "X Size" (font width)
parameter of the Amiga font. Section 4.6 ("Export Amiga Font") has more on
this.

   Sections 2.6.24 and 2.7.2.21 explain the use of XMAX as a font
parameter and as an FFDL variable, respectively.


7.3.2      Y Max

   This parameter determines the maximum height of the characters in the
font. The bitmap of the characters is always tall enough to contain an
image "Y Max" dots high. The value assigned to "Y Max" must be in the
range from 1 to 255.

   As far as the character bitmaps, the reference points and other
character relative data are concerned, "Y Max" is a constant, more than a
maximum value. Unlike the character width, which can be varied from
character to character to modify the character's "X Size", there is no
equivalent for the character height. Once the height of the font has been
determined by setting "Y Max", all characters in that font will have that
size. This does not mean that the actual height of each character's image
will be equal to that maximum. In fact, it is even possible that not even
one character in the font will reach the maximum height allowed by the
font format. The value assigned to "Y Max" is often chosen to accommodate
a particular printer download format, or a program's screen font format,
rather than the real font size.

   As described in section 1.4 ("File Names and Titles"), it is useful to
append a suffix, indicating a font's size, after the font name when the
font is stored. A font which fits in 24 dots, for example, could be named
"Font_24.fnt". This would immediately identify the font as being
downloadable to a 24-pin printer. Like the typographical point size
(section 2.3), the "Y Max" parameter can become the unit after which a
font is chosen.

   This parameter is called "Character Height" in the documentation of
some printers. When a font is saved in the Amiga format, the value
contained in this variable is stored in the Amiga equivalent parameter
called "Y Size".

   Sections 2.6.26 and 2.7.2.25 explain the use of YMAX as a font
parameter and as an FFDL variable, respectively. As described in section
2.7.2.26, this parameter can also be accessed as the YSIZ FFDL variable.
YSIZ is a copy of YMAX, existing only to form a logical pair with XSIZ.


7.3.3      X Dpi

   This parameter, in conjunction with "Y Dpi", determines the ratio at
which the character images in the font are to be displayed and printed.

   "Dpi" means "Dots per Inch". The value should be set to the number of
adjacent dots which can be printed (or displayed) in a horizontal row (one
inch long) by the device generating the final font output. The resolution
of a printer is usually 180, 300, 360 or 400 dpi, while an average monitor
cannot display more than 100 pixels per inch. Professional printers can
print at resolutions of 1200 and even 2400 or more dpi.

   Since the horizontal resolution is often different from the vertical
resolution, the program checks "X Dpi" and "Y Dpi" to ensure that the
characters in the editing box are displayed in the same proportions as
those of the final output. For example, if a printer's resolution in the
selected print mode is 360 dpi horizontally, and 180 dpi vertically, the
dots in the character editing box are also displayed twice as tall as they
are wide. For this purpose, it would be the same to specify 360 and 180 or
2 and 1 in the "X Dpi" and "Y Dpi" string gadgets, as the ratios of 360 to
180 and 2 to 1 are the same. The display ratio of the character editing
box is calculated by dividing the "X Dpi" value by "Y Dpi", in
consideration of the current screen mode (e.g. PAL or NTSC).

   The "Edit Character Set" function (section 4.11) automatically sets
both values to the current screen resolution. This information is supplied
by the Amiga operating system. In a standard (640 by 200 pixels) NTSC
screen the default values are 65 and 28, respectively. In a 640 by 256
PAL-mode screen the values are 62 ("X Dpi") and 33 ("Y Dpi").

   As described in section 7.10 ("Stretch") the Personal Fonts Maker uses
the density information to stretch the character images between different
formats. These transformations are necessary to ensure, for example, that
an 'o' letter which is round in one font will not look elliptical when it
is moved to another font, or when the format of the original font is
modified.

   Sections 2.7.2.20 and 2.7.2.24 explain how the XDPI and YDPI variables
can be accessed in a FFDL sequence.


7.3.4      Y Dpi

   This parameter is similar to "X Dpi", but measures the density of the
dots in a vertical (rather than horizontal) column (one inch high). The
Personal Fonts Maker needs both values to be correctly set, since on many
output devices the vertical resolution can be different from the
horizontal one. The correct display ratio of the character editing box
(i.e. the dimensions of the single dots) can only be calculated if both
valued are set.

   Section 7.3.3 ("X Dpi") has additional general information on both
parameters.


7.3.5      Prologue

   This and the successive three string gadgets ("ON Sequence", "OFF
Sequence" and "Epilogue") are used to define the FFDL sequences which have
to be used to output the current font in a user-defined format. Section
2.4 ("Storage of Fonts") contains a general description of all the
possible formats in which the Personal Fonts Maker can save a font.
Section 2.7 ("Programming the Output Format: the Cloanto FFDL") explains
how to write an output format description using the Font Format
Description Language. Sections 4.12 ("Printer Test") and 4.13 ("Write Font
Data") describe the functions which use FFDL sequences to output the font
data.

   To output a font's data in a format described through the Font Format
Description Language, the Personal Fonts Maker goes through three
different steps. First, it outputs the data associated with the "Prologue"
FFDL sequence. Then, for every character in the specified range (section
7.3.9) it executes either the "ON Sequence" (section 7.3.6) or the "OFF
Sequence" (section 7.3.7), depending on the character's status. Finally,
the program executes the FFDL sequence specified in "Epilogue" (section
7.3.8).

   In the case of a printer's font download format description the
"Prologue" sequence usually contains at least the control codes to select
a printer ROM font/mode (e.g. fixed-pitch draft, or proportional letter
quality) and copy the ROM font to the printer's RAM (see "Downloaded
Printer Fonts", section 2.5), where some (or all) characters will be
overwritten by those downloaded by the Personal Fonts Maker.

   On some printers a command must be issued (at the beginning of the
prologue) to specify how much memory is to be reserved for downloaded
fonts and in which order one or more fonts are to occupy that memory. For
example, on the NEC Pinwriter Plus series of printers, the FFDL sequence
"FS \W (0)" can be used to set the printer so that two fonts with a
maximum of 128 characters (7-bit codes) can be downloaded, while "FS \W
(1)" will reserve the entire memory for a full 256-character font. On
other printers similar operations can be performed by setting one or more
dip-switches as appropriate (also see section 14.2, "Problems with
Printers").

   Other printers, like the HP LaserJet series and compatibles, require a
substantially more complex prologue, specifying the name of the font and
several other font attributes. This is explained better in the
documentation of the printer being used.

   The parameter files which come with the Personal Fonts Maker (section
12.6) contain font descriptions for different printer download formats and
other useful applications. The files can be loaded and examined for a
better understanding of the Font Format Description Language.


7.3.6      ON Sequence

   This FFDL sequence is executed for every character in the specified
range which is "On".

   In the case of a printer download format description, this FFDL
sequence outputs all the data relative to the character currently
processed. Section 13.4 ("Downloading a Font to the Printer") contains
more information on this subject.


7.3.7      OFF Sequence

   This is the FFDL sequence which the program executes for every "Off"
character in the selected range.

   This sequence is usually not defined (i.e. the string gadget is left
empty) in a printer download format description, as the purpose of the
"On/Off" status (section 3.10) is to separate the characters which must be
downloaded from those which are not. "Off" characters are generally not
downloaded.

   This sequence can be useful, for example, when the Font Format
Description Language is used to generate a textual description of a font.
Section 13.6 ("Creating a Word Processor Font Size Table") describes such
an application. Another application is the output of "dummy" characters
having zero-width, if it is not possible to simply skip "Off" characters.


7.3.8      Epilogue

   This FFDL sequence is executed only once, after all other sequences. In
the case of a font download, the commands which instruct the printer to
use the font which has just been downloaded are placed here.


7.3.9      Range

   The "On" and "Off" sequences can be repeated for an entire range of
characters in a font. The "Repeat Sequences from # / to #" string gadgets
allow the user to specify the codes of the first and the last characters
through which the program has to cycle.

   The second code must be equal to or higher than the first code (if no
negative codes with special meaning are used). The valid range is 0 to
255. The undefined character (code 256) cannot be accessed. The program
automatically replaces an out-of-range code with the closest valid value.
The Personal Fonts Maker can also reverse two codes if necessary (e.g.
RNGE 33 126 is the same as RNGE 126 33).

   Three negative values are also accepted, but have a special meaning if
they are used to define the limits of the range. -1 (minus one) means "The
First 'On' Character" if it appears in the first string gadget and "The
Last 'On' Character" if it is written in the second gadget. -2 (minus two)
is interpreted as "The First 'Off' Character" if it appears in the first
string gadget and "The Last 'Off' Character" if it is written in the
second gadget. At least one "On" or "Off" character must exist for the -1
and -2 codes, respectively,  to work properly. If this is not the case,
the output function ("Printer Test" or "Write Font Data", sections 4.12
and 4.13) will fail. -3 (minus three) stands for "The Current Character",
which is the character which was displayed in the character editing box
before the execution of the FFDL sequences began. It should be noted that
these negative values displayed in the string gadgets are not converted to
a positive character code by the program, but are only interpreted in a
special way during the execution of the FFDL sequences. When the requester
is displayed again after the execution of the sequences, the negative
values will still be there.

   For every character in the selected range, the appropriate FFDL
sequence is executed to output the data (more in section 2.7.2, "FFDL
Variables"). For every "On" character in the range the "On" sequence is
executed, while the "Off" sequence is executed when an "Off" character is
encountered. The characters are always processed starting from the
character in the range having the lowest code, and increasing the value by
one unit for every cycle.

   As explained before, the Personal Fonts Maker performs a validity check
on the values used to define the range. Sometimes, however, a valid range
may cause an error when the FFDL sequences are executed. For example, if a
range from -1 to 100 is specified, meaning "from the first 'On' character
to the character whose code is 100", but if the first "On" character is
120, or no such character exists, the sequence cannot be executed. If the
output of the font data is requested ("Printer Test", section 4.12 and
"Write Font Data", section 4.13) in a similar condition, an error message
is displayed and the title bar contains information in a format similar to
the following:

     Writing in progress (120-100)      - Bytes written: 0
     Writing in progress (?-100)        - Bytes written: 0

   If the range delimits the characters to be downloaded to a printer,
some printer-dependent rules should be applied. Most printers will not
work properly if characters with codes equal to control codes (e.g. ESC,
decimal code 27) are downloaded. This does not normally happen, as
non-graphical characters are usually marked as "Off", but it is a good
practice to always let the range start from the code 32 (Space Character)
and end at 126 (seven bit codes, where 127 is a control code) or 255
(eight bit codes). The beginning of the range should be lowered as
appropriate if any redefined characters have codes smaller than 32. Some
printers will not accept the download of characters having the 8th bit set
(i.e. codes greater than 127). In this case, the range should not exceed
the 127th character, and the Printer Driver Modifier (chapters 9 to 11)
should be used if any characters in the texts to be printed have a code
greater than 127.


7.4        Italic Factor

   This parameter determines how much the "Italicize" brush function
(section 5.6) should slant the image to the right. Each font environment
may have a different "Italic Factor" parameter.

   When the "Italicize" function is executed, the program starts counting
from the bottom of the brush image. After the number of lines determined
through this parameter is counted, all remaining (upper) lines are moved
to the right by one dot position and the count restarts.

   The possible values range from 1 to 255. Lower values yield more
slanted images. A value of one, for example, causes a vertical line to be
slanted by 45 degrees if the horizontal and the vertical densities are the
same. The "Italicize" function modifies the image only if the number of
lines which make up the brush is greater than the "Italic Factor" value.

   To obtain optically equivalent levels of italic characters among
different font formats, each format's display ratio must be considered to
set the italic factor.


7.5        Coordinates

   This parameter determines whether (and how) some information regarding
the current dot-position in the character editing box is to be displayed
on the title bar. The status of the parameter can be modified by selecting
one of the two subitems, called "Start 0:0" and "Start 1:1". The modes
associated with these two menu subitems are described in the following
subsections.

   Either one or none of the two subitems can be selected. When a subitem
is selected, a checkmark appears on the left of the text, as described in
section 1.9.8 ("Menus"), and the associated coordinates display mode is
activated.

   To display the coordinates, the Personal Fonts Maker reserves a small
part on the right of the title bar. Two values are displayed in this
little rectangle, indicating respectively the horizontal ("X") and the
vertical ("Y") position in the character editing box, starting from the
top left of the box. When the mouse pointer is not over the character
editing box, no value is displayed.

   While a mouse button is held down to perform an operation in the
editing box, the displayed values are relative coordinates, indicating the
distance from the dot which was under the pointer when the mouse button
was pressed. In this mode, a '+' (plus) or '-' (minus) sign is displayed
before each number. A negative horizontal position indicates that the
current position is to the left of the starting dot. A negative vertical
position indicates that the current position is over that dot.

   Some macro commands (chapter 6, "Macros") are followed by coordinates
indicating a position in the character editing box. Whenever one of these
commands (e.g. MOVE) is executed, the Personal Fonts Maker updates the
coordinates, just as if the function was called manually by the user.

   The coordinate display mode can be terminated by clicking the box
containing the coordinates with the mouse, or deselecting the menu subitem
associated with the display mode, as described in section 1.9.8
("Menus").

   The following two subsections describe the differences between the two
coordinates display modes. The sections have the same name as the menu
subitems they refer to.


7.5.1      Start 0:0

   When this mode is selected, the coordinates are displayed starting from
the origin as 0:0. This means that the values displayed for the horizontal
and vertical positions will be zero when the current position is over the
origin. This is also valid for relative coordinates.

   The coordinates are displayed on the title bar introduced by lower case
'x' and 'y' letters. Upper case letters are used if the origin is 1:1
("Start 1:1" option).


7.5.2      Start 1:1

   In this mode, the coordinates are displayed counting from 1:1 as the
origin. The origin itself is on the same position as in the "Start 0:0"
mode, but is addressed differently. The value zero is never used, neither
for vertical nor horizontal position values, neither in the relative nor
in the absolute coordinates mode. When the current position is over the
origin, the two values are set to one. The coordinates on the title bar
are introduced by capital 'X' and 'Y' letters, to distinguish them from
coordinates having 0:0 as their point of origin (introduced by lower case
letters).

   Relative coordinates also start from +1:+1. The dot at the top left of
the +1:+1 position (the origin) is -1:-1.

   This mode affects only the way coordinates are displayed on the title
bar. Coordinate values used in macros are always interpreted in the same
way, as described in chapter 6 ("Macros").


7.6        Grid

   The character editing box, described in depth in section 3.1, displays
an enlarged copy of the current character's image. This parameter
determines how each dot which makes up the character image is to be
separated from the dots surrounding it.

   Two modes can be selected and deselected by the user. These are
described in detail in the following two subsections. If no mode is
selected, adjacent dots in the character editing box are not separated.
This can be useful to see what a character will look like when it is
printed or displayed. The size of the character editing box may be reduced
(section 3.13, "The 'Smaller' Gadget") to bring the size of the displayed
character down towards the size of the printed character.


7.6.1      Lines

   When this mode is selected, a grid of lines is displayed over the
entire character editing box. The resulting pattern creates a small
outlined box for each dot. The lines are displayed in dark green if the
character is "On", light green otherwise.


7.6.2      Dots

   This mode is similar to the "Lines" mode, only that the lines which
make up the grid have the same colour as the background of the character
editing box. The grid is invisible when the box is empty, but causes
adjacent (coloured) dots to be separated by a thin line. This makes the
individual dots easily recognizable.


7.7        Workbench

   The Personal Fonts Maker lallows the user to close the Workbench screen
(normally used by the Amiga operating system to display disk icons, Shell
and CLI windows and any windows opened by other programs) manually.

   The Workbench screen is public, and can be closed only if it does not
contain other windows than those used to display the contents of disks (or
other volumes) and drawers. Any other windows are linked to different
programs, which must be terminated to close the respective windows.

   More than 40 Kbytes of RAM are freed when a PAL-size Workbench screen
of 256 lines, 640 pixels wide, with four colours (two bit planes) is
closed. The Personal Fonts Maker automatically tries to close the
Workbench screen if it does not find a memory expansion on a 512 Kbyte
Amiga system. This is a feature of the memory save mode. As described in
section 1.11, this mode can be activated manually by holding the <F1> key
down while the program is starting.


7.7.1      Open

   This function tries to open the Workbench screen, if it is not already
open. If there is not enough chip memory to open the screen, an error
message is displayed (appendix G).


7.7.2      Closed

   When this command is selected, the program tries to close the Workbench
screen. If the operation is impossible (as described in the introduction
to this section), an error message is displayed.


7.8        Icons

   When a file is written by the Personal Fonts Maker, a Workbench icon
(section 1.9.7) can automatically be saved with it. An icon is a
particular kind of gadget, displayed by the Workbench program, which makes
a file immeditately recognizable through a graphical image. Icons can be
used to select, load, rename, copy or delete the associated file (or
drawer, or volume) using the mouse.

   This parameter allows the user to decide whether (and how) a graphic
Workbench icon is to be linked with and saved together with the file. The
following subsections explain the three possible choices in detail.


7.8.1      No

   A small disadvantage of icons is that they contain graphical data,
which requires some - though not a lot of - memory. The Personal Fonts
Maker's data file icons occupy less than 488 bytes of memory. For the more
technically interested users, this means that an icon occupies only one
disk sector on any Amiga filing system (a sector in the original non-FFS
Amiga filing system can store 488 bytes of data), plus one sector for the
directory entry. More than 800 of these icons can fit on a standard 880
Kbyte disk.

   If the disk space is to be highly optimized, or if icons are never
used, this option can be selected to save files without an associated
icon.


7.8.2      Yes (Default Font Icon)

   When this option is selected, the Personal Fonts Maker automatically
associates a Workbench icon with each file which is written. Different
icon images are used to distinguish between the files saved by the
program. Font files, character set files, printer download files, brush
files, macro files and parameter files all have a different icon. The icon
images are designed to make the different file types immediately
recognizable from the icon.

   Icons are never saved when a font is stored in the Amiga font format.


7.8.3      Yes (Character Font Icon)

   This option causes the program to save files just like in the "Default
Font Icon" mode, with one difference regarding font files. An image of the
character displayed in the character editing box is used instead of the
default icon image. This makes different fonts saved in the Personal Fonts
Maker font file format distinguishable through the icon.

   If, for example a font is saved when the 'B' letter of that font is
displayed in the character editing box, the image of that letter is used
to create the file's icon.


7.9        Joined Fonts

   As described in section 3.2 ("The 'Font' Gadget"), it is possible to
work on two fonts at the same time. Very often, this implies that data is
to be moved between characters having the same code in both fonts.

   If this option is not selected, the user, when moving to the other
font, would find the current character still the same as when that font
was last edited. The selection of a new current character in one font does
not make the character with the same code in the other font the current
character of that font. The current characters of the two fonts may have
different codes.

   With this option activated, both font environments always have the same
current character. This is extremely useful if both fonts use the same
character sets (i.e. characters in the same positions have the same
default image) and the two fonts are being compared, or one font is being
used as the basis for a new font. This is the default mode of the Personal
Fonts Maker, and works both during manual operations and when macros are
executed.


7.10       Stretch

   The Personal Fonts Maker can deal with fonts in different sizes and
resolutions (section 7.3, "Font Description"). In some cases, when a
character's image or an entire font are to be loaded or copied to a font
environment having a different format, the program can automatically
stretch the character images. This can be done when a font is loaded, when
an Amiga font is imported and when the format of the current format is
modified by setting the parameters with the requester or loading a
parameter file. The stretch functions are also used to calculate the value
which replaces a '+' sign written in the "X Size", "Space" and "Kerning"
gadgets, as described in sections 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6.

   The user can modify the way images are stretched, as described in
detail in the following subsections.


7.10.1     Proportional X

   The Personal Fonts Maker can employ two different techniques to stretch
images. These affect the way fonts are adapted when they are converted
into a new format, the stretching of an image with the "Paste from Buffer"
function (sections 3.12 and 7.10.3) and the value which automatically
replaces a '+' (plus) sign written in the "X Size", "Space" and "Kerning"
string gadgets (sections 3.4 to 3.6).

   "Proportional X" means that the aspect of the image, i.e. the X/Y
ratio, remains unchanged after the stretching. A character stretched with
this technique may look smaller or larger, but not taller or wider.

   The amount by which an image is to be enlarged or reduced is calculated
by the difference in the heights of the source and destination formats.
The image width is modified consequently, taking into account any
differences between the densities of the original and the new format. This
conversion can have one drawback: after an image has been stretched, the
new character width may exceed the maximum width ("X Max", section 7.3.1)
defined by the target format. In this case, some columns of dots on the
right of the image have to be cut. To avoid this, unless the "Maximum X"
mode (section 7.10.2) is selected, the "X Max" parameter of the target
format should be set sufficiently high so that the characters fit in the
new format without having to be cut.


7.10.2     Maximum X

   This mode, as opposed to "Proportional X", optimizes the use of the
available horizontal space, but does not necessarily maintain the original
proportions. The height is always the maximum ("Y Max") defined by the
format. This technique stretches the image without modifying the ratio of
the image width ("X Size") to the maximum width ("X Max").

   For example, if a character 14 dots wide ("X Size") has to be converted
from a 20 ("X Max") by 10 ("Y Max") font with an X/Y ratio of 2 to 1 (two
horizontal units equal one vertical unit, i.e. the dots are taller than
they are wide) to a new format of 30 x 40 with a ratio of 1 : 1, the
character will become 28 dots wide with the "Proportional X" technique
(therefore maintaining the original aspect). If the "Maximum X" technique
is chosen instead, the character is stretched to a width of 21 dots (21 is
70% of 30, just as 14 was 70% of 20). In both cases, the height of the new
image is the maximum possible height ("Y Max"), i.e. 40 dots, versus the
10 dots of the original format.


7.10.3     Recall & Stretch

   The same techniques used to stretch an entire font can be employed by
the program to adapt the character stored in the buffer (section 3.11,
3.12) to the format of the current font environment. This may be necessary
after a character copied from one font is pasted into the other font,
having a different format.

   If the "Recall & Stretch" mode is selected, the Personal Fonts Maker
stretches the image stored in the character buffer before it is pasted to
a font having a format different than the font from which the character
was copied. If this function is disabled by the user, or if it is not
needed because the data in the buffer has the same format as the current
font environment, the image is copied as it is stored in the buffer, dot
by dot.


7.11       File Requester

   This group of parameters allows the user to control some aspects of the
file requester (section 3.23). Each parameter is associated with a menu
subitem which can be selected and deselected with the mouse (section
1.9.8, "Menus"). The following subsections explain each parameter in
detail.


7.11.1     Expand Path

   This parameter determines whether the program can modify the content of
the "Path" string gadget of the file requester.

   If the option is enabled (as it is by default), the Personal Fonts
Maker transforms device names (e.g. "DF0") into volume names (e.g. "PFM
Disk"). This facilitates the access of files stored on disks (or other
media) which are moved from one drive to another. Also, logical names
(like "PFM") are expanded to the full paths (e.g. "Work:Programs/PFM")
originally assigned to them. This makes it easier for the user to
understand the position of each file. The file requester's directory lists
can be stored more efficiently if this option is enabled (multiple
occurrences of the same list are always recognized).

   If the option is disabled, the program never modifies the names which
are written in the "Path" string gadget. This may be useful if logical
names are used on purpose, for example if the "PFM" logical name is used
to access files in an installation-independent manner. This is necessary
if the path name has to be stored in a parameter file which could be
loaded by another user on a different computer. It may not be possible for
a full path valid on one system, like "Work:Programs/PFM", to be
interpreted on another computer, where the Personal Fonts Maker is stored
in a different drawer. In this case, logical names must be used. Sections
1.12 ("Environment Variables and Standard Drawers") and 12.4 ("AskAssign")
explain how to work with logical names.


7.11.2     List Icons

   As explained in sections 1.9.7 ("The User Interface/Icons") and 7.8
("Preferences/Icons"), the Amiga environment and the Personal Fonts Maker
in particular have the ability to associate graphical icons to files and
drawers. An icon is stored in a separate file, having the same name as the
file plus the ".info" suffix. The file containing the icon data for the
"Oberon_24.fnt" font file, for example, would be "Oberon_24.fnt.info".
Versions of the Amiga operating system beyond 1.3 may also use ".icon"
files to store additional information on the icons contained in drawers.

   Icons are useful when their images appear in the Workbench environment,
but having the names of all ".info" and ".icon" files displayed in the
list box is, under normal circumstances, a waste of space. If all files
had icons, the list box would have to contain at least twice as many
names. By default, the Personal Fonts Maker does not show icon files in
the list box, but this parameter can be set to include ".info" and ".icon"
files as well.

   The so-called "dot-files" are never inserted in the list box. These are
all the files whose name begins with a '.' sign (ASCII decimal code 46).
By convention, these files contain system and program environment
information not to be accessed by the user.


7.11.3     Double-Click

   When this option is selected, the names displayed in the list box of
the file requester can be selected by double-clicking the left mouse
button. The requester disappears as if the "Proceed" gadget had been
selected. The speed at which the button must be pressed can be set through
the Amiga Preferences, as described in the Amiga documentation.

   If the option is disabled, the names can still be selected with the
mouse, but double-clicks are not interpreted in any special way.

   This parameter also affects the response of some macro requesters to
double-clicks, as described in chapter 6.


7.11.4     Confirm Overwriting

   This parameter affects only the requesters used to define a name for a
file to be written by the Personal Fonts Maker. If this parameter is set,
a second requester is displayed if the file already exists and would be
overwritten by the operation being executed.

   The warning requester contains two gadgets: "Proceed" and "Cancel". If
"Cancel" is selected, the function is aborted, and no file is written.


7.12       Language

   Some versions of the Personal Fonts Maker come with user interface
texts in different languages. The "Language" menu item has one subitem for
each available language. With this option, it is possible to select the
language used to display all menus, gadgets and program texts.

   This parameter does not set the keyboard language, which must be
selected as described in section 1.10.1 ("The SetMap Command").


7.13       Audio

   The audio of the Personal Fonts Maker consists of the sounds which are
emitted when different functions are selected. The audio is stereophonic.
This means that all sound signals are emitted more or less differently on
two audio channels.

   Two knobs, similar to the ones used to modify the colours (section
7.14), can be used separately to set the volume of error- and cue-sound.
The cue signals are sounds emitted when a key is hit, or a gadget or menu
item is selected. All other sounds are error (or warning) signals.

   A number on the right of each knob indicates the volume level. This can
range from 0 to 64. By default, the volume of error sounds is higher than
that used for other sounds.

   As explained in sections 1.11 ("Loading the Personal Fonts Maker") and
1.13 ("Installing the Personal Fonts Maker"), the audio only works if the
program can activate the CloantoAudio unit. The Personal Fonts Maker may
have the audio unused as a default to save memory on systems with 512
Kbytes of RAM and no memory expansion. Section 1.11 describes the memory
save mode in more depth.


7.14       Colour Bias

   The default screen opened by the Personal Fonts Maker uses eight
different colours. With this function, all user interface colours,
including those of the mouse pointer, can be changed. In this
documentation, the colours used by the program in certain circumstances
are often mentioned. The colours which are described are, of course, the
standard default colours, and can become meaningless if modified by the
user.

   The Personal Fonts Maker uses different levels of shadows and other
visual effects to improve the general "look and feel" of the user
interface. This requires that each colour be in a given relationship with
all other colours. For example, it would look rather odd if a blue object
on a red surface had a yellow shadow. For this reason, it is not possible
to modify each colour separately from the others, but only the entire
colour environment as a whole. The three knobs displayed in the requester
described here allow the user to select about 30.000 variations on the
default colour pattern.

   Each colour displayed on the screen is composed of different amounts of
red, green and blue mixed together. Each of these three basic components
is measured in a scale from 0 (none) to 15 (maximum). Black, for example,
has the three levels set to 0, while the colour yellow has red and green
set to 15, and blue to 0.

   The eight colours (the default quantity) of the Personal Fonts Maker
have different levels of red, green and blue. Each of the three knobs can
be moved while it is selected with the mouse, as explained in section
1.9.5. The three knobs labelled Red, Green and Blue can be used to add or
subtract a value to the levels of red, green and blue of all eight program
colours.

   The number on the right of each knob indicates the current setting of
each knob. The value can range from -15 (minus fifteen) to 15. This value
is added to the levels of the components of the three basic colours which
make up all user interface colours. The program makes sure that these
levels do not under- or overflow, becoming smaller than 0 or greater than
15. One of the user interface colours is defined as black and cannot be
changed. A value of 15 for all three knobs, for example, would set the
red, green and blue levels of all program colours (except black) to 15
(the maximum), leaving a black and white display, while the entire user
interface would become black setting the three levels to -15.

   The "Default" gadget can be used to clear the three bias values,
restoring the program's default values. The default colour settings can
also be restored at any time by pressing the <Help> key (even when the
"Colour Bias" requester is not displayed). Any variations to the colour
settings can be confirmed by selecting "Proceed", while "Cancel" restores
the colours used before the requester was displayed.