mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (01/10/86)
Fontbanner is nice for large wall banners, but it doesn't work very
well for smaller signs. I'm enclosing a trivial shell script I use
to get a similar effect for small signs. This command is well suited
to being used in a loop if you want to generate several signs. I
call it "word". I've used it, for example, using 28 point bocklin,
to make signs to label our computers with their proper names:
word CbPavo | lpr
Also, using the Times Roman fonts, it makes nice flash cards to
teach babies to read. (Helvetica would be better, but I don't
have such a font.)
for i in one two three four five six seven eight nine ten
do
F=times.r.24 word $i
done | lpr
Of course, it's intended for output on a wide
printer, and even so the messages have to be broken into small pieces
to fit on a line. But for single words it works nicely.
You may wonder why I bother to write and post the shell script, since
it's so trivial. Perhaps it's because vfontinfo is not well known,
especially the -m option. In fact, I can't even find the source to
vfontinfo on my 4.2BSD system, although the binary is there.
Substitute your favorite default font for 28 point Bocklin.
Mark
echo " "
echo " "
echo " "
/usr/lib/vfontinfo -m ${F-bocklin.28} "$*"
echo " "
echo " "
echo " "