[comp.sys.amiga] Using DPaint II to design fonts

Classic_-_Concepts@cup.portal.com (03/04/90)

>  2.) How does one go about designing a font for use in games and demos?
>  I have DPaint II, but I'm loathe to use that since I can't see how to be
>  precise enough with the letter size and spacing. I could cut 26+ brushes
>  and stuff them all into an IFF-raw converter, but there must be a more
>  elegant way than that! 
>                              #  J.Gold 
 
It's not as easy as it seems.  But, if you're determined to try ...

     1.  Use a 4-color screen in DPaint II (or 8-colors if you want
         a multicolor font)
     2.  Set a 2-color background grid and freeze it, using menu options.
         Use 1 color for the general sizes and another for the baseline,
         tops and bottoms of fonts.
            (That's the easy part.)
     3.  Draw the font on top of the frozen background.  Sizing is then
         very straightforward.
             (That's the time-consuming part.  At least, if you're fussy.)
     4.  Save out as brushes.
     5.  Use a utility to convert to font format or import to a font
         editor.  Brushes must be the same size if using a utility.
     6.  Fine-tune and debug them, if using a font editor.

A note regarding using a utility.  Unlike many other font formats, Amiga
fonts are stored in 'edge-aligned' format.  That means, instead of the
bitmap being complete for each letter and stored sequentially, the top of
the first character is followed by the top of the second character, etc. to
the end of the sequence.  Then a pointer keeps track (based on char widths)
of the position of each.  Not hard really, just not what people are used
to.

FED is kind of an ugly editor on the Workbench diskettes (my apologies to
the programmer(s), but it really is kind of clumsy, buggy and limited).
You could use that, but it doesn't include IMPORT or comfortable drawing
tools.  Calligrapher is a good editor, but pricey if you only plan to do
one font.  There are a couple of PD editors on Fish Disks.  Check those
out.  Or you could just buy some.  Might be cheaper in the long run.  (We
have some good ones!  :-) )

Well, somewhere in all that I'm sure you can find a solution.  Good luck.

                               Julie Petersen (LadyHawke@cup.portal.com)