mantak@hub.ucsb.edu (02/24/88)
Is there any documentation for the font compiler that came with X11 R1 tape ? I guess that the *.snf are created from *.bdf files. But, what is the format of the 'bdf' files? What is the process needed for creating a new font file ? Thanks in advance.
karlton@decwrl.dec.com (Philip Karlton) (02/24/88)
In article <439@hub.ucsb.edu> mantak@hub.ucsb.edu () writes: >But, what is the format of the 'bdf' files? See .../X11/doc/bdf.ps. >What is the process needed for creating a new font file ? Emacs? Nobody that I know of has placed a bitmap editor that generates .bdf files into the public domain. Some commercial companies do sell fonts. PK
phr@web5h.berkeley.edu (Paul Rubin) (02/24/88)
In article <295@bacchus.DEC.COM> karlton@decwrl.UUCP (Philip Karlton) writes: In article <439@hub.ucsb.edu> mantak@hub.ucsb.edu () writes: >But, what is the format of the 'bdf' files? See .../X11/doc/bdf.ps. >What is the process needed for creating a new font file ? Emacs? Nobody that I know of has placed a bitmap editor that generates .bdf files into the public domain. Some commercial companies do sell fonts. Yes, Emacs does an ok job at this. I wrote a rudimentary font editor in Emacs Lisp last summer that decodes the BDF entry for a character into a picture made from spaces and asterisks, lets you edit it in picture mode, and packs the picture back into BDF format. It was reasonably useful for examining/tuning existing fonts but probably not too good for making whole new ones. If interest warrants it, I will attempt to dredge up a copy and post it here.
leres@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Craig Leres) (02/24/88)
If you want to create X11 fonts from scratch, you can always use fontedit on a Sun and convert the resulting vfont file to a bdf file with my vtobdf conversion program. A current version of vtobdf is available via anonymous ftp from lbl-rtsg.arpa (128.3.254.68) in vtobdf.shar. Craig
mwette@newton.ucsb.edu (Matt Wette) (02/25/88)
Re: emacs font editor from Paul Rubin: I'm interested. Matt _____________________________________________________________________________ Matthew R. Wette | ARPA: mwette%gauss@hub.ucsb.edu Scientific Computation Lab | UUCP: ucbvax!ucsbhub!gauss!mwette Dept. Elec. and Comp. Eng. | University of California | Santa Barbara, CA 93106 | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) (02/25/88)
>I guess that the *.snf are created from *.bdf files. >But, what is the format of the 'bdf' files? >What is the process needed for creating a new font file ? There should be a document in the doc/ dir called bdf.ps which describes the font format adequately, I've written programs using that info. BDF is Adobe's Bitmap Distribution Format (I think that's right) and the same information appears in one of the Adobe Postscript manuals, maybe it's the Transcript looseleaf. -Barry Shein, Boston University
bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) (02/25/88)
I was asked to submit a program for the R2 tape which converts MetaFont's GF output format to BDF. I suppose the question remains whether anyone really wants to design fonts in MetaFont, but at least once you do you can mechanically reproduce them for various resolution output devices. In theory it should be a very powerful way to produce fonts but no doubt a few more little pieces are needed (like finishing the GF to PostScript download format.) Not to mention figuring out MetaFont itself. My real goal was to be able to produce fonts which were true to the resolution of various screens (and printers) rather than the current situation in the X11 distribution which just punts the issue and distributes a single resolution font. I find this important if one wants to be able to calculate screen positioning based upon what the font should be, etc. Ideally you should be able to throw a font up on the screen and print it on a piece of paper, hold them side-by-side and they at least should take up exactly the same space (resolution differences will make the quality somewhat different.) This approach seems to allow this although it's not unique. If postscript stroke fonts existed for public consumption I probably would have used that. -Barry Shein, Boston University
guido@cwi.nl (Guido van Rossum) (02/25/88)
I know of sombody collecting programs to convert between bdf format and various other formats. They may end up on the R2 tape. I have contributed a converter from Macintosh fonts to bdf. (K., speak up if you wish to receive mail to coordinate efforts!) -- Guido van Rossum, Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), Amsterdam guido@cwi.nl or mcvax!guido or (from ARPAnet) guido%cwi.nl@uunet.uu.net
ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) (02/26/88)
In article <216@piring.cwi.nl> guido@cwi.nl (Guido van Rossum) writes: |I know of sombody collecting programs to convert between bdf format and |various other formats. They may end up on the R2 tape. I have |contributed a converter from Macintosh fonts to bdf. (K., speak up if |you wish to receive mail to coordinate efforts!) OK, ouch, stop twisting my arm. :-) I have a couple of BDF to something converters. I was using BDF as an UNFOL. I'm putting the lot on zap in ~ftp/contrib. Here is what's in bdf-converters.tar: Bdf2gf BDF to GF (TeX generic font) Bdf2vf BDF to vfont Mac2bdf Mac to BDF Remapbdf Change glyph mappings in BDF files Vf2bdf Vfont to BDF I'm also putting my small collection of extra screen fonts in miscfonts.tar. Here is what's there: 4x6.bdf cour-cap-r-12.bdf screen-r-13.bdf 6x10b.bdf cour-cap-r-14.bdf screen-r-14.bdf 6x13b.bdf cour-r-10.bdf screen-r-7.bdf 9x15b.bdf cour-r-12.bdf serif-cap-r-12.bdf apl-r-10.bdf cour-r-14.bdf serif-cap-r-14.bdf cmr-b-14.bdf cour-r-16.bdf serif-cap-r-16.bdf cmr-r-14.bdf cour-r-18.bdf serif-r-10.bdf cour-b-10.bdf cour-r-24.bdf serif-r-11.bdf cour-b-12.bdf gallant-r-19.bdf serif-r-12.bdf cour-b-14.bdf screen-b-12.bdf serif-r-14.bdf cour-b-16.bdf screen-b-14.bdf serif-r-16.bdf cour-b-18.bdf screen-r-11.bdf vstadocfxb.bdf cour-b-24.bdf screen-r-12.bdf vthack.bdf Please don't ask me to mail these to you. I'm done with fonts for a while (the TeX fonts generated with bdf2gf looked less than acceptable because the originals were from a WW engine) and I would like to do something other than play postman. Ken
grmp@papaya.ucsb.edu (xperts@cornu.ucsb.edu) (02/27/88)
Questions about Font files:
I read the documentation about the fonts in X11/doc/bdf.ps.
Are there any more documentations explaining bdf in detail?
I need information about the different 'properties' of fonts
('MinSpace' was used in the doc. but was not explained),
the reason behind calculating 'SWIDTH' & 'DWIDTH', ... etc.
If I am interested in creating a 16 bit font, how should I
set up the 'STARTCHAR' and the 'ENCODING'?
(ENCODING is restricted to 0 to 255 ?)
After creating a 'snf' font file using the 'fc'.
How can I print a text file using this new font ?
How does X handles output using a font file with a poscript
printer?
One method I am exploring is using 'enscript'.
But, the '*.afm' (font metrics files)
format is different then the '*.bdf' format.
How can I add my 'snf' font file into the library,
so that I can do something similar to enscript?
Please send reply to 'xperts@cornu.ucsb.edu'.
Thanks in advance.ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) (02/27/88)
In article <443@hub.ucsb.edu> grmp@papaya.ucsb.edu (xperts@cornu.ucsb.edu) writes: |Questions about Font files: | |I read the documentation about the fonts in X11/doc/bdf.ps. |Are there any more documentations explaining bdf in detail? |I need information about the different 'properties' of fonts |('MinSpace' was used in the doc. but was not explained), |the reason behind calculating 'SWIDTH' & 'DWIDTH', ... etc. The document actually tells you all you need to know. Well, no, not quite, you need to understand something about font metrics. SWIDTHs are the ratios of the width and height of a character to design size (point size). Ideally, the 'x' in 10 point and the 'x' in 12 point of the same font should have the same SWIDTHs although their DWIDTHs will differ. The numbers following SWIDTH are intended to be reals. They will typically range in the high hundreds. DWIDTHs are in units of pixels and obviously whole numbers. `fc' ignores SWIDTH. It appears BDF is an Adobe standard for distributing hi-res fonts, adapted for X11 use. What gets put in the PROPERTIES fields depends on the compiler. MinSpace is obviously some property the Adobe compiler is interested in. |If I am interested in creating a 16 bit font, how should I |set up the 'STARTCHAR' and the 'ENCODING'? |(ENCODING is restricted to 0 to 255 ?) What comes after STARTCHAR is just a label. It is meant to be a phrase for human consumption like "grave accent". What comes after ENCODING is a decimal number. You could put a 16 bit number here if your compiler groks it. I don't think `fc' generates 16 bit fonts. (Haven't checked.) |After creating a 'snf' font file using the 'fc'. |How can I print a text file using this new font ? |How does X handles output using a font file with a poscript |printer? It doesn't. Snf is just for screen fonts at the moment, as far as I can tell. You could translate BDF into something that can be downloaded into a printer. But remember the fonts supplied are for ~80 dpi and your printer is probably 300 dpi. So the characters you get with the supplied fonts will be too small to read on your printer. |One method I am exploring is using 'enscript'. |But, the '*.afm' (font metrics files) |format is different then the '*.bdf' format. |How can I add my 'snf' font file into the library, |so that I can do something similar to enscript? Well, bdf files contain both metrics and bitmaps. afm files contain only metrics, the bitmaps are inside the printer ROMS. If you have some downloadable font, you should also send along width specs with the bitmaps. Or explicitly put spacing commands in the PostScript code, like some dvi to ps filters do. Bottom line: forget about using the supplied bdf fonts for printing - they are screen fonts. BDF can be used as a font description language though. Ken