ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (David Ritchie) (11/22/90)
Are there any font editors available for X and/or PC's available in source? I have been thinking about writing one, but want to know if I am replowing old ground. I am particularly interested in LaserJet/DeskJet fonts. -- Dave Ritchie ritchie@hpdmd48.bo.hp.com
clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (11/23/90)
In article <15090008@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com> ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (David Ritchie) writes: > > Are there any font editors available for X and/or PC's available in >source? I have been thinking about writing one, but want to know if I am >replowing old ground. I am particularly interested in LaserJet/DeskJet >fonts. Dave, I've used a program called Publisher's Type Foundry, by Zsoft. It has a quick n dirty bitmap editor, and an outline editor for high-res fonts. Like all ZSoft products, the documentation is pretty bad ("DeltaX: This button allows you to change DeltaX for the character"... like that). I use it to make bitmap fonts for paint programs (where the end product is a graphic to be displayed on-screen, not a printout) and I find that the bitmap editor is actually a rather nicely crafted tool. The outline editor is hampered by lack of template (in other words, there's no way to "trace" a bitmap)--the closest they come is to suggest you create a huge bitmap font (96 points, say) and use all three of their "autotrace" conformations (all angles, mostly angles, and not-quite-as-many angles), then "merge" the three into a composite and edit it. What this process gives you is a letter composed of a lot of short line segments and no curves... a polygon approximating a curve, in other words. So the Ls and Ts look fine, but the Ss and Qs... well, you can imagine. Seems like there ought to be some other products for font editing out there... anyone? --Kathy -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................: