gwg@csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (George Gerrity) (10/24/90)
I am interested in using outline fonts for pictographic characters
for languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. Moreover, I want
to use them in a US system environment. I definitely DON'T wnat to have
to buy a J2 model LaserWriter, as this currently only has Japanese fonts
anyway, and my use is casual, and I may want to develop software which
requires them. I am prepared to insert the script managers for these
languages into my system. I would like to use ATM with the outline fonts.
I am even contemplating writing (Horror!) my own script managers and
input drivers.
As I understand it, the script managers and input drivers for these
systems extend a standard fond/font/nfnt definition to include bitmap
extensions, of resource type fbit. There does not seem to be a one:one
mapping between the 2 byte code and the bitmaps in the fbit resources.
Also, for the one system which has outline fonts (Japanese), they exist
only on the hard disk attached to the J2 version of the LaserWriter.
This leads to the following questions:
1. What is the data structure for the fbits resource and where is it
documented?
2. What algorithm does the script manager use to compute the offset to
the bitmap for a given character?
3. What is the structure for the Kanji outline fonts in the J2 LaserWriter,
and where is it documented?
4. How has the LaserWriter been modified so that it accesses this struc-
ture with a 2 byte character code.
For the record, I have successfully inserted both Beijing and Kanji
script managers and accessories into a 6.0.5 system, and both work fine
under Finder. The scripts were taken from 6.0.4 versions of the respec-
tive systems. MacBeijing works fine under MultiFinder, but MacKanji
falls apart. I intend to try MacHebrew, as well. What I want is out-
line fonts, and I am prepared to make some of my own using Fontographer,
and modifying the output. The problem is that none of the old Laser-
Writers have enough memory for an entire pictographic font description.
I will need to arrange to downline load it in parts as required. At
the moment, my idea is to use standard outline font structures, but
mapped by frequency of character usage so that only one or two need be
in the system at once, and use a modified script manager to open the
resources when required. Any comments?
George
----
Dr. G. W. Gerrity Phone: +61 6 268 8180
Dept. of Computer Science Fax: +61 6 268 8581
University College, UNSW Email: gwg@cs.adfa.oz.au
ADFA, Northcott Drive Telex: ADFADM AA62030
Canberra, ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA