Xerox ElixiFont User Guide
ElixiFont
User Guide
Publication #720P22843
June 1999
Version 4.00
Elixir Technologies Corporation
P.O. Box 1559
Ojai, CA 93024
Copyright © 1999 by Elixir Technologies Corporation.
All rights reserved. Prepared by Elixir Technologies
Corporation for exclusive publication by Xerox
Corporation.
Publication #720P22843June 1999
Version 4.00
Printed in the United States of America
Xerox®, 2700, 3700, 4030, 4045, 4050, 4075, 4135,
4235, 4650, 4700, 4850, 4890, 8700, 8790, 9700,
9790, XES, UDK, FRM, FSL, VIPP and all Xerox
products mentioned in this publication are trademarks
of Xerox Corporation.
Trademarks and Service Marks/Company:
Bitstream/Bitstream, Inc.
Elixir/Elixir Technologies Corporation
HP, LaserJet II/Hewlett Packard Company
IBM, Personal Computer AT, PS/2, and all IBM products
mentioned in this publication/International Business
Machines
MS-DOS, Windows, Microsoft Mouse/Microsoft
Corporation.
All other product names and trade names used herein
are trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright protection claimed includes all forms and
matters of copyrightable material and information now
allowed by
statutory or judicial law or hereinafter granted, including without limitation, material generated from the software programs which are displayed on the screen
such as icons, screen display looks, etc.
Changes are periodically made to this document.
Changes, technical inaccuracies, and typographic errors will be corrected in subsequent editions.
The following note applies to ElixiFont.
Elixir HP driver
The Elixir HP driver is no longer available when printing from the font sampling pad, accessible through the
Sample tool.
Notes and cautions
Table of contents
Notes and cautions
1. Introduction 1-1
Customer support 1-2
ElixiFont environment 1-3
Who should use this guide 1-3
Conventions 1-4
Display conventions 1-4
Typographical conventions 1-4
On-line help 1-5
Organization of this Guide 1-6
Installing ElixiFont 1-7
Starting ElixiFont 1-7
Exiting ElixiFont 1-9
2. ElixiFont basics 2-1
Main screen components 2-1
ElixiFont menu bar 2-2
File menu 2-3
Open Font 2-3
Save Font 2-3
Save Font as 2-3
Exit <Alt + F4> 2-3
System menu 2-3
Usage Switches 2-3
Reset to Defaults 2-4
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Save Configuration 2-4
Window menu 2-5
Help menu 2-5
Toolbox 2-5
Tools 2-5
Toolbox options 2-6
Work Area menu bar 2-6
Font menu 2-7
Edit menu 2-7
Char menu 2-8
Transforms menu 2-8
3. Creating andediting fonts 3-1
Font basics 3-1
Creating a new font 3-4
Loading a font 3-6
Toolbox 3-8
Select toolbox 3-8
Edit toolbox 3-9
Edit toolbox options 3-10
Edit Window menu bar 3-12
Edit Window Toolbar 3-13
Transform toolbox 3-14
Kill toolbox 3-16
Character Properties toolbox <F2> 3-16
Copy toolbox 3-18
Swap toolbox 3-18
Merge toolbox 3-18
Sample toolbox 3-20
Font Properties toolbox <Ctrl> +
<F2> 3-22
Header submenus 3-23
4. Transforming fonts 4-1
Transformation tool options 4-1
vi ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Resize 4-3
Rotate 4-4
Shift 4-5
Slant 4-6
Darken 4-7
Lighten 4-9
Underline 4-10
Reverse 4-11
Filter 4-12
Outline 4-13
Halftone 4-15
Mirror 4-16
5. Frequent operations and advanced functions 5-1
Changing the font orientation 5-1
Changing the width of character cells 5-3
Changing the baseline offset 5-4
Changing the font internal name 5-4
Horizontal character spacing 5-5
Null character conversions 5-6
Production/distributed font conversion 5-7
Production and distributed printer
5-7
differences
Working with reversed fonts 5-8
Kerning characters 5-9
Producing large ascenders/descenders 5-9
A. Keyboard shortcuts A-1
B. Conversion chart B-1
Glossary GLOSSARY-1
Index INDEX-1
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE vii
1. Introduction
This User Guide describes ElixiFont, a sophisticated
Windows-based bitmap font editor that allows you to
create and edit fonts in what-you-see-is-what-you-get
(WYSIWYG) format.
ElixiFont allows you to perform the following operations to fonts:
edit individual characters in a font by providing
tools to manipulate each character bitmap
apply transformations to one, all, or a sequence
of characters in a font, enabling you to embolden,
italicize, underline and to perform other
transformations
display and change character or font properties
such as kerning, baseline offset, orientation, etc.
For fonts converted from Xerox format, ElixiFont also
allows you to display and change Xerox header
information.
The ElixiSys Desktop enables you to import fonts and
convert them to Elixir's generic font format. In this format, you can display or edit fonts on your PC and reconvert them back to the original or other formats.
See the printer specific sections of the ElixiSys Desk-
top User Guide for information about formats to and
from which you can convert Elixir fonts.
Note that the minimum point size supported in ElixiFont is 4 points, and the maximum point size supported is 99 points.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-1
INTRODUCTION
Customer support
Elixir customer support centers provide telephone
technical assistance for Elixir users during business
hours.
If you have purchased your Elixir product directly
from Xerox Corporation then you should contact
the Xerox customer support center telephone
number provided by Xerox.
If you have purchased your Elixir product directly
from Elixir Technologies then contact one of the
support center hotlines.
See the Elixir Getting Started Guide for information
about contacting your support center.
ElixiFont environment
ElixiFont is designed to work with the ElixiSys Desktop, a Windows-based desktop. The ElixiSys Desktop
simplifies file conversions and management by presenting the user with icons which you can manipulate
with simple mouse drag-and-drop techniques (see the
ElixiSys Desktop User Guide for more information).
Other Elixir products you can use with the ElixiSys
Desktop are:
ElixiGraphics, a Windows-based bitmap graphics
editor which you can use to tile Elixir-format
graphics into Elixir-format fonts (see the Elixi-
Graphics User Guide for more information).
ElixiForm, a forms creation package that enables
users to create and edit boilerplate forms using
standard FSL form elements. See the ElixiForm
User Guide for more information.
1-2 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
Who should use this guide
This guide is intended for users familiar with Xerox
font resources.
Knowledge of Windows and DOS, especially navigation through directory and subdirectory structures and
file operations is also required.
Conventions
This section describes display and typographical conventions used in this guide.
Display conventions
ElixiFont adheres to Microsoft Windows conventions
for using menus, menu commands, dialog boxes,
command buttons, icons, and a mouse. See your
Windows manual for more information.
INTRODUCTION
Typographical conventions
The following typographical conventions are used
throughout this guide:
Keystrokes are shown enclosed in < > (angle
brackets). For example, <Enter>.
Key combinations are denoted by a plus sign between keys. For example, <Shift> + <F1> indicates to simultaneously press the <Shift> and the
<F1> keys.
Menu titles are shown in bold. Menu options are
enclosed in [ ] (square brackets). For example,
Pull down the File menu and select [New font].
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-3
INTRODUCTION
On-line help
Commands, options, actions, and parameters
that require description are shown in bold followed on the next line by the description. For example:
Delete
Deletes the selected characters.
Steps in a procedure are shown in numbered bold
paragraphs. For example
1. Pull down the Window menu and select [Tile].
Comments relating to a step (such as this paragraph) are shown in regular text following the bold
paragraph.
ElixiFont uses the Microsoft Window Help program to
provide on-line Help for functions.
For more information about Windows Help, select the
[How to Use Help] option in the Help menu, or see
your Microsoft Windows documentation.
The Help files included with ElixiFont include graphics
which were created using screen drivers with large
fonts. If you use a screen driver with small fonts, the
Help file graphics may not display clearly. For optimum graphics display, use a screen driver that uses
large fonts. .
You can display on-line Help in the following ways:
Bubble Help
Click on an icon with the right mouse button to view its
properties (if applicable) or to display "bubble help".
Bubble help is a short description of the icon function
that displays in a bubble extending from the icon.
1-4 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
INTRODUCTION
Quick Help
Enable the quick help function by selecting the [Show
Quick Help] option in the Usage Switches dialog box.
When you move the screen pointer over an icon on
the screen, a short description of the icon function displays in the Message area of the screen. During certain operations a message about the function you are
performing also displays in the Message area. You
can disable Quick Help if you prefer to see these operational messages.
Context sensitive Help
To use this function, click on an icon and press <F1>.
If available, the appropriate Help topic displays. If no
specific topic is available, the Help table of contents
displays.
Help menu
Select [Help] from the ElixiFont menu bar and select
one of the displayed topics.
Dialog box Help
Click on the [Help] button in a dialog box to view an
associated Help topic. Under Windows 95 and Windows NT, right-click on a dialog box option to display
an associated Help topic.
Help pop-ups and jumps
Within Help topic text, words or phrases underlined in
green are pop-ups or jumps. When you click on a
pop-up topic, a box displays within the current Help
topic with additional information. When you click on a
jump, a different, associated Help topic displays.
Help Hypergraphics
Hypergraphics are special graphics within Help files
that contain "hot spots". Hot spots are either pop-up
topics or jumps. Hypergraphics in Elixir Help are most
commonly dialog boxes with option hot spots (pop-up
definitions), toolboxes with tool hot spots (topic
jumps), and menus with option hot spots (topic jumps
or pop-up definitions). Move the cursor over a hypergraphic until a hand displays, then click on this hot
spot to display a pop-up topic, or a "jump".
To close a pop-up topic, click the mouse button. To
return to the original Help topic from a jump, click on
<Back> in the Help file menu.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-5
INTRODUCTION
Organization of this Guide
This guide provides the following information:
an overview of Elixir font structure
how ElixiFont handles fonts converted from other
formats
ElixiFont features and how to use them.
This User Guide is organized as follows:
Chapter 1, "Introduction," is an overview of ElixiFont
and provides information about hardware and software requirements for successful installation. The
chapter also describes installing and starting ElixiFont
and gives additional information about the contents of
this manual.
Chapter 2, "ElixiFont basics," describes the layout and
components that make up the ElixiFont main screen.
Chapter 3, "Creating and editing fonts," describes how
you can create or edit a character or an entire font.
Chapter 4, "Transforming fonts," describes how to
apply a variety of transformations to individual characters and to the entire font.
Chapter 5, "Frequent operations and advanced functions," describes some of the frequent operations and
advanced functions available with ElixiFont.
Glossary.
1-6 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
Installing ElixiFont
The current release of ElixiFont installs during ElixiSys
Desktop installation. No additional installation is
required.
See the Xerox Elixir Getting Started Guide for installation information.
Starting ElixiFont
You can only start ElixiFont from the ElixiSys Desktop.
To start ElixiFont from the Desktop:
Open (double-click on) the ElixiFont icon at the right of
the Desktop.
The ElixiFont main screen shown in the following figure displays.
INTRODUCTION
Figure 1-1. ElixiFont main screen
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-7
INTRODUCTION
Alternatively, with the Desktop displayed, open the
Elixir Fonts folder to display the Elixir Fonts window.
Figure 1-2. Elixir Fonts folder
Open (double-click on) any .HDR font file. The ElixiFont main screen displays with the font loaded.
Figure 1-3. Loaded font
See the "Creating and editing fonts" chapter for a description of the ElixiFont screen layout.
1-8 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
Exiting ElixiFont
To exit ElixiFont, double-click on the Exit button at the
top left of the ElixiFont main screen, or pull down the
File menu and select [Exit].
INTRODUCTION
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-9
2. ElixiFont basics
This chapter describes the layout and components
that make up the ElixiFont main screen.
Main screen components
The ElixiFont main screen contains the following components:
ElixiFont menu bar
Toolbox
Work area menu bar
Start the ElixiFont application by double-clicking on
the ElixiFont icon. The main screen displays.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-1
Toolbox
Message area
ElixiFont menu bar
Work area
Figure 2-1. ElixiFont main screen
Work area menu bar
ElixiFont menu bar
The ElixiFont menu bar controls:
loading and saving fonts
usage switches and defaults
window display
access to Help files.
Figure 2-2. ElixiFont menu bar
2-2 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
File menu
ELIXIFONT BASICS
The
menu allows you to:
File
load and save fonts
exit ElixiFont
Open Font
When you select this option, the Load Font dialog box
listing .HDR files displays. Select a font and click on
[OK].
Save Font
Select this option to save the loaded font with the
same name unless it is a new font and then you are
prompted for a new name. This option acts as the
quick-save feature.
Save Font as
Select this option to save the loaded file with a new
name.
Exit <Alt + F4>
Select this option to exit ElixiFont and return to the
Desktop.
System menu
The System menu allows you to set usage switches,
reset to defaults, and save customized configurations.
Usage Switches
When you select this option, the Usage Switches dialog box displays.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-3
ELIXIFONT BASICS
Figure 2-3. Usage Switches dialog box
The Usage Switches dialog box contains the following
options:
Save State on Exit
Select this option to save your customized settings.
Deselect this option to return settings to ElixiFont
defaults.
Show Quick Help
Select this option to display a short description of an
icon as your cursor passes over it, in the message
area.
Always Bring Toolbox to Top
Select this option to display the Toolbox on top of any
window.
Truncate Long Font
Select this option to truncate characters with ASCII
values over 255 (hex FF) when loading a font that
contains more than 256 characters.
Reset to Defaults
When you select this option, all configuration parameters are reset to the ElixiFont default values.
Save Configuration
Select this option to save your customized settings
rather than resetting to ElixiFont defaults.
2-4 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
Window menu
ELIXIFONT BASICS
Help menu
Toolbox
Tools
The
Window
menu controls the way each open win-
dow displays. You can:
tile all displayed windows
toggle the display on or off for the Toolbox and
Work Area.
The Help menu loads the online Help file for the ElixiFont application. You can choose [Contents] or any of
the topic options.
The left side of the screen displays the Toolbox which
contains buttons you can select to view, edit, and manipulate individual characters or the entire font.
The top of the Toolbox contains the tools you can select. These display in two rows as shown in the following figure:
Select
Copy
Edit Bitmap
Transform
Swap
Merge
Kill
Character
Properties
Font Properties
Sample
Figure 2-4. ElixiFont tools
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-5
ELIXIFONT BASICS
Toolbox options
Undo last operation
Selecting a tool displays the options for that tool in the
Toolbox. Most tools also contain the options shown
below.
Tools
Suspend current
conversion
Apply current tool
or conversion
In this area, diff-
erent options
display depending
on the tool you select
Options
Figure 2-5. Toolbox example
If you suspend the current conversion, the Undo op-
eration may not be available.
The ElixiFont tools are described in more detail in the
following chapters of this guide.
Work Area menu bar
You use the Work area menu for creating, editing,
merging, transforming and saving fonts. This menu
also allows access to information about the properties
and statistics of a complete font and lets you view a
sample of how the font will print.
Figure 2-6. Work area menu bar
2-6 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
Font menu
ELIXIFONT BASICS
The
menu options allow you to create and save
Font
a font, merge characters from various fonts, access
information about font properties and statistics, and
view a sample of how the font will print.
New Font
Allows you to create a new font through use of several
dialog boxes requesting information about your new
font. Once you have entered the required information,
the new font displays.
Merge Fonts
Allows you to load another font (source font) and drag
and drop one or more characters from the source font
to the loaded font (target font).
Properties
Displays the Font Properties dialog box which provides orientation, resolution, header and other information for the loaded font.
Statistics
Displays the Size of Elixir Format Font dialog box
which provides the size (bytes) various font and character components, and the total size of the loaded
character set.
Sample
Displays a sample pad showing the characters as they
will print on a page.
Convert
For future implementation.
Edit menu
The Edit menu allows you to undo actions and delete
or select/unselect characters or entire fonts.
Undo
Undoes the last edit operation.
Delete
Allows you to remove a selected character from a
character set.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-7
ELIXIFONT BASICS
Char menu
Allows you to select all characters in the character set.
Unselect All
Allows you to unselect all selected characters in the
character set.
The
of an individual character.
Properties
Displays the Character Properties dialog box which
provides values and parameters of the selected
character.
Copy
Allows you to copy a selected font to a new location.
Kill
Allows you to remove a selected character from a
font.
Swap
Allows you to swap the position of the currently selected character with that of another character.
Load Image
Displays the Load Image dialog box which allows you
to load BMP, LP3, PCX, or TIF images. Size limit is
64K.
Transforms menu
The Transforms menu allows you to perform transformation options to selected characters or to a complete character set. See the "Transforming fonts"
chapter for complete option descriptions.
menu displays properties and allows editing
Char
2-8 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
3. Creating and
editing fonts
This chapter describes how to create new fonts and
edit Elixir-format fonts.
Some examples of Elixir fonts are loaded in the
drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\ELIXIR directory on your PC
during installation, for example HE07NP.
The stem name of the font provides information about
the font type. For example, HE07NP is a Helvetica
7-point normal portrait font.
You can also generate your own Elixir-format fonts by
using the Elixir Font Generator (Efont Factory) to convert Bitstream FaceLift fonts to Elixir-format fonts.
See the ElixiSys Desktop User Guide for more
information.
Font basics
This section describes Elixir font characteristics and
procedures used to display, edit, and apply metrics to
fonts. The following figure shows some important
characteristics of a character in a cell.
See the "Creating a new font" section for procedures
on how to create a new, custom font. You should familiarize yourself with the other sections in this chapter before you attempt to create a new font.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 3-1
CREATING AND EDITING FONTS
Above
baseline
Blanks
Left
Cell
Height
Blanks
Right
Below
baseline
Baseline
Offset
Cell width
Figure 3-1. Character and cell components
3-2 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
Linespacing
Leading
CREATING AND EDITING FONTS
The next figure shows some character and linespacing attributes on a printed page.
Above
baseline
Below
baseline
Figure 3-2. Line spacing components
The following is the line-spacing calculation formula:
Line spacing = above baseline + below baseline + leading
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 3-3
CREATING AND EDITING FONTS
Creating a new font
To create a new font:
1. Pull down the Font menu and select [New
Font].
The Properties of New Font dialog box displays.
Figure 3-3. Properties of New Font
dialog box
The Properties of New Font dialog box contains
the following options:
Type
You cannot change the default setting of [Xerox
Font] for this option.
External name
This option allows you to specify the external
(DOS) stem name for the font. The maximum
number of characters for a DOS stem name is
eight characters.
Note that the maximum length for Xerox font
stem names is six characters.
Number of characters
Specify how many characters you want in your
font (the maximum is 256).
3-4 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE
CREATING AND EDITING FONTS
Height of character boxes
Specify the height of the character cell in dots.
Width of character boxes
Specify the width of the character cells in dots.
Baseline from Bottom
Specify the "below the baseline" value in dots.
2. After specifying the properties for your font,
click on [OK].
The Font Properties dialog box displays. See the
"Font Properties toolbox" section in this chapter.
3. After specifying properties for your font, click
on [OK].
Blank cells (representing characters in the font)
display in a window.
4. Open a blank cell (double-click) to display it in
the Edit Window.
5. Use any of the editing tools described in this
chapter to create a customized character in
the cell.
The easiest way to add characters to your blank
cells is to use the Merge operation described in
the "Merge tool" section of this chapter.
6. Pull down the Char menu and select [Post] to
save the newly created character.
You can now transform the character in the cell
using any of the transformation operations described in the "Transforming fonts" chapter.
ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 3-5
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