Xerox ElixirFont for AFP User Guide

ElixirFont

for AFP™

User Guide

June 1999

Version 4.00

Elixir Technologies Corporation P.O. Box 1559 Ojai, CA 93024

June 1999 Version 4.00 Printed in the United States of America

Trademarks and Service Marks/Company: Elixir/Elixir Technologies Corporation

HP, PCL, LaserJet+/Hewlett Packard Company IBM, Personal Computer, AT, PS/2, AFP, and all other IBM products mentioned in this publication are trademarks of International Business Machines. MS-DOS, Microsoft Mouse, Windows/Microsoft Corporation LapLink/Travelling Software, Inc.

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 is 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.

Table of contents

1. Introduction 1-1

Customer support 1-2 Elixir training 1-2 ElixirFont environment 1-2 Who should use this guide 1-3 Conventions 1-3

Display conventions 1-3

Typographical conventions 1-3 On-line Help 1-4 Organization of this Guide 1-6 Installation 1-7 Starting ElixirFont 1-8 Exiting ElixirFont 1-10

2. ElixirFont basics 2-1

Main screen components 2-1 ElixirFont menu bar 2-2

File menu 2-3

System menu 2-4

Window menu 2-5

Help menu 2-5 Toolbox 2-5

Tools 2-6

Toolbox options 2-7 Character Set window menu bar 2-8

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Charset menu 2-8 Edit menu 2-9 Font menu 2-9 Char menu 2-10 Transforms menu 2-10

Code Page window menu bar 2-11

CodePage menu 2-11 CodePoint menu 2-12 View menu 2-12

3. Font structure 3-1

AFP font structure 3-1

Type family 3-1 Typeface 3-2 Type font 3-2

AFP font types 3-2

Unbounded Box fonts 3-3 Bounded Box fonts 3-3

AFP font components 3-3

Character set 3-3 Code page 3-4 Coded font 3-4

AFP font characteristics 3-5

Inline (Print) direction 3-5 Character baseline 3-6 Character rotation 3-7 Toned-Pel box 3-8 Printing adjacent characters 3-8 Raster-Pattern box 3-10 Ascenders and descenders 3-11 Baseline positioning 3-11 Kerning 3-12 Summary: Character placement 3-13

Bounded-box 3-13

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Unbounded-box 3-14

AFP font naming conventions 3-14

Bounded-box naming convention 3-14

Unbounded-box naming convention 3-14

Code Page naming convention 3-15 Elixir font structure 3-16 Elixir font converted from a non-AFP source 3-16 Elixir font converted from an AFP source 3-17

PC-mapped Elixir fonts 3-17

Full character set Elixir fonts 3-18 Elixir character set and font differences 3-19

4. Loading fonts and code pages 4-1

Loading an Elixir-format character set 4-1 Loading a non-AFP font 4-3

Reformatting to a character set 4-5

Loading as a non-AFP font 4-7 Creating new character sets 4-8

Creating a new PC-mapped font 4-9

Adding a bitmap to a cell 4-10

Creating a new AFP character set 4-10 Loading a Code Page 4-12 Editing a code page 4-15

5. Editing non-AFP fonts 5-1

Font basics 5-1 ElixirFont tools 5-3

Select tool 5-3

Edit tool 5-4

Edit Window menu bar 5-5 Edit Window Toolbar 5-6

Edit tool options 5-7 Transform tool 5-9 Kill tool 5-10 Character Properties tool 5-10

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Copy tool 5-12 Swap tool 5-12 Merge tool 5-13 Sample tool 5-15 Font Properties tool <Ctrl> + <F2> 5-16

Header submenus 5-17

6. Transforming non-AFP fonts 6-1

Transformation tool options 6-3

Resize 6-4 Rotate 6-5 Shift 6-6 Slant 6-7 Darken 6-8 Lighten 6-9 Underline 6-10 Reverse 6-11 Filter 6-12 Outline 6-13 Halftone 6-15 Mirror 6-17

7. Editing Elixir-formatcharacter sets 7-1

Character set basics 7-1 Editing Elixir fonts 7-2 ElixirFont tools 7-2

Select tool 7-3 Edit tool 7-4

Edit Window menu bar 7-5 Edit Window Toolbar 7-6

Edit tool options 7-7 Transform tool 7-9 Kill tool 7-10 Character Properties tool 7-10 Copy tool 7-12

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Swap tool 7-13 Merge tool 7-13 Sample tool 7-16 Font Properties tool <Ctrl> + <F2> 7-18

Header submenus 7-19

8. Transforming Elixir-format character sets 8-1

Transformation tool options 8-3

Resize 8-4 Rotate 8-5 Shift 8-6 Slant 8-7 Darken 8-8 Lighten 8-9 Underline 8-10 Underlining the entire character set 8-11 Reverse 8-13 Reversing the entire character set 8-13 Filter 8-16 Outline 8-17 Halftone 8-19 Mirror 8-21

A. Keyboard shortcuts A-1

Glossary GLOSSARY-1

Index INDEX-1

ELIXIRFONT FOR AFP USER GUIDE vii

1. Introduction

This User Guide describes ElixirFont for AFP™, a sophisticated bitmap character set editor that allows you to create and edit character sets in what-you-see-iswhat-you-get (WYSIWYG) format.

With ElixirFont, you can 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 perform other transformations

display and change character or font properties such as kerning, baseline offset, orientation, etc.

The current release of ElixirFont fully supports character set editing and creation for conversion to and from AFP bounded-box and unbounded-box fonts, doublebyte fonts, and HP fonts.

In conjunction with the Elixir Desktop and Converters for AFP, fonts can easily be imported and converted to Elixir's generic font format, edited, and reconverted back to their original or other formats.

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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 Elixir Technologies then contact one of the support center hotlines.

See the Elixir Getting Started Guide for information about contacting your support center.

Elixir training

Elixir Technologies Corporation offers training for the full range of our Windows-based family of products. For more information, contact:

Elixir Learning (805) 641-5900 ext. 6

ElixirFont environment

ElixirFont is designed to work with the Elixir Desktop for AFP, a Windows-based desktop. The Elixir Desktop simplifies file conversions and management by providing icons which you can manipulate with simple mouse drag-and-drop techniques (see the Elixir Desk- top and Converters for AFP User's Guide for more information).

Other Elixir products that you can use with ElixirFont are:

ElixirImage for AFP, a Windows-based bitmap graphics editor you can use to tile Elixir-format images into Elixir-format fonts (see the Elix- irImage for AFP User's Guide for more information).

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ElixirForm for AFP, a forms creation package that enables users to create and edit boilerplate forms using standard OGL form elements (see the Elix- irForm for AFP User's Guide for more information).

Who should use this guide

This guide is intended for users familiar with AFP character sets and with AFP page printing resources.

Knowledge of Windows and DOS, specifically navigation through directory and subdirectory structures and file operations is also required.

Conventions

This section describes display and typographical conventions used in this guide.

INTRODUCTION

Display conventions

ElixirFont 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.

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.

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Menu titles are shown in bold. Menu options are enclosed in [ ] (square brackets). For example,

Pull down the File menu and select [New Font]. 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.

On-line Help

Elixir software uses the Microsoft Windows Help program to provide on-line Help for all 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 your Elixir software include graphics 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 with large fonts.

You can display on-line Help in the following ways:

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INTRODUCTION

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.

Quick Help

Enable the quick function by selecting the quick help option in the Usage Switches (or Preferences -- for ElixirImage) 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. To see these operational messages, disable quick help.

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 top pull-down menu and choose 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.

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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.

Organization of this Guide

This guide includes the following:

an overview of AFP font structure how ElixirFont handles fonts converted from AFP

and non-AFP formats

ElixirFont features and how to use them. This User Guide is organized as follows: Chapter 1, "Introduction," provides an overview of

ElixirFont and describes how to install and start ElixirFont. It also gives additional information about the contents of this manual.

Chapter 2, "ElixirFont basics," describes the layout and components that make up the ElixirFont main screen.

Chapter 3, "Font structure," describes the AFP and Elixir-format font structure, and the AFP terminology used throughout this guide. If you are not familiar with font structures and, specifically, AFP character sets, we strongly recommend that you read this chapter.

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Chapter 4, "Loading fonts and code pages," describes how to create a new character set, load an existing font, and load and edit a code page.

Chapter 5, "Editing non-AFP fonts," describes how you can edit fonts originating from non-AFP sources.

Chapter 6, "Transforming non-AFP fonts," describes how to apply a variety of transformations to individual characters and to the entire font.

Chapter 7, "Editing Elixir-format character sets," describes how to edit character header values and character bitmaps, and how to merge, sample, copy, and delete characters from an Elixir-format character set.

Chapter 8. "Transforming Elixir-format character sets," describes how to apply a variety of transformations to individual characters and to the entire character set.

Glossary. Index.

Installation

See the Elixir for AFP Getting Started Guide for installation information.

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Starting ElixirFont

You can only start ElixirFont from the Elixir Desktop. To start ElixirFont from the Elixir Desktop, open

(double-click on) the ElixirFont icon at the right of the Desktop.

The ElixirFont main screen displays.

Figure 1-1. ElixirFont main screen

Alternatively, with the Elixir Desktop displayed:

1. Open the Elixir Fonts folder.

2. Make sure you selected the [Show Charset]

option (as shown below) or the [Show Coded

Fonts] option in the Filter menu.

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INTRODUCTION

Figure 1-2. Elixir Fonts folder

3. Open (double-click on) any .HDR font file.

The ElixirFont Character Set window displays the font loaded.

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Figure 1-3. Loaded font in ElixirFont

Exiting ElixirFont

To exit ElixirFont, double-click on the Exit button at the top left of the main screen.

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2. ElixirFont basics

This chapter describes the layout and components that make up the ElixirFont main screen.

Main screen components

The ElixirFont main screen contains the following components:

ElixirFont menu bar Toolbox Character Set window menu bar Code Page window menu bar.

Start the ElixirFont application by double-clicking on the ElixirFont icon. The main screen displays.

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Toolbox

Character Set Window

Menu Bar

Main Menu Bar

Code Page Window

Menu Bar

Code Page Window

Figure 2-1. ElixirFont main screen

ElixirFont menu bar

The ElixirFont menu bar controls:

loading and saving character sets, coded fonts,

and code pages

usage switches

window display

access to Help files.

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File menu

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

Figure 2-2. ElixirFont menu bar

The File menu allows you to:

load and save character sets, coded fonts, and code pages

exit ElixirFont.

Open Coded Font

Displays the Load Coded Font dialog box listing .CDF files. Select a coded font and click on [OK].

Open Charset

Displays the Load Charset dialog box listing .HDR files. Select a character set and click on [OK].

Open Code Page

Displays the Load Code Page dialog box listing .COD files. Select a code page and click on [OK].

Save Coded Font

Allows you to save the .CDF file with the names of the currently loaded character set and code page.

Save Charset as

Allows you to save an edited character set under a new name or an existing name (overwrites old file).

Save Code Page as

Allows you to save an edited .COD code page file under a new name or an existing name (overwrites old file).

Exit <Alt + F4>

Exits ElixirFont and returns you to the Desktop.

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System menu

The

System

menu allows you to:

set usage switches

reset to defaults

save customized configurations.

Usage Switches

Displays the Usage Switches dialog box with the following options:

Figure 2-3. Usage Switches

dialog box

Save State on Exit

Select to save your customized settings. Unse-

lected returns settings to ElixirFont defaults.

Show Quick Help

Select to display short descriptions in the area un-

der the ElixirFont menu bar.

Always bring Toolbox to top

Select to have the Toolbox always display on top

of any window (no need to tile windows to access

Toolbox).

Convert non-AFP font to Charset on load

Select to load and reformat fonts as an Elixir-

format character set. Unselected loads the font

as a non-AFP font.

Highlight chars in the Code Page

Select to display all fonts referenced in the code

page as a different color in the Character Set

window.

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Window menu

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

Select Charset with Code Point

Reserved for future use.

Reset to Defaults

Resets all configuration parameters to the ElixirFont default values.

Save Configuration

Saves your customized settings rather than resetting to ElixirFont defaults.

Help menu

Toolbox

The

Window

dow displays. You can:

tile all displayed windows toggle the display on or off for the Character Set,

Code Page, and Toolbox windows.

The Help menu allows you to access the on-line help files for ElixirFont. See the "Introduction" chapter for information about how to use on-line help.

The left side of the screen shows the Toolbox which contains buttons you can select to view, edit, and manipulate individual characters or the entire font.

menu controls the way each editing win-

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Tools

At the top of the Toolbox are the tools you can select. These display in two rows as shown in the following figure.

Select

Edit Bitmap

Transform (selected)

Kill

Character

Properties

Font Properties

Sample

Merge

Swap

Copy

Figure 2-4. ElixirFont tools

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Toolbox options

Undo last operation

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

This section describes ElixirFont tools and their functions.

Select a tool to display options for that tool at the bottom of the Toolbox. Most tools also contain the options shown below.

Tools

Suspend current conversion

Apply current tool or conversion

In this area, different options display depending on the tool you select

Options

Figure 2-5. Toolbox example

The middle buttons allow you to undo the last operation, suspend the current conversion, or to apply the current tool or conversion.

If you suspend the current conversion, the undo operation may not be available.

The area below the buttons contains different options depending on the selected tool.

The ElixirFont tools are described in more detail in the following chapters of this guide.

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Character Set window menu bar

You use the Character Set window menu bar for creating, editing, and saving character sets with selected coded fonts.

Figure 2-6. Character Set window menu bar

Charset menu

The options in the open, and save a coded font, and merge character sets together.

New Charset

Allows you to create a new character set through use of several dialog boxes requesting information about your new character set. Once you have entered the required information, the new character set displays.

Open Charset

Displays the Load Charset dialog box listing .HDR files. Select a character set and click on [OK].

Open Coded Font

Displays the Load Coded Font dialog box listing .CDF files. Select a coded font and click on [OK].

Save Charset

Allows you to save a character set.

Save Charset as

Allows you to save an edited character set under a new name or an existing name (overwrites old file).

Save Coded Font

Allows you to save the .CDF file with the same name.

Charset

menu allow you to create,

Merge Charsets

Displays the Load Charset for Merge dialog box listing the .HDR files. Select a character set to merge with the currently displayed character set and click on [OK].

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Edit menu

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

Font menu

The

menu allows you to undo actions and delete

Edit

or select/unselect characters or entire character sets.

Undo

Undoes the last edit operation.

Delete

Allows you to delete selected characters

Select all

Allows you to select all characters in the character set.

Unselect all

Allows you to unselect all selected characters in the character set.

The Font menu allows access to information about the properties and statistics of a complete font and reformat of a non-AFP font. You can also view a sample of how the font will print.

Properties

Displays the Font Properties dialog box which provides values and parameters of the loaded character set.

Statistics

Displays the Size of Elixir Format Font dialog box which provides the size (bytes) of each component (headers, bitmaps, etc.), and the total size of the loaded character set.

Sample

Displays a sample pad showing the characters as they will print on a page.

Reformat

Allows you to reformat a non-AFP font to AFP. Disabled if an AFP character set is loaded.

Convert

For future implementation.

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Char menu

Sort

Sorts characters by their GCID's.

The an individual character.

Properties

Displays the Character and CodePoint Properties dialog box which provides rotation, GCID, and characteristics of an individual font.

Copy

Allows you to copy a selected font to a new location.

Kill

Allows you to remove a selected character from a character set.

Swap

Allows you to swap a selected character with 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 chapters on transforming for complete option descriptions.

menu provides properties and statistics of

Char

Code Page window menu bar

The Code Page window menu bar allows you to create, load, and save code pages, edit code points, and control how the Code Page window displays.

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CodePage menu

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

Figure 2-7. Code Page window menu bar

The

CodePage

menu allows you to create, save, or

open an existing code page.

New Code Page

Displays the Code Page Properties dialog box which provides options that include:

Code Page description default character information variable space character information.

Open Code Page

Displays the Load Code Page dialog box listing .COD files. Select a code page and click on [OK].

Open Coded Font

Displays the Load Coded Font dialog box listing .CDF files. Select a coded font and click on [OK].

Save Code Page

Allows you to save the loaded code page, overwriting the original. No warning is given if you edited characters within the code page.

Save Code Page as

Allows you to save an edited code page under a new name or an existing name (overwrites old file).

Save Coded Font

Allows you to save the loaded coded font file, overwriting the original. If you loaded a character set and coded font individually, the program prompts you for the name of the coded font, either creating a new file or overwriting the existing file.

Properties

Displays the Code Page Properties dialog box containing the following:

Code Page description default character information

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CodePoint menu

variable space character information.

View menu

The

CodePoint

menu allows you to edit code points.

Properties

Displays the Code Point Properties dialog box which provides GCID, hex/decimal, and flag information.

Copy

Allows you to copy selected code points.

Swap

Allows you to swap selected code points.

Delete

Allows you to remove a code point.

Undo

Undoes the last edit operation.

The View menu allows you to select the Code Page window display:

Real Size

Displays the Code Page at actual size.

Fit to Window

Adjusts the display of the Code Page to fit in the Code Page window.

By Column

Displays the Code Page by column.

By Row

Displays the Code Page by row.

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3. Font structure

This chapter describes AFP and Elixir font structures and how ElixirFont handles fonts originating from AFP and non-AFP sources. We strongly recommend that you read this chapter, even if you are familiar with AFP fonts. If you are not familiar with AFP fonts, you should also read IBM's Host Font Data Stream Refer- ence and About Type manuals.

ElixirFont uses a proprietary structure that enables you to display and edit characters in a WYSIWYG format.

Converters in the Elixir Desktop allow you to convert fonts from AFP Bounded Box and Unbounded Box, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Bitstream Facelift outline (contour) formats, to Elixir format fonts.

AFP font structure

To understand AFP fonts, you must have a basic understanding of some general font-related definitions. The following sections describe the components of a type family, a term that encompasses all the characteristics of printed text.

Type family

A type family is a group of typefaces that have a common basic design but can vary in size and style. Examples of type families are:

Sonoran Sans Serif Courier ITC Avant Garde Gothic

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