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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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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 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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INTRODUCTION

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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INTRODUCTION

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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INTRODUCTION

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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INTRODUCTION

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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INTRODUCTION

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.

ELIXIRFONT FOR AFP USER GUIDE 2-1

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

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.

ELIXIRFONT FOR AFP USER GUIDE 2-7

ELIXIRFONT BASICS

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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ELIXIRFONT BASICS

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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ELIXIRFONT BASICS

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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FONT STRUCTURE

Typeface

A typeface is collection of characters with the same style, weight, and width, as described below:

Style is the inclination of characters with respect

to the vertical axis; for example, Roman (upright)

or italic (top slant to the right).

Type font

Weight is the degree of

for example, semi-light, light, medium, or bold.

Width is the degree of horizontal spacing of a

character; for example, condensed or normal. Examples of typefaces are:

Sonoran Sans Serif Roman medium normal

Helvetica italic bold condensed

Times italic light normal

A type font (also called a font) is a collection of characters that share the same type family, typeface, and size. Examples of fonts are:

Sonoran Sans Serif 10-point Roman medium

normal

Helvetica 8-point italic bold condensed

Times 12-point italic light normal

boldness

of a typeface,

AFP font types

AFP fonts can be Bounded Box or Unbounded Box fonts.

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Unbounded Box fonts

Unbounded Box fonts are AFP fonts for IBM 3800 printers. A characteristic of Unbounded Box fonts is that for printing rotated text, a separate font is required for each of the four rotations of the font (0o, 90o, 180o, and 270o from the inline print direction).

Bounded Box fonts

Bounded Box fonts are AFP fonts for IBM printers other than the 3800. For printing rotated fonts on these printers, only one version of the font is required which is rotated "on the fly".

AFP font components

Each AFP font has three components:

Character set Code page Coded font

FONT STRUCTURE

Character set

An AFP character set corresponds to the type font (or font) described in the previous section. A character set contains information about a single type family, typeface, bitmap, and point size, and can also include information about the baseline positioning, rotation, ascender, etc. Included in the character set is a unique identifier for each character in the character set called a graphic character ID (GCID).

Code page

A code page maps keyboard entries to characters in a character set. Each key on a keyboard corresponds to a hexadecimal code point. When printing on an AFP printer, the code point is matched to a GCID in the code page. This allows you to use different code pages, for example to print subsets of characters in a character set (like for different European languages).

ELIXIRFONT FOR AFP USER GUIDE 3-3

FONT STRUCTURE

Coded font

Hex. Code Point C1

... 97 ... D8

Graphic Character ID LA020000 LP010000 LQ020000

Figure 3-1. Code Page

A coded font links a character set to a code page. In order for a character to be printed, you must include it in the character set, and list it in a code page, and the two must link in a coded font.

Coded Font

Character Set Names Code Page names

Character Set

Character bitmaps

and GCIDs

Code Page

GCIDs and keyboard

code points

Figure 3-2. AFP font components For example, the binary representation of upper case (also called the code point). When printing the letter

its code point (C1) is matched to a GCID in the code page for the font (LA020000 in the example shown in figure 3-1)

the GCID is matched to a raster pattern in the character set for the font

the raster pattern is printed as upper case A.

Note that you must include all GCIDs (in the code page) in the character set, otherwise an error condition will exist at print time.

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AFP font characteristics

This section describes some characteristics of AFP fonts, particularly their appearance on a printed page.

Inline (Print) direction

The inline print direction (or simply print direction) is the direction in which characters are added to a line of text. The inline print direction has four possible values: 0o, 90o, 180o, and 270o as shown below (with respect to this page):

ABCDEF

FONT STRUCTURE

ABCDEF

180

270

ABCDEF

Figure 3-3. Inline (print) directions

Limitation: Unbounded Box fonts do not support 180

print direction.

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FONT STRUCTURE

Character baseline

The character baseline is a reference to which characters align as they are added to the page in the inline (print) direction. The character baseline is always parallel to the inline (print) direction.

Character rotation

The character rotation is the angle through which you rotate a printed character clockwise in 90o increments about the character baseline.

The following figure shows the four character rotations for the 0o inline (print) direction.

0 Degree Rotation

Figure 3-4. Character baseline

Character baseline

Inline (print) direction

Character baseline

90 Degree Rotation

Character baseline

180 Degree Rotation

Figure 3-5. Character rotations for 0o inline

print direction

270 Degree Rotation

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Toned-Pel box

FONT STRUCTURE

As there are four inline print directions, there are a total of 16 combinations of inline (Print) directions and character rotations. Note that since Unbounded Box fonts do not support the 180o print direction, only 12 combinations apply for Unbounded Box fonts.

A Toned-Pel box defines the boundaries of a character bitmap. Each character bitmap in a character set consists of an ordered array of black dots called toned pels and non-printing blank dots called untoned pels. The toned pels define the shape of the character and the untoned pels define the white space in and about the character.

Toned-Pel Box

Width

Toned-Pel Box

Height

Figure 3-6. Toned-Pel box

Printing adjacent characters

When printing side-by-side characters (like text in a word), each character is positioned according to its character reference point and character escapement point.

The character reference point defines the current print position for the character.

The character escapement point marks the end of the space along the character baseline allocated for the character. When printing adjacent characters, the reference point of the next character is placed at this point.

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The distance from the character reference point to the near edge of the toned-pel box is the "A-space" for the character.

The toned-pel box width is the "B-space" for the character.

The distance from the far edge of the toned-pel box to the character escapement point is the "C-space" for the character.

Character

Reference

Point

Character

Escapement

Point

A + B + C = Character Increment

Figure 3-7. Character measurements

A-space, B-space, and C-space are measured in pels (dots).

The sum of the A-space, B-space, and C-space is the character increment.

If a font's characters have the same increment (or uniform increment), the font is a monospaced or fixed pitch font.

If a font's character increments are different for each character, the font is a proportional-spaced or typographic font.

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Raster-Pattern box

A Raster-Pattern box encloses, or is superimposed on the toned-pel box. The Raster-Pattern box provides another method of placing characters on a printed page.

Raster-Pattern

Box Height

FONT STRUCTURE

Character Reference Point

Character Escapement Point

Raster-Pattern Box Width

Figure 3-8. Raster-Pattern box

For a Bounded-box font, the width of the RasterPattern box is measured along the inline (print) direction.

For an Unbounded-box font, the width of the RasterPattern box is always measured along the top edge of the printed form.

For a Bounded-box font, the Uniform A-space is the number of pels of the character's A-space from the near edge of the Raster-Pattern box to the Character Reference Point. The Uniform A-space can be zero or positive (zero means that the Character Reference Point lies on the near edge of the Raster-Pattern box).

Monospaced Bounded-box fonts have the same uniform A-space value for all characters.

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In an Unbounded-box font, this measurement is the Uniform Inline Offset and is used to shift characters left when left kerning. See the "Kerning" section in this chapter for more information.

Ascenders and descenders

The character ascender is the distance from the character baseline to the topmost toned pel.

The character descender is the distance from character baseline to the lowest toned pel.

Ascender

Descender

Figure 3-9. Ascenders and descenders

Note that ascenders and descenders are different for different rotations of a character.

Baseline positioning

The character baseline offset specifies where to place the character relative to the character baseline. The following figure shows the baseline offset (measured in pels) for different character rotations.

Character

Baseline

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FONT STRUCTURE

Kerning

0 Degree Rotation

180 Degree Rotation

Figure 3-10. Baseline offsets

If the baseline offset is the same for all characters in a given rotation of a character set, it is a Uniform Baseline Offset.

If the baseline offset is different for characters in a given rotation, the largest offset is the Maximum Baseline Offset.

Kerning is a technique of printing characters so that they partially overlap. Kerning is normally used to place italicized characters closer to each other for a more pleasing appearance.

Character baseline

90 Degree Rotation

Character baseline

270 Degree Rotation

Character

Baseline

Figure 3-11. Left kerning example

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Kerning can be of two types:

A character is Left kerned if it partially overlaps the preceding character, like the letter f in the figure above.

A character is Right kerned if it partially overlaps the next character, like the letter f in the following example.

Figure 3-12. Right kerning example A left kerned character has a negative A-space. A right kerned character has a negative C-space.

Summary: Character placement

Characters are placed on the printed page using the following concepts (described in the previous sections).

Bounded-box

Bounded-box characters are placed using the following:

Character reference point Character A-space Uniform A-space Character baseline offset Uniform baseline offset Character increment Uniform increment Raster-pattern box.

Character

Baseline

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Unbounded-box

Bounded-box characters are placed using the following:

Character reference point Uniform inline offset Uniform baseline offset Character increment Uniform increment Raster-pattern box.

AFP font naming conventions

AFP font naming conventions relate the inline (Print) direction and character rotation combination to a twocharacter file name prefix. The two-character prefix identifies the coded font or character set, and the remaining (one to six) characters are the coded font ID or character set ID. See an About Type Reference Manual for more information.

FONT STRUCTURE

Bounded-box naming convention

All Bounded-box coded fonts are prefixed with X0, and all Bounded-box character sets are prefixed with C0.

Unbounded-box naming convention

Unbounded-box font file name prefixes depend on the inline (print) direction and the font rotation, as shown in the following table.

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FONT STRUCTURE

Coded Font

ID Prefix

X1 0 X2 90 X4 270 X5 0 X6 90 X8 270

X9 XA 90 XC 270 XD 0 XE 90 XG 270

Inline (Print)

Direction

Character

Rotation

180

270

Character

Set ID Prefix

C1 C2 C4 C5 C6 C8

C9 CA CC CD CE CG

Note that Unbounded-box fonts do not support printing in the 180o inline (print) direction.

Elixir currently only supports X1, X2, and X4 rotations.

Code Page naming convention

AFP code page file names are always prefixed with T1.

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Elixir font structure

When converted to Elixir format, you can edit a font in a variety of ways; for example, you can resize a font, merge it with other fonts, italicize it, etc. The operations you can perform on individual characters and on the font depends on the source of the font; whether you converted the font from an AFP character set or from a non-AFP font.

The following sections in this chapter describe how ElixirFont handles fonts from AFP (Bounded-box and Unbounded-box) and non-AFP (such as HP PCL and Bitstream Facelift) sources.

Chapters following this one describe how to edit and transform AFP and non-AFP sourced fonts.

Elixir font converted from a non-AFP source

Each Elixir format font includes at least three components with different file extensions in the drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\ELIXIR directory. These are:

A .HDR component; this file contains the font header information.

A .GLH component; this file contains header information for each character.

A .GLY component; this file defines the actual bitmaps of the characters.

If you converted an Elixir format font from an AFP source (Bounded-box or Unbounded-box) using the Elixir Desktop Converter icon, it also contains the files described in the following section.

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Elixir font converted from an AFP source

When you use the Desktop Converter icon to convert an AFP (Bounded-box or Unbounded-box) font to Elixir format, a dialog box prompts you to create either a "PC-mapped" or "Full" Elixir version of the AFP font.

PC-mapped Elixir fonts

The "PC-mapped" option creates an Elixir version that is a subset of the AFP font. Because an AFP character set may contain many more characters than allowed by other non-AFP fonts, the "PC-mapped" version limits the number of characters to 256, the number allowed by many other font formats. An Elixir Keyboard Mapping Table determines the subset that converts (the table is a .KMP file in drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\MAPS).

A number of .KMP files are written to the drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\MAPS directory during Elixir Desktop and Converters installation. Each .KMP file is an ASCII file which lists GCIDs with corresponding ASCII (hex) keyboard positions. You select the .KMP file (used for font conversions) when you install the Elixir Desktop and Converters and normally will not change it unless generating fonts in another language (see the Elixir Desktop and Converter for AFP User's Guide for more information).

Typically, you use the "PC-mapped" option if you do not want to edit the font, but want to convert it to another non-AFP format (such as HP PCL). The "PCmapped" font contains the three .HDR, .GLH, and .GLY components described in the previous section. The "PC-mapped" Elixir font stem name starts with X0 if the source was a Bounded-box font and X1, X2, or X4 if the source was an Unbounded-box font.

Note: You should not edit a "PC-mapped" font unless you do not plan to reconvert the font back to AFP format.

Full character set Elixir fonts

The "Full" character set option converts the entire AFP character set to an Elixir-format font. You use

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FONT STRUCTURE

this option if you want to edit the Elixir-format font, then reconvert the font back to AFP format (Boundedbox or Unbounded-box). When creating a "Full" font, the following components are generated in the drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\ELIXIR directory:

Bounded-box fonts:

.HDR, .GLH, and .GLY components described in the previous section. The stem names are the same as the AFP character set and start with C0.

GL1, .GL2, GL3, and .GL4 files. The stem name of each file is the same as the stem name of the Bounded-box character set (for example, C0A075N0.GL1, C0A075N0.GL2, etc.). The files correspond to 0o, 90o, 180o and 270o rotations of the Bounded-box character set, respectively. Note that each is an ASCII file containing metrics information (such as the A-space, B-space, Cspace, GCID, and orientation) and other information for each character in the character set. All four files are created during conversion.

A .HDA file with the same stem name as the Bounded-box character set (starting with C0). This file contains additional font header information for the Bounded-box font.

Unbounded-box fonts:

HDR, .GLH, and .GLY components described in the previous section. The stem names are the same as the AFP Unbounded-box font file and start with C1, C2, or C4 depending on the source font orientation.

A .GL0 file (called the GCID Mapping List) with the same stem name as the Unbounded-box font (starting with C1 through CG depending on the source font orientation). The file includes metrics information (such as the A-space, B-space, Cspace, GCID, and orientation) and other information for each character in the character set.

A .HDA file with the same stem name as the Unbounded-box character set (starting with C1 through C4 depending on the source font orientation). This file contains additional font header

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FONT STRUCTURE

information for the Elixir version of the Unbounded-box font.

The following components are created for both Unbounded-box and Bounded-box fonts:

A .COD file with the same stem name as the character set (starting with T1). This is an ASCII file that derives from the AFP Code Page and is a list of EBCDIC code points and corresponding GCIDs for each character in the AFP character set.

A .CDF file with the same stem name as the character set (starting with X0, X1, X2, or X4 depending on the source font). This is an ASCII file that derives from the AFP Coded Font and is a list of correspondence between the character set name, code page name, and the Keyboard Mapping File (.KMP).

Elixir character set and font differences

The differences described in this section assume that you are familiar with editing Elixir-format character sets and non-AFP fonts described in the following chapters.

ElixirFont handles Elixir-format character sets and non-AFP fonts differently in the following ways:

AFP-originated character sets are arranged in order of GCID; non-AFP fonts are arranged in ASCII-sorted order in the displayed character cells.

Non-AFP fonts may have null (gray) characters; Elixir-format character sets do not.

The [Swap] option is disabled when editing character sets.

When using the [Merge] option in a character set, the program prompts you for the character rotation and GCID of each in the target font. If the GCID exists in the target font, you are prompted

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FONT STRUCTURE

whether you want the original character replaced. Otherwise the character is merged in the target font and the character set is restored. When using the [Merge] option in a non-AFP font, the target character is overwritten.

Character header properties dialog boxes are different.

The character set header information displays in three additional dialog boxes.

ELIXIRFONT FOR AFP USER GUIDE 3-19

4. Loading fonts and code pages

This chapter describes how to create a new character set, load an existing font, and load and edit a code page.

Loading an Elixir-format character set

To display an Elixir-format character set, load one of the following by opening them from the Desktop Elixir Fonts folder, or by using the ElixirFont main screen

menu, or the Character Set window

File

menu (described later in this section):

an Elixir-format character set (C0 or C1 prefixed file)

Charset

a Coded Font (X0 or X1 prefixed file) a non-AFP font. (Respond with YES to [Refor-

mat to AFP Charset]).

When opening files note the following:

Opening a Character Set (C0, C1 prefix) displays the character set in the Character Set window.

Opening a Code Page (T1 prefixed files) displays the code page in the Code Page window.

Opening a Coded Font (X0, X1 prefixed files) displays both the character set and code page in the appropriate windows.

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Figure 4-1. Loaded character set

The ElixirFont screen header shows the ElixirFont menu bar.

The top right portion of the screen shows the Character Set Window which displays rows of characters arranged (left-to-right and top-to-bottom) in alphabetical order by character GCID. Each character bitmap displays in a rectangular cell. The Character Set Window header also shows a menu bar.

The left of the screen shows a number of editing tools arranged in a Toolbox. These and other operations are briefly described at the end of this chapter and in more detail in later chapters.

The bottom right portion of the screen is the Code Page Window (initially blank if you loaded a character set). Loading and using a Code Page is described later in this chapter. The Code Page Window header displays the Code Page Window menu bar.

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Use the standard Windows handles to enlarge, maximize, and move the Edit and Code Page windows and to move the Toolbox. Use the Window menu to hide/show the Edit, Code Page, and Toolbox windows.

When you move the screen pointer over a character, the GCID of that character displays at the top left of the screen. (A gray border displays around the current character cell).

The top of the screen also shows (from left to right) the positional order of each character in decimal and hexadecimal notation, the width of the character in pels, and whether the current character is NONBLANK or a SPACING character. A spacing character is a blank bitmap used for applying spacing between characters or words. All other characters which contain bitmaps are NONBLANK characters.

Loading a non-AFP font

LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

To load a non-AFP Elixir font, follow these steps:

1. Pull down the System menu and select [Usage

Switches].

The Usage Switches dialog box displays.

Figure 4-2. Usage Switches dialog box

2. Select the [Convert non-AFP font to Charset

on load] option and click [OK].

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

3. Press <F8> (or pull down the File menu and select [Open Charset]).

The Load Charset dialog box displays and lists the .HDR components of fonts.

4. Select a non-AFP font.

Note that AFP character sets begin with C0 and C1, and that non-AFP fonts can begin with any character.

5. Click on [OK].

The following dialog box displays:

Figure 4-3. Reformat to Charset option

dialog box

Your selection at this point determines how ElixirFont handles the loaded non-AFP font:

Click on [Yes] to load the font and reformat it as an Elixir-format character set. See the "Reformatting to a character set" section in this chapter for further information.

Click on [No] to load the font as a non-AFP font. See the "Loading as a non-AFP font" section in this chapter for further information.

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Reformatting to a character set

To reformat to a character set:

1. Follow the steps for loading a non-AFP font.

2. Select [Yes] to reformat the font into an Elixir-format character set.

The Reformatting to AFP Character Set dialog box displays:

Figure 4-4. Reformatting to AFP Character Set

LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

dialog box

The Reformatting to AFP Character Set dialog box contains the following options:

Charset type

Select the character set type:

Select [BOUNDED] to reformat the font to a Bounded-box format.

Select [3800 UNBOUNDED] to reformat the font to a 0o rotation Unbounded-box format.

Note that you cannot use ElixirFont to reformat an Unbounded-box font to 90o or 270o rotations. To do so, you must use the Elixir Desktop Converter to convert the font to Unbounded-box format and specify the rotation in the dialog box that displays. See the Elixir Desktop and Converters User Guide for more information.

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

Resolution

Select [Fixed 240 Pels] or [Relative Units] to set a flag which specifies the internal measurements (such as A-space, etc.) of a Bounded-box font to fixed 240 dots per inch or to relative units (the actual relative measurement is specified in the AFP font header and cannot be specified from ElixirFont). Unbounded-box fonts can only be set to 240 pels.

Most users should select [Fixed 240 Pels] unless you want to generate a font for the IBM 4028 which operates at 300.

Charset name

Select the name of the reformatted character set:

The default for a Bounded-box font is C0 appended to the start of the font stem name. For example, C014NP converts to C0C014NP.

The default for an Unbounded-box font is C1 appended to the start of the original file name. For example, C014NP converts to C1C014NP.

The last characters of the original non-AFP font stem name truncate if the original font name contains more than six characters. We recommend using the default character set name that displays.

GCID Mapping list

The GCID mapping list is a file that maps character positions in a non-AFP font to predefined GCIDs. Two default GCID mapping lists are provided: C0ADOBE.GL1 for creating Bounded-box fonts and C0ADOBE.GL0 for creating Unbounded-box fonts. You can overwrite these but we recommend using the defaults.

Current Resolution

The current resolution of the font in pels (cannot be edited).

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Resize to 300

Applicable only for Bounded-box fonts when changing the resolution using the Resolution field, described above. When you resize the font by specifying this option, check the quality of the output font. We recommend resizing the font using the [Resize] option in ElixirFont. See the "Transforming Elixir-format character sets" chapter for more information about the [Resize] option.

Loading as a non-AFP font

To load as a non-AFP font:

1. Follow the steps for loading a non-AFP font.

2. Select [No] to load the font as an non-AFP Elixir-format font.

The character set displays in the Character Set window as shown in the following figure:

LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

Figure 4-5. Loaded non-AFP font The Character Set window shows the character bit-

maps of the font arranged left-to-right and top-to-

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

bottom by the ASCII position of the character in the font. The positions are defined in the font header file (.HDR).

The top of the screen shows the position of each character in decimal and hexadecimal notation when you move the screen pointer over the character (a gray box appears around the current character).

The Code Page window is initially blank. Also shown is the width (in pels) of the character, and

whether the character is NULL, SPACING, or NONBLANK. A null character means that a character is not defined for this position and displays as a filled gray cell (like the first 32 characters in the font). A spacing character occupies a cell but does not have a bitmap and prints as a spacing character. All other nonblank characters contain bitmaps.

The left of the screen displays the Toolbox with tools that you can use to edit and manipulate the characters or the entire Elixir-format character set. See the "Editing non-AFP fonts" chapter for more information about the Toolbox.

Creating new character sets

ElixirFont allows you to create the following types of font:

PC-mapped font. Elixir format character set.

Creating a new PC-mapped font

To create a new PC-mapped font,

1. Pull down the Charset menu and select [New Charset].

The Properties of New Font dialog box displays.

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

Figure 4-6. Properties of New Font

dialog box

2. Select [PC-Mapped Font].

Note that the default stem name and spacing type for a new PC-mapped font are FONT01 and NULL.

3. Specify the [Number of Characters], [Height of character boxes], [Width of character boxes], and [Baseline from bottom] for the new font and click on OK.

The Font Properties dialog box displays.

4. Select options in the Font Properties dialog box.

See the "Editing non-AFP fonts" chapter for information about the options in the Font Properties dialog box.

5. Click [OK].

A new PC-mapped font containing all NULL characters is created.

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

Adding a bitmap to a cell

To add a bitmap to a cell:

1. Select a NULL cell and press <F2>.

The Properties of Null Character dialog box displays.

2. Change the character type to [Spacing] and click on OK.

3. Double-click on the new SPACING character and edit the bitmap.

See the "Editing non-AFP fonts" chapter for information about editing a bitmap.

Creating a new AFP character set

To create a new AFP character set:

1. Pull down the Charset menu and select [New Charset].

The Properties of New Font dialog box displays.

Figure 4-7. Properties of New Font

dialog box

2. Select [AFP Character Set].

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

Note that the default stem name and spacing type for a new AFP character set are C0FONT01 and SPACING

3. Specify the [Number of Characters], [Height of character boxes], [Width of character boxes], and [Baseline from bottom] for the new character set.

4. Click on OK.

The Reformatting to AFP Character Set dialog box described earlier in this chapter displays. Note that the [GCID Mapping List] option is not available when creating a new character set.

5. Select options and click on [OK] as the following dialog boxes display:

Font Properties Character Set Attributes Character Set Increments Character Set Design

Options in these dialog boxes are described in the "Editing Elixir-format character sets" chapter.

A new AFP character set containing all SPACING characters loads into the Character Set window.

6. Double-click on each new SPACING character and edit the bitmap.

See the "Editing Elixir-format character sets" chapter for more information.

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Loading a Code Page

A Code Page maps keyboard entries to characters in a character set. Each key on the keyboard corresponds to a hexadecimal Code Point. When printing on an AFP printer, the Code Point is matched to a GCID in the Code Page. This allows you to use different code pages (for example to print subsets of characters in a character set which is useful for printing different European languages).

Elixir provides PC versions of code pages as T1*.COD format ASCII files in drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\ELIXIR.

To load a Code Page:

1. From the Desktop, open a T1, X0, or X1 prefixed file in the Elixir Fonts folder

Note that opening a T1 file loads only a code page while opening an X0 or X1 file loads both a code page and its associated character set.

Alternatively:

Make the Code Page Window the active window and either press <F8> or pull down the CodePage menu and select [Open Coded Page].

In the ElixirFont Screen, pull down the File menu and select [Open Code Page].

The Load Code Page dialog box displays a list of code pages in the default directory.

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

Figure 4-8. Load Code Page dialog box

2. Select a Code Page and click [OK].

The Code Page Window displays the selected Code Page as shown at the bottom of the following figure. If a character set is not loaded, the Code Page displays GCID names only.

Figure 4-9. Loaded Code Page and Character Set

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LOADING FONTS AND CODE PAGES

3. Pull down the System menu and select [Usage Switches].

The Usage switches dialog box displays as shown earlier.

4. Select [Highlight chars in Code Page] and click on [OK].

This highlights characters in the selected character set that map to the Code Page.

Editing a code page

To edit a code page, maximize the Code Page Window for a better view.

Horizontal/Vertical

Hex Display Toggle

Figure 4-10. Maximized Code Page

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The Code Page shows a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns identified by hexadecimal digits across the top row and left column.

The arrow at the top left of the grid (shown in the figure above) points to the row or column that specifies the first hex digit of the code point.

For example, in the above figure, the number 1 has a hex code point B1. To switch rows and columns, click on the arrow.

Each cell (identified by its hex code point) shows the GCID and corresponding character bitmap for the current Code Page.

You can edit a Code Page as follows:

Select any character/GCID and drag and drop it to another blank cell (code point).

Drag and drop a character from the Character Set Window to any cell in the Code Page Window.

This powerful ElixirFont feature allows you create custom code pages using simple drag and drop techniques.

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Font basics

5. Editing non-AFP fonts

This chapter describes how to edit Elixir-format fonts that were not originally sourced from AFP character sets.

Some examples of non-AFP fonts are installed in the drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\ELIXIR directory on your PC during installation (CURL, ROUND1, and LION).

You can also generate your own Elixir-format fonts by using the Efont Factory to convert Bitstream Facelift fonts to Elixir-format fonts. See the Elixir Desktop and Converters User's Guide for more information.

This section describes the characteristics of non-AFP fonts used to display, edit, and apply metrics to nonAFP fonts. The following figure shows some important characteristics of a character in a cell.

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Above

Below

Above

baseline

Blanks Left

Cell Height

Blanks Right

Below baseline

Linespacing

Leading

Baseline Offset

Cell width

Figure 5-1. Character attributes

The next figure shows some character and linespacing attributes on a printed page.

baseline

Figure 5-2. Character and line attributes

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The following formula is used for calculating line spacing:

Line spacing = above baseline + below baseline + leading

ElixirFont tools

This section describes the ElixirFont menus and tools used for editing, transforming, and setting font properties.

Select tool

The Select tool allows you to select one character or all char-

Select Tool

EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

acters in a loaded font.

Select all characters

Unselect characters

Figure 5-3. Select tool and options Use the <Ctrl> + <A> fast key to select and deselect

all characters in a font (toggle). Select a range of characters by clicking on the first

character, then <Ctrl>-clicking on the last character.

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Edit tool

The Edit tool allows you to edit individual character bitmaps.

Select a character and then select the Edit tool to edit the character. If you do not select a character, the software defaults to the first non-space or non-null character. Alternatively, double-click on the character. The Edit Window displays at the right of the screen.

Edit Tool

Edit Window Toolbar

Figure 5-4. Edit Window

Edit Window Menu Bar

Framing window

The bottom of the screen shows a partial list of characters with the current character selected. You can click on another character to display it in the edit window. You can also scroll through the entire font using the <Page Up>, <Page Down>, <Home>, and <End> keys, or use the Windows scrolling buttons.

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The right of the screen shows the framing window which you can move to display different portions of the character you are editing.

Initially the character displays at 8X magnification (each dot in the bitmap displays as a black or white box 8 bits high and 8 bits wide).

The Toolbox now shows editing tools and various options which you can select. A selected tool or option displays with a black background. In addition, you can select options available from menus shown in the Edit Window menu bar, and also from the Edit Window Toolbar displayed just below the menu bar.

Edit Window menu bar

The Edit Window menu bar contains the following pulldown menus and menu options:

Char

Post Blend Prev Char Next Char Properties

Edit

Undo Cut Copy Paste Delete

Tools

Dot Line Box Circle Brush Ruler Move Area Copy Area

View

Show Grid Show Coordinates

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

You can also select these functions from the Toolbox.

Edit Window Toolbar

The Edit Window Toolbar displays just below the Edit Window menu bar.

Figure 5-5. Edit Window Toolbar The three left blocks display object coordinates and

size, and change based upon the selected tool. The following are the other options, from left to right:

Grid

Displays or hides the grid. The grid does not display for magnifications of 4x and less.

Undo

Undoes the last edit operation.

Magnification

Shows the current magnification. Click on the down arrow to decrease the magnification, or the up arrow to increase it.

Post

Saves changes made to the character bitmap.

Displays the previous character in the font for editing. Prompts for confirmation if you made changes.

Displays the next character in the font for editing. Prompts for confirmation if you made changes.

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Edit tool options

The editing tools display at the top of the Toolbox as shown in the following figure.

Figure 5-6. Editing tools

Character Properties

Displays the Character Properties dialog box. See the "Character Properties tool" section in this chapter for more information.

Ruler

Displays the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the screen pointer from the top left of the character cell (in dots). The coordinates display at the left of the Edit Window Toolbar.

Select area

Allows you to select a rectangular area of the displayed character and to move or copy it (by selecting [M] or [C] in the Toolbox) to another location in the cell.

Draw dot

Allows you to draw a dot in the character cell. You can select the color (black, white, or reverse current dot), and the thickness of the dot.

Draw line

Allows you to draw a line in the character cell. You can select the color (black, white, or reverse), and the thickness of the line.

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Draw box

Allows you to draw a box in the character cell. You can select the color (black, white, or reverse) and the thickness of the border, and draw hollow or filled boxes.

Draw circle

Allows you to draw a circle in the character cell. You can select the color (black, white, or reverse) and the thickness of the border, and draw hollow or filled circles.

Draw brush

Allows you to draw with a brush tool. You can select the brush thickness and color (black, white, or reverse) and paint with hollow or filled strokes.

Blend

Allows you to blend another character into the current cell. After selecting the Blend tool, click on another character from the font to view it in the framing window blended with the current character. Click in the framing window and drag the new character to position it on top of the current character, then click on [Accept] in the Toolbox to save the blend.

After editing or viewing the bitmap, close the Edit window to return to the ElixirFont main screen.

Transform

Allows you to alternate between edit mode and transform mode with the current character set or character. See the "Transforming non-AFP fonts" chapter for more information about transformations.

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Transform tool

EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

The Transform tool allows you to change the appearance of single characters or the entire font.

The transformations you can perform are: Resize Rotate Shift Slant

Darken Lighten Underline Reverse Filter Outline Halftone Mirror

Use the additional setup options to define how you want to apply the transformation

Figure 5-7. Transformation tools and options You can also use the

Transforms

menu to perform all

the above actions. See the "Transforming non-AFP fonts" chapter for in-

formation about the transformation tools and their operations.

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Kill tool

The Kill tool deletes or blanks a character from the font, depending on your selection below the Toolbox.

Character Properties tool

Figure 5-8. Kill tool

The Character Properties tool displays the Character Properties dialog box.

Figure 5-9. Character Properties dialog box

Equivalent ASCII Char

The ASCII representation of the selected character.

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Character Number

The ordinate position of the character in the font in decimal and hexadecimal notations.

Cell Width

The width of the character cell. Also called the character width or the delta-X of the character.

Baseline Offset

The distance in dots from the bottom of the character bitmap to the baseline. The baseline is positive if the character sits above the baseline and negative if it sits below the baseline.

Blanks Left

The blanks left of the character. This is the distance (in dots) between the left side of the character cell and the start of the character bitmap.

Blanks Right

The blanks right of the character. This is the distance (in dots) from the right side of the character bitmap and the edge of the cell. If the character has right kerning, this value is negative and the character extends past the right side of the cell.

Left Kerning

The left kerning of the character. This is the distance (in dots) the character extends over the left side of the cell. This value produces left kerning only after the font converts. The 9700 family of printers does not support left kerning.

Bitmap width/Bitmap height

The width and height of the character bitmap in dots.

Char type

The type of the character. [Spacing] makes the character a spacing character and [Null] eliminates the character. When you select a [Null] or [Spacing] character, a dialog box with fewer options displays

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Floating accent

The flag for distributed printers which instructs the printer to map accents to a [High] or [Low] position or to assign [No] accent to a character. This option is not used for the 9700 series printers and refers to the European ISO standard.

Selecting the [Prev] and [Next] buttons displays the Character Properties dialog box for the previous and next characters in the font.

Copy tool

The Copy tool allows you to copy a character into any other position in the font. Select the character to copy, then select a target position to which you want to copy the character. If the target position already contains a character, it is replaced.

You can also copy a range of characters to a new position in a font. Click and <Ctrl>-click to select a range of characters and click on a target character cell. The selected range of characters are copied to new positions starting at the target character cell.

Swap tool

The Swap tool allows you to swap the positions of two characters in the font. Use the screen pointer to select the first character, then select the second character. The two characters swap positions.

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Merge tool

EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

The Merge tool allows you to load another font and copy the font characters into or replace characters in your original font. A dialog box displays from which you select another Elixir-format font. After font selection, the screen splits into source and target font windows. The source window shows the font from which you want to merge characters; the target window contains the font you originally loaded.

To merge fonts:

1. Select the character you want to merge (source).

2. Select the [Replace] or [Insert] option in the Toolbox.

3. Click on the character in the target font you want to replace or insert a character in front of.

The character from the source window is copied to the target window. The Replace operation overwrites any character in the chosen position of the target font. The Insert operation inserts characters in the position before the selected character in the target.

To cancel a selected character, select another character.

Merging a tall character into a smaller font vertically stretches the cells in the smaller font. See the following figures for an illustration of the effect of merging a tall character into a smaller one.

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Figure 5-10. Selecting a character for merging

Figure 5-11. Effect of merging the character

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Sample tool

EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

The Sample tool displays a font sampling pad in which you can see how text created with the current font will display at print time.

Figure 5-12. Sampling pad example Use the keyboard or click on the characters in the

character set window to place the characters in the sampling pad.

Select [Print Sample] from the File menu to proof print the sampling pad (when proof printing, text prints as bitmaps).

Click on [Line] in the Font window Toolbar to display the baseline when entering characters (or select [Show Baseline] from the View menu).

Click on [Kern] in the Font window Toolbar to see the effect of kerning character pairs (or select [Show Kerning] from the View menu). The bitmap of the kerned character must extend beyond the character cell for this effect to be visible.

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Font Properties tool <Ctrl> + <F2>

The Font Properties tool displays the Font Properties dialog box.

Figure 5-13. Font Properties dialog box

Orientation

The orientation of the font: portrait, landscape, inverse portrait, or inverse landscape.

Resolution

The font resolution: [240], [300], [480], or [600] dpi.

Pitch

Fixed or proportionally spaced. Selecting [Fixed] displays a dialog box requesting a fixed width value.

Linespacing

Changing [Distance Above], [Below], or [Leading] changes the linespacing. To calculate the new line spacing, click on the [Linespacing] button.

Point Size

Display only. The point size of the font (a point is 1/72 inches).

Pixel Height

Display only. The height of the font cell in dots.

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Last Character at

The decimal position of the last character. The first character position is always 0, and the maximum last character position is 255. If you increase this value, new null characters are added to the end of the font. If you decrease this value, characters are removed from the end of the font.

Change cell width

Allows you to increase or decrease the width of every cell in the font by the number of dots you enter. You can change the relative spacing between characters for the entire font.

Header submenus

Displays the font header information for HP PCL fonts (other options are grayed).

HP PCL

Displays the HP PCL Font Properties dialog box.

Figure 5-14. HP PCL Font Properties

dialog box

Options in the dialog box are:

the typeface name (file name of the font) the typeface number the symbol set of the font the style (italic or normal)

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EDITING NON-AFP FONTS

Select the stroke weight (boldness), from [UltraLight] to [UltraBold]

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6. Transforming non-

AFP fonts

This chapter describes how to use ElixirFont to apply transformations to single characters or to all characters in a font.

Transformations are editing functions that change the printing characteristics of characters. The transformations you can apply are:

Resize, Rotate, Shift, Slant, Darken, Lighten, Underline, Reverse, Filter, Outline, Halftone, and Mirror.

Some examples of single-character transformations are shown in the following figure.

Figure 6-1. Transformation examples

To apply a transformation:

1. Select either a single character or the entire font (<Ctrl>-<A>).

2. Pull down the Transforms menu or click on the Transformation tool (the top center tool in the Toolbox) and select the transformation you want to apply.

3. Select the transformation options you want from the bottom of the Toolbox area.

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4. Click on the button in the Toolbox to start the transformation.

5. Click on the button in the Toolbox if you want to stop the transformation during execution.

6. Click on the [Undo] button in the Toolbox to undo the transformation just applied (the undo function does not reverse a transformation that is stopped during execution).

The following sections describe transformations in more detail.

Transformation tool

Figure 6-2. Transformation tools and menu

Transforms menu

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Transformation tool options

This section describes the Transformation tool options in the ElixirFont Toolbox.

Transformation tool

options

Figure 6-3. Transformation tool selected

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

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TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

Resize

This transformation resizes a single character or the entire font.

Figure 6-4. Selected Resize tool and options

The current point size displays. Enter a new point size by clicking on the up and down arrows (you can only resize within an allowable range), or specify horizontal and vertical resize percentages within the allowable range.

Select the [Filter bitmap] button to remove jagged edges and single bits after resizing. The bitmap features that are filtered are those currently selected in the Filter Toolbox. To verify the selected options, select the Filter tool and specify:

Remove single black bits Remove single white bits

You may want to apply filtering to a single character to see the effect of different filtering options.

When resizing the entire font, a second dialog box displays requesting resize confirmation. Line spacing, cell widths, and other values are resized proportionately.

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Rotate

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

If you are increasing the character size and the enlarged character does not fit in the character cell, a dialog box requests confirmation for increasing the size of the character cell.

Repeatedly resizing the same font significantly distorts the font and is not recommended.

This transformation rotates characters in 90-degree increments.

Figure 6-5. Selected Rotate tool and options Select [Clockwise] or [Counter-clockwise] rotation. If you rotate the entire font more than once, cell di-

mensions such as blanks left are not preserved, and reversing the rotation does not restore the font precisely.

This option does not create a landscape font from a portrait font, or a portrait font from landscape font. To change the orientation of the font, modify the orientation in the Font Properties dialog box.

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Shift

This transformation shifts a character in its cell. Select a direction to shift (up, down, left, or right arrow), and set the number of dots you want the characters to shift.

Figure 6-6. Selected Shift tool and options If shifting a character extends it beyond its cell, a dia-

log box requests confirmation for increasing the size of the character cell.

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Slant

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

This transformation is useful for creating an italic version of a character or a font.

Figure 6-7. Selected Slant too

and options

Select the slant direction by clicking on it, then select the number of dots by which you want the character(s) slanted.

If slanting a character extends it beyond its cell, a warning dialog box displays.

You should not repeatedly slant characters. Each slant operation adds distortions (like jagged edges, single bits, etc.) that are compounded with repeated operations.

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Darken

This transformation darkens (emboldens) characters.

Figure 6-8. Selected Darken tool

and options

This operation adds one or more dots next to existing dots in the character bitmap.

Specify the number of dots, and the side of the bitmap to which you want dots added.

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Lighten

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

This transformation lightens (debolds) characters.

Figure 6-9. Selected Lighten tool

and options

This operation removes one or more dots near existing dots in the character bitmap.

Specify the number of dots, and the side of the bitmap from which you want dots removed.

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TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

Underline

This transformation underlines characters.

Figure 6-10. Selected Underline tool

and options

Specify the position of the underline as above or below the baseline, and the distance to the baseline.

You can also specify the thickness of the underline (in dots, default 4 dots) and whether the width of the underline is across the character or across the cell.

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Reverse

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

This transformation reverses (changes black to white and white to black) character cells.

Figure 6-11. Selected Reverse tool

You are prompted for confirmation when you want to reverse the entire font, but not when you want to reverse a single character.

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Filter

This transformation applies filtering to one or more characters in a font.

Figure 6-12. Selected Filter tool

and options

The following figure shows the features that you can filter.

Figure 6-13. Filtering features

The effects of the filter are limited. For example, the filtering result may not be consistent with bits that are on outer edges of the character bitmap. You should always check character bitmaps after filtering and performing manual edits.

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Outline

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

This transformation encloses the character bitmap with a border and reverses the enclosed area.

Figure 6-14. Selected Outline tool

and options

Specify the outline thickness between 1 and 9 dots (the default is 2 dots).

The following figure shows the effect of outlining.

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TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

Figure 6-15. Outlining example

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Halftone

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

This transformation applies line or shading patterns to characters.

Figure 6-16. Selected Halftone tool

and options

You can apply halftoning as horizontal, vertical, and slanted (45o and 135o) lines, and in many shades.

You can specify the line width and line separation in dots, and apply halftoning to the character bitmap (foreground) or the cell background.

You can also outline the character bitmap and specify the outline width in dots.

When halftoning a spacing character, reverse it to black then apply halftoning to the foreground.

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Halftoning is applied to solid black portions of a character. Halftoning a character that is not solid black (for example, a shaded or previously halftoned character) results in halftoning being applied only to the black portions of the character.

When halftoning an entire font, you may be required to adjust some character width settings for correct character fit when placed together, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 6-17. Incorrect cell spacing example

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Mirror

TRANSFORMING NON-AFP FONTS

This transformation rotates characters vertically or horizontally to create a mirror image.

Figure 6-18. Selected Mirror tool

and options

The following figure shows a mirroring example.

original font

vertical mirror

horizontal mirror

Figure 6-19. Mirroring example

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7. Editing Elixir-format character sets

This chapter describes how to edit Elixir-format character sets that were converted from AFP format using Elixir converters. See the Elixir Desktop and Convert- ers for AFP User Guide for more information about font conversions.

Some examples of Elixir-format character sets are loaded in the drive:\ELIXIR\FONTS\ELIXIR directory on your PC during installation (for example, C0A05570 and C0A05580).

Bounded-box character set names start with C0 and Unbounded-box character sets can start with C1 through CG; however Elixir only supports C1, C2, and C4 prefixed character sets, as described below.

ElixirFont supports editing C1, C2, and C4 prefixed Unbounded-box fonts that were converted from AFP format using Elixir converters. ElixirFont can also create C1 prefixed (0o inline print direction) Unbounded-box character sets. Other inline print directions for Unbounded-box character sets can be obtained by converting to AFP format and selecting 90 or 270o directions.

Character set basics

You should refer to the "Font structure" chapter for an overview of AFP and Elixir-format character sets and to understand the terminology used in this chapter.

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Editing Elixir fonts

The ElixirFont font editor functions in two different ways depending on the source of the Elixir font and the format to which you want to convert the edited font:

In this guide, Elixir-format fonts that contain only .GLH, .GLY, and .HDR components are referred to as "non-AFP" Elixir fonts. These fonts are created in the following ways:

The Desktop Converter icon was used to create the Elixir font from a non-AFP source (such as Bitstream Facelift or HP).

The Desktop Converter icon was used to create the Elixir font from an AFP (Bounded-box or Unbounded-box) character set using the "PCmapped" option.

The font was originally a "non-AFP" font and was edited and saved using ElixirFont.

Alternatively, if you use the Desktop Converter icon to convert an AFP character set to Elixir format and specify the "Full AFP font" option, in addition to the .GLH, .GLY, and .HDR components, the converted Elixir font includes components described in the previous section. In this guide, these fonts are referred to as "Elixir-format character sets".

ElixirFont tools

This section describes the ElixirFont menus and tools used for editing, transforming, and setting font properties.

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