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1989-04-21
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About !FontCtrl (version 0.12)
==============================
FontCtrl provides an easy way to configure a system to get the best out of
the outline font manager (fontmanager 2.27 and upwards). It provides the
ability to change the parameters which control the way the font manager
renders the fonts and it also allows the cacheing of specific fonts on disc
for speedier reference. Some knowledge of fonts is necessary!
(1) The font manufacturing section
The process of making a font from an outline can take a longer time than
desireable and some of the processes mentionned below are particularly time
consuming. Therefore you can cause the system to create fonts and store them
on disc (especially useful if a hard disc is being used). Fonts can be
created in particular sizes (and heights if different) and for the screen or
printer. The "expensive" rendering methods can be used to create a high
quality font.
"Font:"
A box needs to be filled with the name of the font. The current fonts are
available on the menu, or you can type in to the box.
"Size:" and "Height:"
The point size of the font can be entered by typing in to the box. If no
specific height is given it will be the same as the size.
"Screen X,Y; Printer X,Y:"
FontCtrl fills these values in itself by looking at the current screen mode
and printer. Fonts are made specific to a particular device, but you can
type in your own values if you wish to make a font for a device which you
don't have.
"Make"
Make the font for the device. The information will be computed with the
current font parameters and then written to the place where the font
information came from as a file of the form f or b <number> x <number> e.g.
f480x480. The numbers represent the combination of the device resolution and
the point size.
"Del"
The font information is deleted, if it exists.
(2) The configuration section.
The bottom of the FontCtrl window provides easy alteration of the various
"fontmax" parameters held in the CMOS RAM of the machine. These parameters
control the choices made by the font manager in the process of providing the
desired font and they can be tuned to provide more accurate displays or
faster production of the information. To take each section in turn:
"Max height of rescaled bitmaps"
This parameter controls the maximum size of fonts derived (by image scaling
up or down) from a specific pixelmap file called "x90y45" [previously the
only place a font was stored]. The scaling is very fast (compared to
creating the font from the outline) but gives a less accurate result,
particularly when the original information must be magnified. If the x90y45
file does not exist, no scaling will be applied. Fonts manufactured with
FontCtrl can be scaled if you do not have an x90y45 version of a font
already; to do this make a font at the highest point size you require (the
value to which you set "max height of rescaled bitmaps"), say 24 point. This
will create a file f480x480 or f480x240. Open the !Fonts application (shift
double click) and open the directory which the information is stored in.
Save a file from Edit containg the line "f480x480" (or "f480x240" as
appropriate) as the file "x90y45". Larger or smaller master fonts can be
used. The scaling process is not used for monochrome systems unless it is
the only possible method of displaying the font. It is recommended that
magnification of the original is not used unless the need for speed is high.
"Max height of anti-aliasing"
Anti-aliasing is the process of displaying a closer approximation to the
original shape. For example, if the edge of a shape passes partially through
a pixel, a non-anti-aliasing system can only display "on" or "off", the
anti-aliasing system can approximate the "true" value by using an
intermediate value corresponding to the percentage of the pixel covered.
This gives a much improved display, but at the cost of greater computation
and storage requirements for the extra information.
"Max height of cached bitmaps"
Fonts, derived from the outline or previously computed pixel maps, are stored
in the computer's memory (in a "cache") to speed things up. However, large
fonts may take up more memory than they are worth (in terms of loosing that
storage for other fonts or other purposes), so a limit can be set on the
maximum size of fonts which will be cached. Non cached fonts cannot be
anti-aliased, so this value should be larger than "max height of
anti-aliasing".
"Max width for horiz subpixel use" and "Max height for vert subpixel use"
The anti-aliasing process can be used to give the appearance of higher
resolution in horizontal or vertical directions. By preparing several
versions (4, presently) of the characters an approriate version can be
displayed in those positions where it is needed. The process improves the
legibility of small type faces particularly. It is a computationally and
storage intensive process, especially if both horizontal and vertical
parameters apply, so it is best used only on small fonts or when caching a
font on disc (see below). Note that the vertical option is defeated by
!Edit, but still applies to !Draw etc. These values are used to override the
"max height of rescaled bitmaps" value on small typefaces. Recommended
setting is either off or a setting of around 10 point.
"Max size of font cache"
The font manager has a minimum size of memory to use for putting fonts in
("fontsize" - set it with *configure fontsize <n>K" or use the RISC OS task
manager to drag the font cache red bar) and it can also take extra memory
from the system to expand its cache "when the going gets tough". This may
lead to an undesireably large font cache, with the font manager owning up
to 1MByte of the memory, so a maximum size is also provided. Recommended
setting is around 1/8 of your machine's memory.
"Redraw whole screen"
After changing the parameters, you can see the effect on information already
on display by clicking here. The display will be redrawn with all fonts
being recomputed if needed to show the effect of the changes.
"Reset Values"
Click here to reset the parameters to the values they had when FontCtrl was
started or to the last time "save values" was clicked.
"Save Values"
Click here to cause FontCtrl to memorise the current parameters as a point
that can be returned to while experimenting.