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FONT MONSTER v1.0 12/1/92
Program and documentation (C) 1992 by Steven Fox, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
-----RELEASE NOTES v1.0------------------------------------------
In an effort to get this utility finished and distributed as quickly as
possible, the file, FMONSTER.TXT, will serve as the documentation as well as
the HELP file.
-----INSTALLING FONT MONSTER-------------------------------------
FONT MONSTER requires you to use Windows 3.1. It will not run in Windows 3.0
or OS/2.
FMONSTER.EXE Copy this to wherever you like. You can assign it an icon
in Program Manager using the usual procedure; File, New.
FMONSTER.TXT This help file. Make sure this is located in the same
directory as FMONSTER.EXE, or better yet, in your PATH.
FILE_ID.DIZ This is used by BBSs to describe FONT MONSTER, you can
delete this file from your hard disk.
FONT MONSTER requires that the following files be installed in your
WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory:
VBRUN100.DLL Visual Basic 1.0 run-time library, not included in this
archive. It is available for free on most BBSs, probably
from wherever you got FMONSTER.ZIP from.
CMDIALOG.VBX
INSTSCRL.VBX
THREED.VBX Three additional Visual Basic files needed by FONT MONSTER.
In addition you can 'Associate' your "TTF" and "PFM" font files to
FMONSTER.EXE using Program Manager or File Manager. This will allow you to
double click on any font with File Manager and it will call up FONT MONSTER
with that font's data loaded.
-----WHAT FONT MONSTER DOES--------------------------------------
FONT MONSTER allows you to edit TrueType and Type 1 fonts. Well, not the
glyphs and stuff, but all the stuff which Windows uses to recognize a font,
like the name, the weight, the style, etc. I should probably make it quite
clear from the start that any changes you make to a font using FONT MONSTER
will NOT IN ANY WAY affect how it appears on screen or in print. To do that
you will need something like FONTMONGER or FONTOGRAPHER.
FONT MONSTER will not alter the hinting or kerning or appearance of any font
you edit. Such information will simply be copied byte-for-byte from the
original font file.
-----WHY SHOULD YOU USE FONT MONSTER? EXAMPLES:------------------
Let's say you have two sets of fonts from two different font vendors but they
both have the same name. Windows will have no way of telling the difference
which is which. By renaming one set, Windows (and you) will be able to call
up either font.
How about if you copy some fonts over from the Apple Macintosh? The Apple
naming scheme can sometimes be quite weird. For example, I have some fonts
named "Stimpy Bold 001.002" & "DavysRudeSymbols 10/23/91". Both of these
names included some extra information which I didn't want and it also
confuses how Windows selects the style variations in the font's family.
Renaming the fonts will take care of this.
Word For Windows 2.0 tries to be so smart when you want to insert a symbol or
a bullet. It will only allow you to select from those fonts in your system
which are marked as Symbol fonts. What can you do if you want to use a font
which isn't a Symbol font? Good luck, Word doesn't make it very easy for you.
Use FONT MONSTER to mark the font as Symbol and from then on Word will put it
in its Symbol menu.
Some fonts, particularly Type 1 fonts, are designed with Style formats
incompatible with Windows. You may have Regular, Bold, Italic, and Bold
Italic versions for a particular family but you may not be able to choose them
the usual way, for example CTRL-B for Bold, CTRL-I for Italic. Instead you
would have to choose, for example, "Simpsons Bold" or "Simpsons Italic" from
your font menu. This is because the styles were all marked as Regular when
they were produced. Use FONT MONSTER to set the correct style flags in each
font. Then you can have one menu entry, "Simpsons", and choose the styles in
your word processor the usual way.
Some applications, CorelDRAW! 3.0 is a good example, bundle fonts with their
programs. But for some reason, they change the names of the fonts to
something similar, but not quite the same as the font's real name. Renaming
the fonts to their official names will help you organize your font collection.
FONT MONSTER also lets you preview fonts, even if they are not installed yet!
If you like what you see you can install it permanently with FONT MONSTER. If
you don't like a font you can also remove fonts from Windows with FONT
MONSTER, and even delete the font files from your hard disk. All this only
applies to TrueType fonts. Type 1 fonts can only be added and removed with
Adobe's Type Manager (ATM) program.
-----HOW TO USE FONT MONSTER (TrueType)--------------------------
[OPEN]
Upon startup, FONT MONSTER shows you a button bar. Click on [OPEN] to read in
the information from a font. The familiar Windows Common Dialog Box will pop
up, go ahead and find a font and open it. The suffix for TrueType fonts is
".TTF", for Type 1 fonts it's ".PFM".
THE STRING DATA
Once the font data has been read in you will see a larger screen with a whole
bunch of information on it. On the left side is the string data contained in
a font. If a particular string doesn't exist in the font, FONT MONSTER puts
its own name, "FONT MONSTER", there.
WINDOWS NAME
This is what Windows uses to organize its fonts. This is really a combination
of the FAMILY name and the STYLE name. The exception being when a STYLE is
"Regular", then the WINDOWS NAME shouldn't include the word "Regular" after
the FAMILY name. Unpredictable things will happen in your font menus
otherwise. Don't try it.
FAMILY
This is a common name given to a group, or FAMILY, of fonts. For example,
ARIAL comes in four variations, or STYLES, and they all have the same FAMILY
name; ARIAL. Windows expects the FAMILY name to be the same as the FAMILY
name depicted in the WINDOWS NAME field. Otherwise a font may not display
correctly, if at all.
STYLE
Examples of STYLE are "Bold", "Bold Italic", "Italic", "Oblique", "Regular".
Windows expects the STYLE to follow the FAMILY name in the WINDOWS NAME
field, with the exception being when a font STYLE is "Regular", in which case
the FAMILY name and the WINDOWS NAME should be the same.
By entering the word "Bold" in the STYLE field, it doesn't mean the font will
be recognized as BOLD by your applications. That's set by ACTUAL STYLE,
another control which is quite independent of the string data.
COPYRIGHT
Font vendors put their copyright notices in this field. It has
no bearing on how the font installs or displays.
UNIQUE ID
This should contain a number or string which is different than any other font
in your system.
VERSION
The version field identifies the font's release and version information from
the vendor. Apparently, some SETUP.EXE programs will access the VERSION field
to automatically install updates of your fonts. This field has no bearing on
how the font installs or displays.
POSTSCRIPT NAME
This is a unique name a PostScript printer will use to identify the font. It
does not have to be the same as the WINDOWS NAME or FAMILY name.
TRADEMARK
Some font vendors put their font name trademark notices in this field. It has
no bearing on how the font installs or displays.
THE FLAG DATA
The FLAG DATA (for lack of a better term) consists of several checkboxes
which let you identify the font to Windows. Remember, no matter what you
choose for a font, it will NOT in any way change how the font displays or is
printed. For example, you can not check the ITALIC checkbox and then your
font will become italic. These flags simply allow Windows to make intelligent
decisions about the font. Likewise, it's up to you to make intelligent
decisions if you change the FLAG DATA.
ACTUAL STYLE
This identifies the font's actual style. This is different than the STYLE
string data. Windows applications use the ACTUAL STYLE to determine what kind
of font this is. Note that only Regular, Bold, & Italic are currently valid
in Windows 3.1. You can set the other styles if you want, but Windows 3.1
will ignore them.
Choosing Bold AND Italic will identify a font as "Bold Italic".
If a font is Regular, choosing any other style will turn off the Regular style
checkbox. Likewise, choosing the Regular checkbox will turn off all other
checkboxes.
It is possible to have all the ACTUAL STYLE checkboxes unchecked if a font
does not fit any specific style classification. In my experience, you should
be able to access the font as Regular. You may find otherwise however.
If your font is originally from an Apple Macintosh you may find that some of
the Style selections have been dimmed. That's because the Mac only recognizes
the Bold & Italic styles, and nothing else. If the other choices are dimmed
then the extra information that Windows uses was not included in the font.
If this is the case then all the other FLAG DATA fields will also be dimmed.
To make an Apple font "Regular", uncheck both Bold and Italic checkboxes
FAMILY TYPE
This is a sort of general classification your font would belong to. Setting
this to Symbol, for example, would allow your font to be recognized by Word
For Windows 2.0 as a symbol font.
PROPORTION
Another general, but a little more specific, classification. This one is
particularly useful for marking a font as Monospaced.
[SMART LINK]
Enabling this allows you to link any changes you make in one field to other
appropriate fields. For example, clicking on Bold ACTUAL STYLE will
automatically enter the word "Bold" in the STYLE string data portion of the
screen. Likewise, entering in a Family name will change the Windows name
simultaneously. This is a useful feature because the data in the string
fields should generally not conflict with one another or with the settings
elsewhere. There are a few exceptions, but unpredictable things can happen
in your font menus if you're not careful.
It is highly recommended you turn on SMART LINK and leave it on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[INSTALLED/NOT INSTALLED]
If the caption reads, "Not installed", clicking on this blue check mark will
install a font permanently in your system.
If the caption reads, "Installed", clicking on the blue check mark will remove
the font from Windows. It will not be deleted from your hard disk, but that
can be done from the View Screen.
See more details about installing and uninstalling fonts in the VIEW window.
[MORE...]
Brings up another screen full of information about the font. WEIGHT CLASS,
WIDTH CLASS, & SERIF STYLE are all general classifications which Windows uses
to identify your font. No applications are known to use this data, at present.
If your font was originally an Apple Macintosh font you may get a message
saying "No "OS/2" table found in font." This means you won't be able to edit
anything on the second screen and some of the stuff on the main screen will
be dimmed.
PROTECTION
This is found on the second screen. It sounds pretty exciting but it's not
really. TrueType fonts can be embedded into documents by some applications.
This would enable, for example, a presentation to appear the same on anyones
computer because all the fonts could be included within the presentation
file. TrueType fonts can be marked as protected so that you WON'T be able to
do that. They can also be marked as read-only fonts which means they can be
embedded, but not permanently saved later on onto another computer. I've yet
to see a protected font. For that matter, I've yet to use an application
which can embed fonts, although they do exist. But suit yourself, play with
these settings if you want.
[BACK...]
Brings you back to the first screen.
[SAVE]
If you have made any changes to the font data you can save it either as an
entirely new file, or replacing the original file. The familiar Common Dialog
box will pop up again and you can choose where to put the font. As a
reference, saving a font takes from 5 to 10 seconds on a 486-33.
[UNDO]
If you make any changes to the font data, clicking on the [UNDO] button will
restore all the data back to what it was when you first opened the font, or
last saved it, whichever.
[VIEW]
A new small window will pop up with a depiction of the currently selected
font. A little slider will change the point size from 6 to 720 points. You
can enlarge this window to full screen to get a real good look.
[CHAR] or [TEXT]
You can either preview a font by typing something in the Custom Text box or
click on this button to toggle between the custom text and a single
character. You can change the single character by moving the slider.
[3D]
This button next to the size slider will add different levels of 3D to the
previewed text. Clicking on it several times will return you to no 3D effect.
Yeah, I know, it's a pretty useless feature.
[INSTALLED/NOT INSTALLED]
If the caption reads, "Not installed", clicking on this blue check mark will
install a font permanently in your system.
If the caption reads, "Installed", the font is already installed in Windows,
clicking on the blue check mark will remove the font from Windows.
Note that Control Panel normally copies any fonts to your WINDOWS/SYSTEM
directory, FONT MONSTER does not. Wherever the font is kept at the time it
was installed is where Windows will expect to find it later. So don't freak
out Windows by installing a font stored on a floppy, copy it to a new
directory on your hard disk or just copy it to the WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory
first.
[X] - Delete font
Clicking on the red "X" button will delete the font's ".TTF" file and any
corresponding ".FOT" (if it's already installed) from your hard disk. You will
be prompted whether you really want to do so or not first. This is useful if
you are previewing a number of new fonts, you can immediately delete them if
they are duplicates or useless.
[EXIT]
This will remove the VIEW window and return you to the main window.
[QUIT]
Guess what this does? If you have modified your font data in any way, FONT
MONSTER will ask you if you want to save it before quitting.
[WHO?]
Reminds you how to register this software. Click on the picture to continue.
[HELP]
This will open NOTEPAD and read in the file you are reading now. The file may
not be found if it is not in your PATH. Visual Basic left me high and dry
without any answers regarding how to fix this, but it's a minor bug.
-----HOW TO USE FONT MONSTER (Type 1)----------------------------
Most everything works the same as with TrueType. The differences are in the
fields which you can edit in a Type 1 font:
FAMILY NAME
This is the name which a PostScript font presents in your font menus. It is
essentially the same as the FAMILY name for TrueType fonts, and likewise
should be the same for all STYLE variations within the same FAMILY.
POSTSCRIPT NAME
This is the name a PostScript printer will expect to find in the .PFB
character data file. If it does not match you will not be able to print.
It is strongly suggested you do not change this field.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COPYRIGHT
Font vendors put their copyright notices in this field. It has no bearing on
how the font installs or displays.
STYLE
Type 1 fonts can only be one of four styles: Regular, Bold, Italic, or
Bold Italic.
"Regular" style can be chosen by unchecking both Bold and Italic checkboxes.
"Bold Italic" style can be chosen by checking both Bold and Italic checkboxes.
PROPORTION
Nearly all the fonts you will find are marked as Monospaced, even fonts which
are proportional. Changing this field to Proportional will probably not
affect how the font behaves. But who knows?
FAMILY TYPE
This is a sort of general classification your font would belong to. Setting
this to Symbol, for example, would allow your font to be recognized by Word
For Windows 2.0 as a symbol font.
[VIEW]
The view window will only display Type 1 fonts which are already installed.
Uninstalled fonts can not be previewed.
You can not install or uninstall, or delete Type 1 fonts from the view window.
-----TIPS AND SHORCUTS-------------------------------------------
Many items can be chosen by using ALT + the underlined letter on screen. For
example, ALT - B will toggle the Bold Style checkbox.
When opening and saving fonts you can also use some special shortcut keys,
instead of the mouse:
CTRL - O Will pop up the Open Common Dialog box. This is the same as
pressing the [OPEN] button with the mouse.
CTRL - S Will save a font to the same name. This avoids having to use the
Common Dialog box and then clicking on "Yes" when it asks if you
want to overwrite the same name. This is NOT the same as pressing
the [SAVE] button with the mouse.
CTRL - U Will "undo" any changes. This is the same as pressing the [UNDO]
button with the mouse.
When you change the name of a TrueType font which is already installed in
Windows, FONT MONSTER will automatically re-install it to reflect the
changes. This the old name will disappear, and the new name will appear in
any other open application's font menus immediately.
-----BUGS--------------------------------------------------------
I've encountered a few strange bugs, but they mostly appear to be related to
limitations of Visual Basic 1.0.
You may on occasion have some parts of the screen not update when you change
from one window to another. This can be fixed by going back to the previous
window, then back to the window again.
The VIEW window SOMETIMES forgets which font it is displaying, particularly
at large and small point sizes, or after you have changed the name of a font.
It will instead try to display the first font in your font list, usually that
starts with the letter "A". Clicking on the [VIEW] button again will restore
the font, however.
Sometimes FONT MONSTER just doesn't want to OPEN a font. I think Visual Basic
is having trouble assigning a DOS file handle, but that's just a guess.
Anyway, if this happens to you you will see a message asking you to open a
different font, then try to open the font you wanted to open in the first
place, again. This usually does the trick.
Trying to OPEN defective fonts can sometimes drive FONT MONSTER nuts.
-----SHAREWARE REGISTRATION--------------------------------------
FONT MONSTER v1.0 is distributed as ShareWare. This gives you the privilege
of trying out my program before you pay for it. It doesn't mean it's free. Of
course you already know this. The only NAG or CRIPPLE you will see in FONT
MONSTER v1.0 is the Custom Text will always say "Unregistered copy of FONT
MONSTER", but you can change it by simply typing something else in. I think
that's fair.
Registering FONT MONSTER will give you peace of mind, and, it will also
entitle you to the special code which will enable additional features to be
found in any upcoming versions of FONT MONSTER. And to top it all off, your
special code will be delivered in an Air-Mail envelope all the way from
Taiwan, with some pretty neat looking Chinese stamps on it! Not bad for 20
bucks, right?
Send a twenty dollar bill (US please!) (cash only!) to the following address:
STEVEN FOX
5F 189 TZE-LEE ROAD
CHUNG-HO CITY 235
TAIPEI HSIEN
TAIWAN, R.O.C.
Much appreciated would be comments on things I can add or improve to later
versions.
As a special offer to other Windows ShareWare authors only, I will register
FONT MONSTER for you for free if you send me a disk with a registered version
of your latest program, utility, font, game, or whatever. As long as it's for
Windows please, I'm trying to avoid DOS these days. It's next to impossible
to find current ShareWare here in Taiwan.
I can be contacted on-line in the RIME network (RIME Node: TWWDE) Windows
conference and the I-Link network (FIDE Node: 6:720/921) Desktop Publishing
conference. Sometimes the mail takes a week to get here, and sometimes not at
all, but it's worth a try. CompuServe? In Taiwan? Forget it, I'm not a
millionaire.
Those of you with cheap long distance rates are welcome to call the local
English language BBS, World Data Exchange, a PC BOARD system, where the latest
versions of FONT MONSTER will always be posted first: 886-2-935-5784. Leave
me mail if you call.
-----DISTRIBUTION AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE---------------------------
This program was written by me, Steven Fox. I am the sole owner of this piece
of intellectual copyright and you must abide by all the legal mumbo jumbo
that always goes along with such things. Got it?
If this program messes up your system, sue me.
If you want to distribute FONT MONSTER elsewhere you may do so as long as you
distribute the unaltered .ZIP archive file which you received. You may charge
a fee for such distribution as long as it is less than a couple bucks, and
that it is made quite clear before distribution that this software is
ShareWare and that an additional fee is required by the author.
-----AUTHOR BACKGROUND-------------------------------------------
I'm American, 20 something, and have lived in Taiwan for nearly 3 years, and
am one of the few people my age who have NOT taught English here. The fact
that I did not vote in the recent presidential election can partially explain
my feelings about the present US situation and why I've chosen not to live
there. For several years in the mid 80s I lived in London and wrote utilities
not unlike this one for a small company there. In the late 80s I wrote MIDI
software, and wrote several alternate operating systems for Ensoniq
keyboards, and designed sounds for my company, Leaping Lizards, in Seattle.
Presently, I'm an independent computer and electronic publishing & design
consultant for the relatively small foreign community here in Taipei. Apart
from writing a couple custom voice mail applications in C, there hasn't been
much call for programming in Taiwan, the locals can always do it cheaper than
me. So in an effort to keep my programming skills intact, I bought Visual
Basic. FONT MONSTER is the first program I've written with VB. Maybe the
last. I'm waiting for VB 2.0.