Printers' Apprentice 1.0 by Lose Your Mind Software Bryan Kinkel 24 Winterset Lane Simsbury, CT 06070 CIS 70564,2372 Call HH InfoNet New Hartford, CT 738-0342 (9600 baud) and 738-1046 (2400 baud) INTRODUCTION Printers' Apprentice is a screen & printer font viewing utility for Microsoft Windows 3.0. It features a sharp looking, NeXT like interface, access to all of your fonts, the ability to call the Windows & Adobe Type Manager control panels, color support, viewing of all ANSI characters, symbols, dingbats, etc..., point size display from 1 to 100 points, and all attribute options (bold, italic, etc...) Printers' Apprentice fills a void in the Windows utility arena in that it is not simply an ANSI / ASCII chart, but it allows you to view every character in a font set with a true WYSIWYG display.. How many of you keep Windows Write on hand just so you can preview a new ATM font you just pulled off of a bulletin board system? Printers' Apprentice is my first true Windows application. It was programmed in a matter of evenings after receiving Microsoft's Visual Basic programming environment. Working with VB has been nothing short of a pleasure. VB has enabled me to write programs I never thought I would be able to. Printers' Apprentice is a very simple program. However, I do not like to think of the C code (and the $$ for the SDK!) that would be required to grind out Printers' Apprentice. USE OF PRINTERS' APPRENTICE Being a Windows application, PA is quite easy to grasp. Once PA has found the fonts in your system and added them to its menus, it is ready to roll. The display is divided into two sections. On the left is the display area and the right half contains the control panel. PA will always begin by displaying a 30 point Helv "A." Every system has Helv, so that makes things easy. Defaulting to some other font may cause problems for users without that particular font. The display may easily be changed by selecting fonts, attributes, point sizes, and different characters. The pull down menus contain options to change character specimen colors, directly type in a new character, and start up the various control panels. If you start up the Windows control panel and add screen fonts (FON files) use the Refresh Font List command to have PA reread the font list. If you crank up the ATM control panel, you must restart Windows before PA will recognize the new fonts. NOTE: IT IS ASSUMED THAT ADOBE TYPE MANAGER 1.0 / 1.1 IS ON YOUR SYSTEM. IF YOU DO NOT OWN THE ATM, THE OPTION BUTTON WILL PROBABLY RESULT IN AN ERROR. That's about all there is to it right now. THE FUTURE Coming in the weeks ahead for PA! -Quick and dirty printer support for the currently displayed character - Printing of a formal spec sheet for each typeface. This will include a variety of point sizes, attributes, and a listing of ALL characters in the typeface - Support for the SuperPrint 2.0, MoreFonts, and BitStream Facelift font packages (Please leave me email on the I-Link Windows Conference, HH Info Net, or CIS concerning the commands to do this!) - Support of display of printer fonts only - Improved error handling - Online help support using the Windows help engine (I still have to purchase the VB Help add on!) - Open to suggestions! A FEW WORD ABOUT VISUAL BASIC Visual Basic is a new programming environment for Windows from the folks up in Redmond, Washington. It may be one of the most important software releases in the past few years (not counting Windows 3.0 release!). With VB, users can simply draw controls on forms and then write the code for events, procedures, and change the properties of the controls. The programming language is still a form of BASIC, but it has been both trimmed down and beefed up for the Windows environment. It is NOT instant programming! It is NOT another ToolBook! Look into it, it is HIGHLY recommended. This program is currently being distributed as FreeWare. I see no reason to collect $$ for this project of mine. I am a starving college student, and will not turn down any money sent! Lose Your Mind Software is dedicated to all students of accounting, Lose Your Mind Software is dedicated to all students of accounting, Lose Your Mind Software is dedicated to all students of accounting, computer science, and actuaries everywhere! computer science, and actuaries everywhere! computer science, and actuaries everywhere!