/QuickDraw GX/Goodies/GX Font Tools/GX Waterfall/GIFs/ContentsIcon.gif/ContentsIcon.gif)
Running
the GXWaterfall tests
GXWaterfall incorporates testing routines that allow the user to test the appearance of a GX font in relation to how it appears onscreen, in hardcopy form, in a block of text and how one GX font compares to another.The four tests are as follows...
The GXWaterfall test
The Waterfall test, after which the application is named, allows the user to select a line of text from a Waterfall document window and cascade that text down the document in different font sizes. The user then has the option of printing the cascaded text for comparison with the onscreen version. Any major differences between the two will be noticed by the user who can then act to fix those differences. The Waterfall test also allows the user to compare the relative appearance of the same font in different font sizes i.e. readability of large fonts.
To run the Waterfall test select some text to be cascaded, see GXWaterfall Editing Features on how to do this, then go to the Test menu and select the Waterfall option. This will bring up a dialog box like the one below .
/QuickDraw GX/Goodies/GX Font Tools/GX Waterfall/GIFs/waterfalldialogue.GIF/waterfalldialogue.GIF)
Choosing Clear from the dialog box will clear the current document of all previous test results so make sure you save any necessary work before this option is clicked on or else choose the Don't Clear option.Clicking on the Cancel button will abandon the test and return you to the current document.If either the Clear or Don't Clear buttons are clicked then the Waterfall test will run with the effect of cascading the selected text in a variety of font sizes on the users screen.See Example Test Cases for an example of the results produced by the Waterfall test.
TIP: Selecting a range of glyphs from a line of text and then selecting Waterfall is a fast way to achieve a waterfall output.
The start and end font sizes of a waterfall test can be set by going to the Configuration menu option and choosing Waterfall Sizes.This will bring up a dialog box like the following,
/QuickDraw GX/Goodies/GX Font Tools/GX Waterfall/GIFs/waterfallsizes.GIF/waterfallsizes.GIF)
The Start font size allows you to choose an initial font size from which to start cascading text.The End font size option lets you set the font size at which the Waterfall test will stop.The Increment/Step option allows you to choose intervals of font sizes to step over, so going from a start font size of 20 point to an end font size of 40 point with a step size of 5 will produce a 5 line listing like the one below.
/QuickDraw GX/Goodies/GX Font Tools/GX Waterfall/GIFs/waterfallsizesexample.GIF/waterfallsizesexample.GIF)
The Text test
This is an additional test which can be performed using GXWaterfall. Selecting the Text Test option from the Test menu results in a quantity of text output to the current Waterfall window in the current font and size 3 paragraphs will be output containing the same text:
- Lower Case - only lower case letters
- Middle Case - words begin with capitals and remaining letters are lower.
- Upper Case - only upper case (capital) letters used
A word wrapping feature has been implemented to prevent 'half words' on lines. This test is to see how a font looks in a text context.See Example Test Cases to see how this should look.
The Compare Fonts(QD) test
This test allows you to compare the horizontal metrics of any two fonts.If a font is being designed for use in dialog boxes then it can be compared with the Chicago font to ensure the dialog box text does not overflow when the font is not Chicago. Using a bitmap compare option also allows you to minutely compare two fonts to ensure that they are different from each other e.g. to see if Bodoni BT is easily distinguished from Bodoni Bd BT.This test also allows you to check the spacing in multiglyph characters.
To run the test choose the Tests option from the GXWaterfall menu bar and then select the Compare Fonts(QD) menu item.This will bring up a dialog box like the following
/QuickDraw GX/Goodies/GX Font Tools/GX Waterfall/GIFs/comparefontsqddialogue.GIF/comparefontsqddialogue.GIF)
This dialog box allows you to choose which two fonts are to be compared by clicking on each pop-up menu bar and selecting a font.A bitmap display check box may also be checked so that bitmap images of the two fonts will be displayed for comparison.Once the two fonts have been chosen then click on the OK button to run the test.This produces a character by character listing of the differences in advance widths between corresponding characters in each font.See Example Test Cases for an example of the results produced by this test.
The Compare Fonts(GX) test
The Compare Fonts(GX) test works in a similar manner to the Compare Fonts(QD) test but uses QDGX metrics rather than the QuickDraw metrics of the latter.The major difference between the two is that the Compare Fonts(GX) test compares glyphs and not characters as in the Compare Fonts(QD) test.This is important because the display ordering in the Compare Fonts(GX) test will be different and possibly run up to 64 thousand glyphs per font..See Example Test Cases for an example of the results produced by the Compare Fonts(GX) test.