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PCX2FONT.ARC Convert PCX Pictures to HP Fonts
Version 1.0 James Bumgardner 08/15/88
All programs in this archive copyright James Bumgardner 1988.
For personal/non-profit use only. Commercial Users may contact
the author at 818-846-7781 for licensing information.
PC Paintbrush is a registered trademark of ZSoft Corporation.
*****************************************************************************
* *
* Latest Version can be found on Cooperworks BBS 608-271-3685 *
* *
*****************************************************************************
Revision History
----------------
Version 1.0 JAB 08/15/88
Fixed bug - PCX2FONT no longer crops bottom of letters.
Documented how to enter a double quote with -S option
Small or thin characters are supported better.
More complete handwriting sample included.
No longer including HANDWRIT.SFP, since this can be made from .PCX file.
Version 0.5 JAB 08/01/88
Contents of this archive
------------------------
PCX2FONT.DOC This File.
PCX2FONT.EXE Bitmap to Font Converter.
FONT2PCX.EXE Font to Bitmap Converter.
HANDWRIT.PCX A Scan of my Handwriting.
HANDWRIT.CTL Control File for HANDWRIT font.
Program Description
-------------------
PCX2FONT.EXE
This program converts a monochrome PC PAINTBRUSH file to an HP
Laserjet+ portrait soft-font. Possible uses are:
* Quickly create a font by drawing it with a mouse.
* Convert a scanned image of your handwriting to a font
(This is what the program was originally created for).
* Convert scanned characters from a book to a font.
* Convert PC Paintbrush fonts to HP fonts.
* Using the included FONT2PCX program, edit an existing font
using PC Paintbrush.
The characters must be spaced far enough apart so a box can be
drawn around each one without touching another character. The
file HANDWRIT.PCX is a scan of my handwriting (which is terrible),
in a format acceptable to PCX2FONT. A separate control file (with
the extension .CTL) indicates which ascii characters the picture
represents. For example the file HANDWRIT.CTL looks like this:
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
: ; < = > ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ `
{ | } ~
To use PCX2FONT, enter a command like the following:
C> PCX2FONT HANDWRIT
This will create a new font HANDWRIT.SFP using the image HANDWRIT.PCX
and the control file HANDWRIT.CTL. You may also separately identify
output and control files like so:
C> PCX2FONT HANDWRIT.PCX OUTPUT.SFP TEST.CTL
Syntax
------
PCX2FONT [options] pcx-file [sfp-file] [ctl-file]
Options
-------
-Q Quiet Mode.
-P## This indicates the pitch in dots (300 dpi). If
omitted, PCX2FONT will use the average font width.
-H## This indicates the height in dots (300 dpi). If
omitted, PCX2FONT will use the maximum height above
the baseline.
-X## This indicates a value to add (or subtact) to each
character width to compute the X-Delta (amount printer
cursor moves after printing the letter). Default is 2.
-Sxxx This option indicates which characters have clean
vertical breaks (splits) in them. If a character is
split and PCX2FONT doesn't know it, it will treat the
image as two individual characters, and the assignment of
the remaining characters on that row will be out of sync.
Follow the -S with the characters that are split. For
example:
C> PCX2FONT -Sabcde testfont
If the -S option is not used, the double quote (") is
considered split by default. To include a double quote
in the -S option, precede it with a backslash:
C> PCX2FONT -Sabc\"de testfont
Otherwise, Turbo-C will not parse the command line correctly.
To turn the double quote default off, use -S alone.
Tips and Caveats
----------------
PCX2FONT identifies individual letters by the whitespace that
separates them. Each row of letters must be separated by enough
whitespace to draw a horizontal line between them. If this isn't
done correctly, you'll get the error message "Mismatched Rows".
Within each row, each letter must be separated by enough whitespace
to draw a vertical line between them. If any letters are too close
together, you'll get the error message "Can't find letter".
You may specify a baseline by preceding each row of letters
in your picture by a small dot (4 X 4 pixels or less) at the
baseline position. This is especially useful for fonts with a
lot of descenders. Otherwise, PCX2FONT will guess at the baseline
positions for the regular descenders Q, g,j,p,q, and y. Examine
the picture HANDWRIT.PCX for an example of this.
Don't place a period or apostrophe at the beginning of a row, since
it might be confused with a baseline marker.
FONT2PCX.EXE
This program converts a HP Laserjet+ Font to a monochrome PCX file for use
with PC Paintbrush. Through the combined use of this program and PCX2FONT,
you can use PC Paintbrush as a font editor, taking advantage of it's
drawing tools. I do not recommend this procedure for well-constructed fonts,
since you will lose the pitch and left-offset information, and the resulting
font will look somewhat cruder than the original when printed. However, you
can use these programs in conjunction with a good font editor to make unusual
changes to an existing font.
You can also use this program to extract letters from a font for use
with PC Paintbrush pictures.
Usage:
C> FONT2PCX [options/filters] sfp-file [pcx-file]
Options:
-Q Quiet Mode
-R Reverse the colors (white on black)
-B Add Baseline Markers
Filters:
-C Capitals
-L Lowercase
-A Alpha Chars
-D Digits
-P Punctuation
-H High Chars (ASCII value 128+)
For example:
C> FONT2PCX -C HANDWRIT.SFP CAPS.PCX
FONT2PCX will normally extract ALL characters, unless you use one or more
of the filters.
*** End of Documentation ***