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Manual for Fonts to Shapes (FS) A font & bitmap conversion program for MS-Windows 3.x Version 1.1r2 November 1993 Copyright (c) 1993 Mark E. Peterson All rights reserved. Epitaph BBS: 507-947-3174 VirtualNet: 1@1507005 CIS: 72147,2174 Internet: 72147.2174@Compuserve.Com US Mail: Rt 2 PO Box 135 Lake Crystal, MN 56055 Description ======================================================= FS is a font and bitmap conversion program. Specifically, it converts MS-Windows fonts and bitmaps into a format compatible with the Persistence of Vision (POV) ray tracing program. FS allows you virtually eliminate the drudgery of creating text in your POV scenes. Other graphics to POV conversion programs typically convert each graphic pixel to a cube. In contrast, FS uses a sophisticated shape analysis algorithm to minimize the number of geometric shapes required to make up an object. This provides two benefits, less time required to trace the object and it also makes the objects infinitely scalable. In addition to accurate conversion, FS supports special effects. You can use FS to create characters and bitmaps made of spheres, blobs, or cylinders. FS is a versatile tool that will make an excellent addition to your ray tracing toolbox. Limited License =================================================== This software is made available under the shareware concept. If you continue to find it of use after the 30 day trial period, you are required to register it or your license to use it will expire. See order.doc in this archive for registration details. After registration, your copy is no longer shareware. Please distribute the shareware version of FS to any friends or online services you may desire. Disclaimer ======================================================== THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. BY USING THIS SOFTWARE YOU AGREE NOT TO HOLD THE AUTHOR OR ANY OF HIS AFFILIATES OR OTHER RELATED PARTIES LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY THROUGH USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT. THIS APPLIES EVEN IF I HAVE BEEN WARNED OF SUCH DAMAGES IN ADVANCE. THIS AGREEMENT IS GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA. Trademarks/Copyrights ============================================= MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. POV and Persistence of Vision are property of the POV-Team. Installation ====================================================== Upgrade note: If you are a registered FS user and are upgrading, you need to replace replace ALL your existing FS files. This will require you to reenter your registration number, sorry for the inconvenience. The archive you received should contain the following files: F2PVCFGW.DAT - FS configuration file. FS.EXE - FS executable. BWCC.DLL - FS controls library. FS.DOC - This document. GLOBPALT.DAT - Logo palette FSLOGO.MEP - FS Logo ORDER.DOC - Instructions on how to register this product. FILE_ID.DIZ - BBS long description file DESC.SDI - BBS short description file WHATS.NEW - Description of what's new in this release. UPGRADE.TXT - Instructions for upgrading from previous versions. HISTORY.TXT - Release history for FS. To install FS, merely copy/unzip the files into a convenient subdirectory on your hard disk. All files, except the .doc files, MUST be in the same directory for the program to function properly. To install FS in the Windows Program Manager use the Program->New menu items as usual. Note, be sure the working directory for FS in Windows 3.1 is the same as the directory path for the executable. Note: If you are running under Win-OS2 (Windows under OS/2). Add the switch -OS2 to the command line. FS will NOT run under Win-OS2 without it. FS Main Menu ====================================================== Below is the menu structure for FS: App Font Bitmap ───┐ ───┐ ───┐ │ │ │ ┌───┴───────────┐ ┌───┴───────────┐ ┌───┴──────┐ │ Exit Alt-X │ │ Text Alt-T │ │ Select │ ├───────────────┤ │ Select Alt-S │ │ Convert │ │ About │ │ Texture Alt-E │ └──────────┘ │ Register │ │ Convert Alt-C │ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- App->Exit Alt-X Exit FS. Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- App->About None Selecting this item displays the copyright and registration info for your copy of FS. The about dialog also displays a logo created with FS and POV. Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- App->Register None This menu item is only used when you have registered your copy of FS and have obtained a registration number. After you have your registration number, select this menu item and type the number into the dialog box. Your customer ID will now be shown in the about dialog in place of the text 'Unregistered', also, FS will produce POV files for 'R', 'E', 'G' and process bitmaps greater than 200 pixels in height. (See application notes.) Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- Font->Text Alt-T Selecting this menu item will present you with a dialog box in which you may type a string of characters to convert. Also within this dialog the 'All Chars' button allows you to quickly specify the complete character set, codes 33 to 255. When entering the string to convert you need not worry about entering duplicates, FS only processes the unique characters in each string. Once you have entered a string of characters, these characters are displayed in the currently selected font in the main window. The 'string' POV output file will faithfully duplicate the string that you enter here, including whitespace (see application notes). Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- Font->Select Alt-S This selection allows you to specify the font to be used for the conversion. Selecting this item brings up a font selection dialog box. Highlighting different fonts in this dialog causes the font to change in the main window. To select a given font for conversion either double click on the font name or highlight it and click the OK button. Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- Font->Texture Alt-E This item allows you to specify the texture block to be used with the selected font. Selecting this item starts the notepad application with a file name based on the selected font. For example, if you have selected the font 'courier', notepad will be opened with the file name 'courier.ptx'. Don't alter the file name within notepad, FS will not be able to find the texture file if the name is altered. Within notepad enter the texture block as you would in any POV file, e.g. texture { Chrome_Texture pigment { color Red } } If you do not specify a texture for the selected font, the following texture block will be used: texture { pigment { color White } } Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- Font->Convert Alt-C This selection initiates the conversion process with the text and font specified under the previous two menu items. The following dialog allows you to specify the type of conversion you wish to perform. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ [X] Accurate [ ] Blobs [ ] Spheres [ ] Cylinders │ │ │ │ [ 1.00 ] Shape Depth [ 1.00 ] Blob Strength │ │ [ 0.00 ] Shape Overlap [ 0.60 ] Blob Threshold │ │ │ │ [X] POV 2.0 Format [INC ] File extension │ │ [String ] String name [5.0 ] Intercharacter spacing │ │ │ │ (OK) (Cancel) │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Specifying accurate tells FS to produce POV source that will reproduce the Windows object as closely as possible. Selecting Blobs, Spheres or Cylinders will produce objects made up of different size Blobs, Spheres or Cylinders. Shape depth applies only to accurate and cylinder conversions, it is the depth of the character along the Z axis. Shape overlap is used on all conversions except accurate. Overlap specifies the percentage that each adjacent shape should overlap, this number may be negative to force shapes apart rather than together. The next two entries apply only to blobs. Blob strength is the first number on each blob component. (See POV docs.) Blob threshold is the POV blob threshold (See POV docs.) The POV 2.0 format check box controls the output format of FS. Check the box to generate POV 2.0 compatible files. The file extension edit box lets you customize the extension FS puts on the end of all of its output files. This must be three characters or less. The String name edit box allows you to change the base name of the composite string file. This entry must be eight characters or less. The intercharacter spacing field allows you to change the amount of space inserted between characters in the composite string file. This number is a percentage calculated from the width of a 'B' in the font you are converting. This number may be negative to overlap characters rather than force them apart. Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- Bitmap->Select None This selection allows you to specify a bitmap to be used for the conversion. Selecting this item brings up a standard file selection dialog box. Highlight the bitmap you want to convert and select the OK button. Menu Item Accelerator ---------- ----------- Bitmap->Convert None This selection initiates the conversion process with the bitmap you have selected. (See Font->Convert) Application Notes ================================================= When tracing FS output with POV, you will occasionally notice lines or dots that don't belong in the image. These are due to calculation errors in POV. The only known way to fix the problem is to translate the objects or move the camera slightly in one direction or another. FS generates all output files in the same directory where fs.exe resides. The composite string file contains a union of all the processed characters translated to their appropriate position with respect to one another. It also '#includes' the source for each character. You may include spaces in text to be converted to obtain a blank in the composite string file. The string will be centered at <0 0 0>. Font objects generated under Win-OS2 will be smaller in size than those generated under straight Windows. Unregistered versions of the software will not produce valid POV files for the letters 'R', 'E', and 'G' in upper or lower case. Also bitmaps greater than 200 pixels in height will be truncated. In any case bitmaps are currently limited to what will fit in FSs window area. While FS will convert color bitmaps, all colors will be treated as background. The only areas that will be processed are the black areas of the bitmap. Conversions other than accurate work well with some fonts/bitmaps and not so well with others. Each converted object is placed in a seperate POV source file. Also the shape is centered at <0 0 0> so that it may be easily rotated. Objects are generated 'facing' the Z axis, e.g. the face of the object can be viewed by looking at <0 0 0> from a point on the + or - Z axis. Font files are named with the first five characters of the font name followed by _case,character or character code. A courier '!' would be placed in couri033.pov while an acclamation 'A' would be placed in accla_UA.pov (UA for upper case A) Each character is declared in POV source form as an object. The name of the object is the [Name of the font]_Char_[Character or Character Code]. Using the courier example above the '!' would have an object name of Courier_Char_33 and the 'A' would have the name Courier_Char_A. The texture block for bitmap conversions is texture { [bmp_name]_Texture } where bmp_name is the eight character base name of the bitmap being converted. e.g. if you are converting fred.bmp the texture would be 'fred_Texture'. This allows you to #declare the texture to whatever you desire in your main .POV file. The name of the bitmap object is generated similarly [bmp_name]_Bitmap. In the fred example the object name would be 'fred_Bitmap'. During a lengthy conversion process, you may minimize FS and do other things. The conversion process will continue in the background. Fonts or bitmaps that contain thin filaments, tend to lose detail rather quickly when scaled with POV. For example, the Windows script font when reduced slightly or moved to a distant location tends to disappear completely. If your objective is to produce small characters in a scene, find a fat font. Tip: To select individual 'high bit' characters (codes 128 to 255) for conversion, use the character map applet that comes with Windows 3.1. Heres how: 1. Open the character map applet (normally found in the accessories group) 2. Select the character you desire and copy it. 3. Open the FS select text dialog and press shift-Ins. (The character may appear differently than you expect in the edit box.) 4. Close the dialog with 'Ok', the character you desire should appear in the main window. Appendix A - Accelerator Table ------------------------------ This table contains a summary of all of the FS shortcut keys and what they do. Alt-T - Activate the 'text to convert' dialog. Alt-S - Activate the 'select font' dialog. Alt-E - Activate the notepad application to enter a texture block. Alt-C - Start the conversion process. Alt-A - App main menu item. Alt-F - Font main menu item. Alt-B - Bitmap main menu item. Alt-X - Exit FS. Alt-- - Main window control box. Alt-= - Memory statistics (Used for debugging.) Alt-F4 - Exit FS. Alt-F6 - Change window focus. Ctrl-F4 - Kill the current window.