The Original Shareware 1.1

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Text File | 1986-10-01 | 18KB | 605 lines

LINCOMATIC BANNER AND KSET MANAGER DOCUMENTATION ------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: This package will allow you to make fancy signs with your printer. SUPPLIED FILES: BANNER.COM The banner maker program KSMGR .COM The KSET manager program *.KSE various KSETs for your enjoyment TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- I. LINCOMATIC BANNER MAKER ................... 2 II. LINCOMATIC KSET MANAGER ................... 3 III. KSET FILE FORMAT .......................... 6 IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................... 8 1 _ _ _ I. LINCOMATIC BANNER MAKER __ __________ ______ _____ The LINCOMATIC BANNER MAKER is a program which allows you to make signs which can be printed on any printer. Unlike some other sign-maker programs, you can choose among many different fonts (KSET's) or even create your own. To start the LINCOMATIC BANNER MAKER type BANNER BANNER BANNER First, you will be prompted for a KSET file. KSET files are files which contain various type fonts for the program to use. All of the files with extension .KSE are KSET files. Try BDR30 to start (this is one of my favorites). KSET file [.KSE]: BDR30 KSET file [.KSE]: BDR30 KSET file [.KSE]: BDR30 Note that you do not have to type the .KSE extension; the program will fill it in for you. Next, you will be prompted for an output file Output file: Output file: Output file: You can specify any file name you wish. Be sure not to specify a file name which already exists, because its contents will be overwritten. To output directly to your printer turn on your printer, and enter 'prn'. Or you can view the banner on your screen by typing 'con'. Next, you will be asked Change fill characters (y/n)? Change fill characters (y/n)? Change fill characters (y/n)? If you answer 'n' your banner will be composed of '*' and spaces. You can change these characters to suit your tastes by answering 'y'. Finally, you will be asked to enter a line of text Enter a line of text up to 132 characters Enter a line of text up to 132 characters Enter a line of text up to 132 characters Type in the words you want and press return. The program will keep you posted on its progress and tell you when it's done. Experiment with all the different KSET's. Try setting your printer for compressed type, wide type, etc. The possibilities are endless. 2 _ _ _ II. LINCOMATIC KSET MANAGER ___ __________ ____ _______ The LINCOMATIC KSET MANAGER is included so that you can alter or create your own KSET (font) files. To start the KSET manager, type KSMGR KSMGR KSMGR You will then get a menu as follows: <0> Info about this program <1> Dump a KSET into a text file <2> Convert a text file into a KSET <3> Exit to DOS 1. Dump a KSET file into a text file __ ____ _ ____ ____ ____ _ ____ ____ Selecting will allow you to convert a binary KSET file into 1 1 1 a text file composed of the pictures contained in the KSET. You can then put the text file into your favorite ASCII editor and alter or add characters as you wish. Then, you can use selection to convert the text file back into a 2 2 2 KSET. Say you want to see what the pictures in BDR30.KSE look like. First, select . You will then be prompted for the KSET 1 1 1 file: KSET file [.KSE]: KSET file [.KSE]: KSET file [.KSE]: to which you type BDR30. The program will then proceed to dump the KSET into a file called BDR30.PIC (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE LOTS OF SPACE ON YOUR DISK! .PIC FILES ARE BIG). The program will keep you posted on which character it is currently working. When the program is done, exit by selecting from the main menu and put the file into a text 3 3 3 editor, say EDLIN or PC-WRITE. 3 The beginning of the file will look something like this: 31 pictures are 31 dots tall ^A 14 this pic of ^A is 14 dots ...........**.................. wide ..........***.................. .........***................... ........***.................... .......***..................... ......**********************... ......**********************... .......***..................... this picture is 31 dots ........***.................... tall and 14 dots wide .........***................... (looking sideways) ..........***.................. ...........**.................. ............................... ............................... ~ ^B 26 .........*****................. ........*******................ .......**.....**............... ......**.......**.............. ......**.......**.............. ......**.......**.............. ......**.......**.............. ......**.......**.............. .......**.....**............... ........**....**............... ........**...**................ .........******................ ..........****................. ........******................. .......***.****................ ......**....****............... ......**.....****.............. ......**.......****............ ......**.........***........... ......**..........***.......... ......**............**......... .......**............*......... ........*...................... ............................... ............................... ............................... ~ Note that the pictures are all rotated 90 degrees as they are when you make them with BANNER. There are some rules to the .PIC files. 4 (1) The first line of the file contains the height of the pictures in the KSET. (2) The first line of a picture description is the character it represents followed by the width of the picture in dots. (3) Next is the picture (4) A picture definition is terminated by a '~'. In our example (which is part of a dump of BDR30.KSE), the first line of the file is 31, meaning all of the pictures in this KSET are 31 dots high. Next is the picture which corresponds to ^A (ASCII 01). The picture is 14 dots wide and the dot pattern is a 31 x 14 matrix representing a down- arrow. Note that the picture is terminated with a '~'. The next picture corresponds to ^B (ASCII 02), and it is a 31 x 26 dot picture of the Greek letter alpha. You can define any ASCII character from 0-127. To represent a space (ASCII 32), you can use or . DEL (ASCII 127) is sp SP sp SP sp SP denoted by . You can alter a .PIC file or create your own, ^? ^? ^? then convert it to a KSET using the next option: 2. Convert a text file into a KSET __ _______ _ ____ ____ ____ _ ____ Selecting from the main menu allows you to convert a .PIC 2 2 2 file of dots and asterisks into a KSET. REMEMBER: You MUST use an ASCII text editor, and tabs are NOT allowed in the .PIC file. You will be prompted for a .PIC file, and then the program will make a KSET file with the same name and the .KSE extension. (i.e if you enter BDR30, the program will convert BDR30.PIC and make a file called BDR30.KSE). NOTE: This program will overwrite existing files, so if you already have a .KSE file with the same name as the .PIC file on your disk, it will be overwritten. Therefore, it is a good idea to first copy any .KSE files you are experimenting with to another disk so you have a backup in case you screw up. 5 _ _ _ III. KSET FILE FORMAT ____ ____ ____ ______ For those of you who are technically minded, and wish to create new applications for the KSET files, here is the internal format: KSET files are composed of records of 16-bit integers (2-byte words stored in reverse-byte order, i.e. LSB first) The records of the file are numbered sequentially starting from 0. The records are organized as follows: The first 131 records of the file are reserved for a data table: record 0: the size of this KSET file in records record 1: the height of this KSET in pixels record 3: the width in pixels of the largest picture in this KSET records 4-131: file position pointers to the pixel data for the ASCII characters 0-127. The rest of the file is free-form pixel data for the pictures in the KSET. The first record of each picture is the width of the picture, followed by the bits which make up the picture. This probably all sounds very confusing, so I will give an example. You can use a in Pascal to file of integer file of integer file of integer read the KSET files. We will use the file BDR30.KSE. The first 3 records of this file are: record 0 = 4107 record 1 = 31 record 2 = 28 This means that the file is 4107 records long, the height of the pictures contained in it is 31 pixels high, and the widest picture in the KSET is 28 pixels wide (pictures within a KSET can vary in width, but they are all the same height). Let's get the pixels for the number '2' (ASCII 51). 51+3=54, so the pointer is record 54 in the file. We find record 54 = 1630 This means the data for '2' starts at file position 1630. We seek to position 1630 in the file, and find record 1630 = 14 This means the picture for '2' is 14 pixels wide. So we need 31 X 14 (height X width) = 434 bits to make the picture. This means the next 434 / 16 = 27.125 = 28 words in the file contain the bits we need. The next 28 records in the file are: decimal= hex = binary = pattern( '.'=0,'*'=1) 6 --------------------------------------------------- 896 = 0380 = 0000001110000000 = ......***....... 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 1920 = 0780 = 0000011110000000 = .....****....... 16256 = 3F80 = 0011111110000000 = ..*******....... 3968 = 0F80 = 0000111110000000 = ....*****....... 32640 = 7F80 = 0111111110000000 = .********....... 7040 = 1B80 = 0001101110000000 = ...**.***....... -31872 = 8380 = 1000001110000000 = *.....***....... 13184 = 3380 = 0011001110000000 = ..**..***....... 768 = 0300 = 0000001100000000 = ......**........ 24960 = 6180 = 0110000110000000 = .**....**....... 1536 = 0600 = 0000011000000000 = .....**......... -1600 = C180 = 1100000110000000 = **.....**....... 3073 = 0C01 = 0000110000000001 = ....**.........* -32384 = 8180 = 1000000110000000 = *......**....... 14339 = 3803 = 0011100000000011 = ..***.........** 511 = 01FF = 0000000111111111 = .......********* -8185 = E007 = 1110000000000111 = ***..........*** 511 = 01FF = 0000000111111111 = .......********* 15 = 000F = 0000000000001111 = ............**** -32768 = 8000 = 1000000000000000 = *............... 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ 0 = 0000 = 0000000000000000 = ................ If we arrange these bits in 14 rows of 31 bits and discard any excess bits, we get ......***...................... ......****.........*******..... ......*****........********.... ......**.***.......*.....***... ......**..***.............**... ......**....**............**... ......**.....**...........**... ......**......**.........***... ......**.......************.... ......***.......*********...... ......*****.................... ............................... ............................... ............................... Viola! Hope this example helps. 7 _ IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ___ ________________ These programs are distributed in the manner that the 'Freeware' concept should be; they are literally free! No strings attached. Copy 'em, distribute them; just please do not distribute altered copies, and PLEASE do not sell them! You got it for free, so others should, too. Thanks to Michael Rubin for inspiring me with his programs KSMAKE and KSDUMP. Any suggestions or comments should be sent to Sam Lin 7709 Beech Tree Road Bethesda, MD 20817 If you want a reply you MUST INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE. I would like some input on what features to add on future versions (if there is sufficient interest). Also, if you create an interesting KSET of your own, please send me a copy of it so I can include it with future releases. Finally, please let me know of any other interesting applications you think of for KSET's. Enjoy. 8 ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- This disk copy provided as a service of The Public (Software) Library For a copy of the latest monthly software library newsletter and a list of the 600+ disks in the library, call or write The Public (Software) Library P.O.Box 35705 Houston, TX 77235-5705 (713) 721-6104 Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. Please let us know if the author does not respond. We will do whatever we can to help you with your questions.