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FONTINFO.DOC
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1990-01-31
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FONTINFO
"Display soft font information"
Copyright 1988 - 1990 by Elfring Soft Fonts
Elfring Soft Fonts
P.O. Box 61
Wasco, Illinois 60183
708-377-3520
(9 - 5 CST)
CIS: 72417,3437
FONTINFO Program
INTRODUCTION
Ever wanted to check out the characteristics of that public do-
main font you just downloaded? Or perhaps you need to know the
basics on a fixed width font. Maybe someone misnamed one of your
fonts.
Well... FONTINFO was designed to do all that and more. FONTINFO
will display, (in English, not gibberish), all the basic charac-
teristics of a font. This includes: the display font name, font
orientation, font height - style - & weight, the number of char-
acters in the font, its symbol set, spacing, type face, base line,
cell height & width, print quality, and beginning/ending codes.
In addition, FONTINFO indicates whether a font is for a LaserJet or
a DeskJet printer. (Neither will work in the other.)
RUNNING THE PROGRAM
As with all my LaserJet & DeskJet utilities, you can always type the
program name by itself for a help screen. FONTINFO is quite simple
and needs only a single argument to run. Just give it the name
of the font to examine and FONTINFO will print out a detailed
description of the font.
fontinfo fontname
Will print a detailed table of that font's characteristics on the
screen. You can send this information to the printer for a per-
manent record by using:
fontinfo fontname > prn
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FONTINFO Program
At this point an example might help. For example to look at my
Broadway font:
fontinfo bw140rpn.usp
The program will respond with the following information:
Copyright 1988 by Elfring Soft Fonts, Version 1.1
Font name: Broadway -LaserJet font
Orientation: portrait
Height: 14.0 points
Style: Upright
Weight: 0 (normal)
# Characters: 94 (ASCII)
Symbol set: 21 (US ASCII)
Spacing: proportional with a 2.65 point space
Type face: 21 (Broadway)
Baseline: 47, Cell Height: 64, Cell Width: 57 (in dots)
Serif Style: Sans Serif Square (not set?)
Print Quality: Data Processing (not set?)
First char: Not set
Note that FONTINFO understands all the standard details about
type face names, font styles, symbol sets, and font weights.
FONT INFORMATION
Display Font Name
Just what is the display font name? If you own a LaserJet series
II, this is the name that will be displayed in the font print
out. Note that a number of older HP soft fonts do NOT correctly
display their soft font name. (The example of Cooper Black above
one case.) For most modern soft fonts this should be the name of
the font you are using. Note that the LaserJet II will append
the word "bold" or "italic" to this name if the font fits that
characteristic.
Font Orientation
A font is either oriented in the portrait mode, (characters run
left to right across the eight inch width of the paper), or the
landscape mode, (characters run left to right across the 11 inch
width of the paper. Note there is no real difference between a
portrait and landscape font. Both produce identical characters.
The information in a landscape font is simply arranged different-
ly.
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FONTINFO Program
Font Height
This is the height of a font in points. (72.27 points per inch.)
Note that the font height is the distance from the top of an
upper case character to the bottom of a lower case character's
desender. Say the top of an "A" to the bottom of a "j". Thus NO
character in the font is that height! Due to resolution problems
in the font height information entry most fonts display as frac-
tional point sizes: thus a 30 point font might be displayed as
29.8 points.
Font Style
A font may be either upright or slanted. A slanted font is usu-
ally considered to be italic, with some noted exceptions.
(Script is a slanted font but is not italic.) Actually, for the
more technically inclined a slanted font is really oblique and
not italic but who really cares?
Font Weight
Fonts may have weights (how dark they are) ranging from -7 to +7.
A weight of 0 is considered medium. Negative weights are consid-
ered light, while positive weights are considered bold. FONTINFO
automatically interprets this information for you.
Characters in Font
This number describes the range of characters in a font. A 127
indicates that characters may range from 33 - 127. A 254 font
can contain all those characters PLUS characters ranging from 160
- 254.
Font Symbol Set
The symbol set describes the assignment of characters within a
font. Most soft fonts are either US ASCII or Roman-8. However,
a large number of other symbol sets are possible. The symbol set
number is printed followed by an interpretation of that symbol
set. FONTINFO understands the names of over 17 different symbol
sets and will display this information automatically or the word
"unknown".
Font Spacing
Font spacing may be either fixed width or proportional. If the
font is proportionally spaced FONTINFO will tell you this along
with the width of a space character in that font. If the font is
fixed width, FONTINFO will display the number of characters per
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FONTINFO Program
inch for that file.
Type Face
A font may have a type face number ranging from 0 to 255. Font
numbers 0 - 26 have been assigned by HP and will be translated by
FONTINFO into their corresponding names. Other font names will
result in the word "unknown" being printed for the font name.
Base Line, Cell Height, Cell Width
Each font must define the maximum height of a character, its
maximum width, and where that character sits in the cell (base
line). If you try to combine two different fonts on the same
line that have different base lines, even though the fonts are
the same size, the result will be disaster.
Serif Style
A font may have the serify style defined in it. Only newer fonts
have this attribute set.
Print Quality
Most new fonts have the print quality set. This is especially
true of DeskJet fonts. Print quality ranges from draft, through
near letter quality, to letter quality. Older LaserJet fonts will
probably indicate draft quality here. (It doesn't matter for a
laser printer.)
First character, Last Character
Defines the first character in a font and the last character.
Since a font doesn't have to have all characters in it this is
a handy way to see what's what.
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WARRANTY
This utility is provided free of charge. As such, it has NO war-
ranty. I bear no responsibility for its function or use. I am
not liable for consequential or any form of damages due to non-
performance of this software.
DISTRIBUTION
This program is provided free of charge to all who are interested
in it. It may be freely exchanged as long as no fee is charged
for it. Please distribute this package with BOTH this documenta-
tion file and the executable program. This program and documen-
tation are copyright 1987 - 1990 by Elfring Soft Fonts. All rights
are reserved. Commercial use is STRICTLY prohibited.
For free information on my other inexpensive utilities and download-
able soft fonts for your DeskJet or LaserJet printer contact:
Elfring Soft Fonts
P.O. Box 61
Wasco, Illinois 60183-0061
708-377-3520
(9 - 5 CST)
01/31/90
CIS: 72417,3437
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