OS/2 Shareware BBS: 11 Util/11-Util.zip/fntfbeta.zip/README.TXT

Text File | 1996-12-12 | 8KB | 170 lines

README.TXT FILE FOR FONTFOLDER 3.0 BETA

Thank you for participating in the public beta test of FontFolder 3.0.
Before installing the program, make sure you understand that it is a
beta version of FontFolder. This means, among other things, that it is
likely to have bugs. You should only install this program if you want
to participate in finding these bugs, and if you do not need to use
this program for any real work. If you must have a stable version of
this product, use FontFolder 2.1A instead.

WARNING

This is a beta version of FontFolder. Do not install it over top of
your existing copy of FontFolder. Instead, install it in its own
separate directory. If you want to be able to use your existing
Library and FontPack files with the beta, create this separate directory
ahead of time and copy all the MLIBnnn.FF2 and FNTPnnn.FP2 in your
existing FontFolder directory to this new directory. Also copy the
FONTFOLD.INI file to this directory so that the beta will use your
customizations (and pick up the information about what FontPacks, if
any, are installed in OS/2).


NEW FEATURES IN FONTFOLDER

INSTALL PROGRAM

FontFolder now comes with an Install program.  You can no longer
install it by just unzipping it to a directory and starting it
up.  Instead, you should unzip it to a temporary directory and
then either double-click on the INSTALL.EXE icon, or change to
that directory from a command line and enter INSTALL.  (NOTE:  If
you prefer the command line approach, you MUST first change
directories to the install directory.  The install program will
not run otherwise.)

The install program offers options to install FontFolder,
uninstall FontFolder, and recreate FontFolder's ini file, and
recreate FontFolder's program object (icon). Read the On-line
Help for the Install program for the details of using these
features.

TRUETYPE SUPPORT

The big new item in v3 is the support for TrueType fonts when
using FontFolder with Warp 4. You should automatically get this
support when you start FontFolder under Warp 4, and the Installed
Fonts listbox should contain both your installed Type 1 fonts
(with a little Adobe "a" bitmap alongside them) and your
installed TrueType fonts (with a "T-T" bitmap).  If you run v3
with an earlier version of OS/2, things should still run, you'll
just have a boring bunch of little "a"s alongside all your fonts.

You should find the TrueType support to be seamlessly integrated
into FontFolder, i.e.  you don't have to do anything special to
use TrueType fonts, and you can mix and match Type 1 and TrueType
fonts in all your libraries and fontpacks.  The only place where
there is a difference is when you register fonts with a library.
On the register fonts dialog you will see a set of radio buttons
to indicate whether you want to register Type 1 fonts or TrueType
fonts, meaning you can register one or the other, but not both,
in a single registration pass.  This means that if you want to
build a library of mixed type you will need to do two
registration passes, one for the Type 1 fonts and a second for
the TrueType fonts.  This makes life considerably simpler for me,
and I don't think it seriously compromises the ease of
registration.  If you dislike this restriction, please let me
know.  I probably won't fix it for this release, but I can take a
look at it for the next release.

DRAG AND DROP SUPPORT

Version 3 is drag and drop enabled for most all of the operations
you would think you might be able to use this for in FontFolder.
(If you think it should work for something and it doesn't, let me
know so I can add it to my to-do list for future releases.)
Specifically, you can do the following:

  * Install fonts from a library - Mark the fonts to be installed
    just as you would normally, but instead of clicking the
    Install button, use your right mouse button to drag and drop
    the fonts on the Installed Fonts listbox.

  * Install a fontpack - Mark the fontpack and drag and drop it
    on the Installed Fonts listbox.

  * Uninstall fonts - Mark the fonts to be uninstalled as you
    would normally, and then drag and drop them on the FontFolder
    shredder icon in the lower right corner of the main
    FontFolder window (note I said the FontFolder shredder, not the
    OS/2 shredder).

  * Uninstall a fontpack - Mark the fontpack to be uninstalled in
    the Installed Fonts list, and then drag and drop it on the
    FontFolder shredder.

  * Remove fonts from a library - Mark the fonts to be removed
    and then drag and drop them on the FontFolder shredder.

  * Remove fonts from a fontpack - Open the fontpack for editing,
    mark the fonts to be removed, and drag and drop them on the
    FontFolder shredder.

  * Delete a fontpack - Mark the fontpac to be deleted in the
    Fontpacks list, and then drag and drop it on the FontFolder
    shredder.

  Now for the more interesting stuff.

  * Register a font with a library - First make sure the correct
    library is open in FontFolder (if you have multiple
    libraries), and then drag and drop one of the font files from
    a Drives folder or equivalent on the Library listbox to
    register the font.  You can drop the PFB, AFM, or OFM file for
    a Type 1 font; FontFolder will look for the complimentary file
    to the one you drop and let you know if it can't find it. For
    a TrueType font, use the TTF file.

  * Install a font in OS/2 - Drag and drop one of the font files
    on the Installed Fonts listbox.  Again you can drag either
    the PFB, AFM, OFM or TTF file.  FontFolder will ask if you also
    want to register the font with the current library (so if you
    do, make sure you have the correct library open before doing
    this operation).

  * Browse uninstalled fonts without first registering them -
    When the FontFolder Browser window is open, drag and drop a
    font file on the Browser window.  This gives you a quick way
    to look at some fonts you may or may not be interested in
    adding to your collection without going to the trouble of
    first registering them with a library.

FONT SPECIFICATIONS WINDOW

For those few who are interested in getting really down into the
technical guts of the OS/2 fonts (OK, I did it because *I* wanted
it <g>), there is a new window associated with the Browser that
will show you a selection of the technical details that OS/2
reports about a font.  You can open the window via the Specs
button in the Browser.  The top half of the window shows details
about the character drawings such as the height of ascenders and
descenders, "x" height (lower case character height), and other
parameters that characterize the character drawings.  All of
these are scaled to a 1000x1000 "Em Height" (capital M height),
which is a standard way of displaying such information in the
font world.  Unless you are "into fonts" you probably won't find
this information all that useful or illuminating.

The lower half of the window displays some potentially more
useful information.  It includes what code pages the font was
designed to support (unfortunately this depends on the font
designer having included the information in the font files, which
not all designers do), what OS/2 thinks are the styles of the
font, such as weight (bold, but also semi-bold, etc.), width
(compressed, extended, etc.), and things such as whether the font
is an italic style and if it is monospaced.  In addition to
whatever other usefulness this information may have, it serves as
a diagnostic tool when you are trying to figure out why
applications such as Describe decide whether to treat a font as
a style (i.e.  italic, bold, etc) of a another font, or to treat
it as a totally separate font in the font list.

BUG REPORTS

Please report all FontFolder 3.0 Beta bugs on Compuserve in OS2BVEN,
Section 1 (GO OS2SHARE), by Compuserve e-mail to [75013,1701],
or by Internet e-mail to [e-mail] or
[e-mail]. Internet users, please report problems via
e-mail to one of these e-mail addresses.