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- ************************************************************
- * README FILE FOR FontFolder 3.0 *
- ************************************************************
-
-
- FILES FOR FONTFOLDER VERSION 3.0
-
- DISKETTE VERSION
-
- The diskette for FontFolder Version 3.0 should contain the
- following files:
-
- BCKGNDVG.BMZ Compressed VGA bitmap used by Install program
- BCKGNDXG.BMZ Compressed XGA bitmap used by Install program
- CATALOG.TXT Used to customize font catalog printing
- CHARBOX.TXT Used to customize specimen sheet printing
- COMPRESS.DLL Module used to decompress Install bitmaps
- FFCLEAN.EX@ Compressed form of the FontFolder Cleanup
- module
- FFPRNMOD.EX@ Compressed form of the FontFolder print
- module - not directly executable
- FILE_ID.DIZ Brief description in DIZ format
- FINSTALL.PKG Package file used by Install program
- FONTFOLD.EX@ Compressed form of the FontFolder program file
- FONTFOLD.HL@ Compressed form of the FontFolder Help file
- FONTFOLD.NEW Brief description of new and changed
- features of Version 3.0
- INSTALL.EXE FontFolder Installation program
- INSTALL.HLP Help file for Install program
- LICENSE.TXT FontFolder License file and registration
- information
- LINE.TXT Used to customize specimen sheet printing
- PGRAPH.TXT Used to customize specimen sheet printing
- README.TXT This file
- BMTORDER.FRM Order form and ordering instructions for
- BMT Micro
-
- In addition, the diskette should contain the file FNTFLIB.ZIP
- described in the following On-line Version list, and the file
- OS2FNFAQ.INF which is a VIEWable copy of the current version
- of OS/2 Fonts Frequently Asked Questions.
-
-
- ON-LINE VERSION
-
- On-line users should look for the following files. FNTF30.ZIP
- is required while FNTFLIB.ZIP is optional.
-
- FNTF30.ZIP Contains the files named above.
- Please use this file if you upload
- FontFolder to a bulletin board or on-line
- service.
-
- FNTFLIB.ZIP Contains the FontFolder pre-registered
- libraries for popular font CDROM's as shown
- below.
-
- BST500.FZ2 Pre-registered library for the Bitstream
- 500 Font CDROM (includes library and text
- documentation file). ZIP format.
- COR25.FZ2 Pre-registered library for the fonts on
- the CorelDraw 2.5 for OS/2 CDROM.
- (includes library and text documentation
- file). ZIP format.
- HB1093.FZ2 Pre-registered library for the fonts on
- the October, 1993 Hobbes OS/2 CDROM.
- (includes library and text documentation
- file). ZIP format.
- EX2000.FZ2 Pre-registered library for the fonts on
- the Expert Software 2000 Fantastic Fonts
- CDROM. (includes libraries for entire
- CDROM and also by-subdirectory libraries
- and text documentation files. ZIP format.
- My thanks to Larry Ebbit for creating this
- library and for giving me permission to
- ship it with FontFolder.
- FNTFSTAR.ZIP Pre-registered library for the fonts on the
- StarMedia CDROM shipped with StarOffice.
-
-
- GENERAL
-
- This README file gives basic information for installing
- FontFolder. For more detailed instructions on using
- FontFolder, consult the on-line Help for the Install program
- after starting it.
-
- If you have the fntf30.zip file, unzip it to a temporary
- directory and then follow these instructions to install from
- this temporary directory. Users with the FontFolder diskette
- should insert the diskette in their diskette drive, and then
- proceed as follows.
-
-
- NEW FONTFOLDER USERS
-
- Either open the drive/directory containing the FontFolder files
- and double-click on the INSTALL.EXE icon, or change to that
- directory from a command line and type INSTALL and press ENTER.
- (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, recreate FontFolder's ini file, and
- recreate FontFolder's program object (icon). Choose Install
- from the menu bar and follow the instructions. You can read
- the On-line Help for the Install program for the details of
- using these features.
-
-
- USERS UPGRADING FROM AN EARLIER VERSION OF FONTFOLDER
-
- 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, recreate FontFolder's ini file, and
- recreate FontFolder's program object (icon). Choose Install
- from the menu bar and follow the instructions. You can read
- the On-line Help for the Install program for the details of
- using these features.
-
- You can choose to either install Version 3.0 into the same
- directory as your current version of FontFolder, or you can
- install to a separate directory. It is possible to have both
- versions of FontFolder on your system at the same time, but you
- should be aware that neither version will be aware of or be
- able to deal with the other version's installed FontPacks. The
- fonts will simply look like any other installed fonts. In
- order to use FontPacks you will need to make sure to install
- and uninstall them with the same version of FontFolder.
-
- 1) Installing over an older version of FontFolder
-
- Simply set the Install program to install to the existing
- FontFolder directory. The Install program will be able to
- use your existing ini and data files, but it will convert
- them to a new format needed to support the mixing of Type 1
- and TrueType fonts. The new data files will have extensions
- of FF3 and FP3. The old FF2 and FP2 files will be left in
- place and can be deleted once you are satisfied that the
- upgrade has been successful.
-
- 2) Installing to a new directory, but using the existing
- FontFolder ini and data files.
-
- Create the new directory where you want to install
- FontFolder and copy the FONTFOLD.INI file and all .FF2 and
- .FP2 files in your old directory to this new directory.
- Specify this new directory as the target directory when
- installing FontFolder. The Install program will recognize
- and use the old ini and data files. It will detect that you
- have moved the FONTFOLD.INI file and ask you if you want to
- update the directories stored in FONTFOLD.INI. You should
- accept this offer unless you have set things up in a special
- way and know that you want to leave the old directory
- locations in place.
-
- USERS INSTALLING OVER THE FONTFOLDER 3.0 BETA.
-
- You should be able to simply point the Install program at
- the directory containing the FontFolder 3.0 Beta and let it
- overwrite the Beta files. It should pick up and use the ini
- and data files you have created with the beta.
-
- If you are nervous about installing final code over a Beta,
- choose the Uninstall option of the Install program to
- uninstall the Beta first. If you want to preserve your ini
- file customizations and the libraries and fontpacks you have
- created with the Beta, you can first make a backup of
- FONTFOLD.INI and all of the .FF3 and .FP3 files before
- running the uninstall program. Then, after the uninstall
- but before installing the new version, copy these files
- back to the directory where you are installing version 3.0.
- (But this is a lot of work just to accomplish exactly the
- same thing as will happen if you just install directly over
- the Beta).
-
-
- *****************************************************************
- THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SHOULD BE READ BY BOTH
- NEW USERS AND THOSE UPGRADING FROM AN EARLIER VERSION. THERE ARE
- SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN THE INFORMATION SINCE THE LAST RELEASE OF
- FONTFOLDER, SO UPGRADERS SHOULD BE SURE TO READ THIS.
- *****************************************************************
-
- PROBLEMS ON FONTFOLDER STARTUP:
-
- When you start FontFolder the first time you may find that it
- complains about a number of fonts that you have already
- "installed" in OS/2 through the OS/2 Font Pallete. This can be
- for a number of reasons outlined below, all of which represent
- legitimate problems that FontFolder is attempting to deal with.
- (Of course it may also be true that FontFolder is incorrectly
- objecting to a legitimately installed font. If that appears to
- be the case, please bring the situation to my attention via one
- of the routes described at the end of this ReadMe file.)
-
- Situations where FontFolder will object to an already
- "installed" font:
-
- 1. The OS/2 Font Pallete is unfortunately not too
- discriminating in what it will "install" in OS/2. There are
- examples of font AFM files that are totally unreadable because
- of garbage in the file. The Font Pallete will "install" these
- files, although they are unusable and show up in the Font
- Pallete list as blank lines. FontFolder will reject a file if
- the OS/2 api that is used to query font information can't at
- least return a name for the font (the blank line in the Font
- Pallete occurs because no font name was returned for the file).
-
- 2. Users have been known to install a font in OS/2 and then
- later move the OFM and PFB files for this font to a different
- directory or even erase them, without first un-installing the
- font from OS/2. However, OS/2 keeps a record in OS2.INI of
- where it thinks the files are for installed fonts, and when it
- can't find them there on bootup, things get quite confusing.
- The user finds that a previously installed font "no longer
- works", but when they try to re-install it they find they can't
- because OS/2 insists it is already installed. FontFolder
- checks the listings in OS2.INI and verifies that both a PFB
- file and an OFM file exist where OS2.INI claims they are
- located. It behaves in a similar fashion for the TrueType TTF
- files.
-
- In both of the above cases, FontFolder a) does not show the
- font in the installed fonts list, and b) puts up a message box
- alerting the user to the problem and offering to remove the
- entry for this font from OS2.INI. You should note what font
- files FontFolder can't find, and then accept the offer to clean
- up OS2.INI. If the problem is simply that the font files have
- been moved, you can then go and find out where the font files
- are currently located (if they still exist) and register the
- fonts with the Library from the correct location.
-
-
- KNOWN PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS:
-
- 1. Warp 4 has a bug which causes it to hang or significantly
- corrupt the desktop when certain fonts are installed. This
- occurs for both Type 1 and TrueType fonts. Users who are
- upgrading from earlier versions of OS/2 and FontFolder should
- be aware that fonts that worked without problems in earlier
- versions can now cause either an immediate hang or enough OS
- corruption that at some point in the near future the system
- will hang. At this time the only solution is to find and
- temporarily remove these fonts from both the set of fonts
- installed in OS/2 and from the FontFolder libraries. The
- latter is important since simply browsing these fonts or
- attempting to print a Font Catalog will kill the system when
- one of these "bad" fonts is loaded.
-
- The easiest way to identify the fonts that cause Warp 4 to hang
- is to browse your fonts with the FontFolder Browser. Any font
- that does not display in the browser window is a problem font,
- even if it doesn't immediately hang the system. Write down the
- name of the font (your system is about to crash, if it hasn't
- already, so you can't depend on being able to do anything after
- you have browsed this font), reboot this system, and use
- FontFolder to a) uninstall this font if you have it installed,
- and b) remove it from all libraries and fontpacks. You do NOT
- need to remove the font files from your system. There is
- nothing wrong with the font. When IBM provides the fix for
- this problem (supposedly coming in the first FixPack) you will
- be able to add the font back to your system. Note that the
- system does not become corrupted simply by having the font
- installed; you have to actually use the font to cause the
- problem. So removing it as described above is a safe way to
- temporarily clean your system of these problem fonts.
-
- So far, all the problem fonts I have encountered have exhibited
- the trait of not displaying in the FontFolder Browser window.
- However, if you still see OS/2 crashing with certain fonts, but
- all fonts display properly (i.e. this is a delayed crash so
- you can't pinpoint which font caused the problem), you can most
- likely pin down the problem font by making one point size
- change in the Browser while each font is displayed (you need to
- change the point size each time, for each font). In my
- experience this always causes an immediate OS/2 crash, whether
- it is done with FontFolder, the OS/2 Font Palette, the System
- Editor or any other application I've tried. Since it is a lot
- more work to change the point size every time for each font, I
- don't recommend this approach as the intial screening.
-
- 2. When running FontFolder with versions of OS/2 prior to Warp
- 4, OS/2 does not allow FontFolder to remove any font from
- memory that was not installed by FontFolder in the current
- session. With Warp 4 this behavior has changed, and it appears
- that FontFolder can now immediately uninstall any font that is
- not currently in use by another application. However, I
- haven't yet been able to fully scope out the conditions under
- which this is true (this is now and has always been
- undocumented behavior), so my advice to users of Warp 4 is to
- read the following and be aware of the situation even if fonts
- seem to uninstall immediately.
-
- FontFolder always updates the OS2.INI file and shows the font
- as removed, but if you check the Font Palette or look in the
- font list presented by your application, you will see that the
- font is still there. It will be gone the next time you reboot.
-
- This is not a problem if you don't change fonts frequently
- since any font removed by FontFolder will be gone the next time
- you reboot. However, if you work with large numbers of fonts
- during a single session, you may end of with very large numbers
- of fonts installed in OS/2, with performance and even perhaps
- error problems. The way to avoid this is to only keep a
- minimum number of fonts, the ones you use all the time, loaded
- in OS/2 at startup. Then start FontFolder and keep it open
- during the entire session if you are going to work with large
- numbers (100's) of fonts during the session. FontFolder can be
- minimized when you are not using it, but don't close it. This
- way, FontFolder can completely remove any font it installed (as
- long as you aren't currently using the font in an open
- application). Before closing FontFolder, clean up your
- installed font list by removing all the fonts other than your
- basic font set. (HINT: Define a FontPack to be your basic set
- of fonts. Then just before closing FontFolder, remove
- everything extra and install this FontPack. That will
- guarantee that you always have the correct base set installed
- on bootup).
-
- 3. It is easy to browse large numbers of fonts in the Browser
- window with FontFolder. In versions of OS/2 prior to Warp 3
- this can quickly consume large amounts of memory, causing
- problems if you are short of swap file space. Look in the
- online Help Index for "browsing fonts" and read this section to
- understand what the memory requirements are when browsing
- fonts. This problem has been fixed in Warp 3 and presumably
- is also fixed in Warp 4.
-
- 4. Versions of OS/2 prior to Warp 4 had a memory leak connected
- with printing font samples that works out to approximately 7.5
- KB of lost memory for every font printed. This may not sound
- like much, but if you print a Font Catalog for the Bitstream
- 500 Font CDROM, you will lose access to 3.75 Megabytes of your
- virtual memory, i.e. your swap file will be 3.75 Megabytes
- closer to being full than it would be otherwise. This effect
- is cumulative, i.e. if you print the same Font Catalog a
- second time you will lose another 3.75 Megabytes of memory.
- This memory can not be recovered except by rebooting OS/2. IBM
- confirmed that this leak is in OS/2 back in the Warp 3 time
- frame, and I tried to open an APAR. But about that time IBM
- changed their system so that it was no longer possible for
- developers to open APARs without buying the rather expensive
- support contract they offer. As a result, this APAR never got
- opened, and as far as I know the same leak exists in Warp 4
- (although I haven't yet had time to test for it). Until a fix
- is available, if you are printing large numbers of fonts, you
- will need to pay attention to your swap file size.
-
- 5. Past OMNI drivers have had multiple problems that prevent
- FontFolder from tracking print jobs in the OS/2 Print Spooler.
- FontFolder must be able to track print jobs to know when it is
- safe to uninstall fonts that have been temporarily installed
- for the purpose of printing. As explained above the APARs I
- attempted to open for this never got opened. The latest OMNI
- drivers may or may not have fixed this problem. In the mean
- time I have implemented a workaround that requires the users of
- the OMNI driver to manually inform FontFolder when the last job
- has printed. If you use the OMNI driver, turn off the "Enable
- manual spool file monitoring" checkbox on the Printer dialog
- and see if you can successfully print uninstalled fonts. If
- you can, the driver has been fixed, and you can leave this
- option unchecked. If uninstalled fonts won't print, re-enable
- this checkbox.
-
-
- *********************************************************************
-
- REGISTERING FONTFOLDER:
-
- The version of FontFolder you download electronically is a
- fully functional demonstration copy. You can carry out all
- operations, but after a period of time the program will begin
- prompting you to register and pay for the program. You can
- register and pay for it through a variety of mechansims as
- described below and in the LICENSE.TXT file. When you register
- the program you will be provided with an electronic key which
- will permanently unlock this version of FontFolder.
-
- FontFolder can be registered either as a full version with
- access to all facilities, or as a "Lite" version, which has
- access to all facilities except for printing. Registered users
- of FontFolder 2.1 may upgrade to the corresponding version of
- FontFolder 3.0 without charge. No action is necessary to
- upgrade; the current registration key will work with FontFolder
- 3.0. Users of 1.x versions of FontFolder have free access to
- FontFolder 3.0 Lite using their existing registration key. To
- use printing they must upgrade their registration to the full
- version of FontFolder 3.0. See the LICENSE.TXT file or look in
- the On-line Help Index under Registration Information for the
- details of registering.
-
- Registration Fees:
-
- New User Registration for FontFolder 3.0 $30
- New User Registration for FontFolder 3.0 Lite $20
- Upgrade from Version 1.x or FontFolder 2.x or 3.0 Lite $10
-
-
- *********************************************************************
-
- FONTFOLDER SUPPORT:
-
- FontFolder is supported on Compuserve in OS2BVEN, Section 1 (GO
- OS2SHARE), by Compuserve e-mail to [75013,1701], and by
- Internet e-mail to 75013.1701@compuserve.com or
- ccullum@ibm.net. I also monitor the Internet newsgroups
- comp.os.os2.app and comp.os.os2.utilities on a daily basis.
-
- Notice of new releases of FontFolder will be posted on
- Compuserve in OS2BVEN, Section 1 and in the Internet newsgroup
- comp.os.os2.announce.
-
- The latest versions of FontFolder can always be found on
- Compuserve in OS2BVEN, Lib 1, and at BMT Micro's Web site,
- http://www.bmtmicro.com. It should also be on ftp-os2.nmsu.edu
- and the other OS/2 public ftp sites, but I cannot guarantee
- this since access to these sites can be quite variable.
-
- For all of the above locations, the FontFolder zip file will be
- named FNTFnn.ZIP where nn is the version number.
-
- Cliff Cullum
- PVsoft
- 2/1/97