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Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3
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Almathera Ten on Ten - Disc 3: CDPD3.iso
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126-150
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scopedisk148
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newfont
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newblue3.doc
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1995-03-19
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NEWBLUE3.LZH -- The ANSI font you'll love to hate ??
If you haven't already, dissolve this LHARCive using the -x switch, i.e.
lharc -x x newblue3
... and answer "y" to the Create Directory prompts.
Time for a few more changes - small ones. NewBlue remains one of precious
few "alternative" ANSI-Amiga fonts (alternative, that is, from "ibm.font") to
appear in all three "topaz replacement" sizes, making it fully usable with the
FastFonts utility on Workbench 1.3. It's recommended for use in Terminal pro-
grams, and as a replacement for the "pcfont.font" of the Bridgeboard software.
NewBlue/8 is compatible with Topaz/8, the default Workbench "text 80" font.
In like fashion, NewBlue/9 can replace Topaz/9, Workbench's "text 60" font.
NewBlue/11 is a replacement for Topaz/11, which doesn't ordinarily appear on
a Workbench screen (SetFont notwithstanding), but is intended for Interlace
(Hi-Res) displays. "Size 11" is 11 pixels in height, but the same 8-pixels
width as Topaz/8, providing the same number of columns, and some 30 percent
more lines of text on a Hi-Res screen than a Size 8 font does in Medium-Res.
All three fonts in this "face" are FIXEDWIDTH, with correctly-set file flags,
insuring that FastFonts (c/FF on a WB1.3 disk) will not reject them!
Let me be the first to admit that NewBlue's "aesthetics" may leave some-
thing to be desired. Let me also cite as "precedent" for the style I pursued:
Mark Riley's GemFont (circa 1985), a topaz/8-replacement font which is coded
into an installation program of the same name. In both cases, the result is
a "mostly" sans-serif typeface in which capitals and capital-size characters
are drawn one pixel shorter than their Topaz counterparts. For some of us,
that makes long stretches of single-spaced text easier to read, since the
bases of one line of letters, especially the ones with descenders (gjpqy)
don't collide with the tops of the next line.
The changes in this "Version 3" of NewBlue, are partially inspired by the
arrival of Jack Radigan's masterpiece of a term program, JR-Comm 1.0. His
is now one of very few terms offering an "ANSI" Emulation mode that's more
than just a carryover of the Amiga's limited CON: device. JR-Comm correctly
responds to all the "ESCape sequences" for text color- and style-changes, as
well as the fiendishly complex codes that force cursor movement (sheesh, how
_does_ "Countach" work that magic into his posts??). And it actually clears
the screen on reception of <Esc>[2J, unlike far too many other Amiga terminals.
As presently redrawn, all sizes of NewBlue will now correctly
Underline
, and
they
italicize
somewhat more cleanly than previous versions. And the lower-
case i and numeral 1 no longer have "feet" (are you happy now, Automax ?? ;-}#
NewBlue is a little bit closer to being truly "sans serif". I made no changes
to the "ANSI Graphic" characters used for highlighting and outlining many BBS
menus, and only a few "touchups" of other High-bit characters (which I almost
never see, except when getting line noise!).
The archive NEWBLUE3.LZH should have dissolved as follows:
NewBlue3.doc -- this verbosity you're reading
GFonts -- the directory
GFonts/NewBlue.font -- the header file
GFonts/NewBlue -- the subdirectory
GFonts/NewBlue/11 -- the Size 11 bitmap file
GFonts/NewBlue/8 -- the Size 8 bitmap file
GFonts/NewBlue/9 -- the Size 9 bitmap file
zzendpad.foo -- the obligatory, disposable pad file
Assuming this is intact, installation should be as simple as typing:>
Copy GFonts to fonts: all
... the colon in "fonts:" denotes an Assigned directory, such as you may
have on a Harddrive. It will also address the fonts directory of your Boot
disk, if you're running from floppies.
Assuming you have Workbench 1.3 or you've obtained FastFonts from the TxEd
Plus disk, as I originally did, here's the "replacement" command (type it at
the CLI prompt, or write it into your S:Startup-Sequence)
FF -1 NewBlue.font
In JR-Comm, and most other terminal programs that let you specify a font,
enter "topaz" or "topaz.font" (believe it or not, this works...) and "11" for
the font size if you're running in Interlace, or "8" if not. If you need a
larger typeface for reason of visual impairment, and can live with a limit
of 60 columns, leave Interlace off and enter "9" for the font size. NewBlue/9
is purposely "drawn bold" for this reason. Other (larger) sizes of NewBlue are
in the works - if there's a demand, I'll release them separately in an archive
named "OddBlue".
As with all previous GFonts, "NewBlue 3" is free-and-clear Public Domain.
Use it any way you see fit; and please, pass it on!
See ya' on the wires ... Glenn Eddy ("Vidiot" on some less-formal BBSs)
10 August 1990