

















                                  Sfware

                A Manual for the Shell and Other Utilities










           Copyright 1990-92 by Norman Walsh All Rights Reserved





                                Version 1.0



Notice:

This document is written and maintained by Small Planet Software. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means except those provided for by the shareware license agreement
of the accompanying software.

Copyright 1991 by Small Planet Software

All Rights Reserved

Although every reasonable precaution has been taken in the preparation of
this document, no warranty of any kind is made with regard to the use of
this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No patent or copyright
liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained
herein or the use of the accompanying software.


Acknowledgments:

I would like to thank Tom Bruhns and Philippe Weil for their invaluable
assistance. They were my primary gunea pigs as the product went through
alpha and early beta testing. Without their patience and helpful comments,
neither this software nor this manual would be what they are today.

All trademarks used within this document are the trademarks of their
respective owners.





                                 NO WARRANTY


            THESE PROGRAMS ARE DISTRIBUTED FREELY. THESE PROGRAMS
            IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
            EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
            LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
            AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK
            AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAMS IS
            WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAMS PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU
            ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
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            IN NO EVENT WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE TO
            YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL,
            INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF
            THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAMS (INCLUDING
            BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING
            RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR
            THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAMS TO OPERATE
            WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR
            OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
            SUCH DAMAGES.






Every reasonable effort has been made to assure the quality and completeness
of these programs. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, or if
you believe that you have found a bug, please contact the author at the
address given at the end of this document.


                              Table of Contents

         1. Introduction
         2. Conventions Used in This Manual
         3. Configuring Sfware
         4. Running SfWare
         5. Downloading Fonts
         6. Special Effects
         7. Compressing Fonts
         8. Rotating Fonts
         9. Showing Fonts
        10. Viewing Fonts
        11. Softfont Information
        12. The Bold Effect
        13. The Fixed Spacing Effect
        14. The Fill Effect
        15. The Halftone Effect
        16. The Horizontal Fade/Mist Effect
        17. The Hollow Effect
        18. The Invert Effect
        19. The Mirror Effect
        20. The Mist Effect
        21. The Outline Effect
        22. The Proportional Spacing Effect
        23. The Resize Effect
        24. The Reverse Effect
        25. The Shadow Effect
        26. The Shade Effect
        27. The Slant Effect
        28. The Stripe Effect
        29. The Three-D Drop Shadow Effect
        30. The Hollow Three-D Drop Shadow Effect
        31. The Filled Three-D Drop Shadow Effect
        32. The Vertical Fade/Mist Effect
        33. Patterns
        34. Softfont Directory Listings
        35. Sfware Registration
        36. Contacting the Author
        37. Glossary

1. Introduction

The Sfware softfont utilities from Small Planet Software are MS-DOS programs
distributed under a shareware license agreement. These utilities provide
extensive font manipulation capabilities for HP LaserJet softfonts.

The Sfware utilities allow you to download, rotate, compress, expand, view,
and perform special effects on softfonts. The effects provided include bold,
fill, convert to fixed spacing, halftone, hollow, invert, mirror, outline,
convert to proportional spacing, resize, reverse, shade, shadow, slant,
stripe, three-d, hollow-three-d, and filled-three-d. The effects can be
tailored and customized for any font with various parameters and shading
patterns. All of these features are available from an integrated, easy-to-use
menu interface. For situations when you would like to run these programs
without human intervention (to download a selected group of fonts every
morning, for example) every feature is available from a stand-alone utility.
The standalone utilities are described in another manual---this manual
documents the menu interface.

1.1. Getting Started

Sfware is ``shareware,'' and the author encourages archive maintainers to
post Sfware for downloading; you may have received your copy from almost
anywhere and almost anyone. Please make sure that you have a complete
distribution before you try to install Sfware.

1.1.1. Hardware Requirements

In order to use Sfware, you will need a PC, PS/2, or close compatible with
150KB or so of free memory. A hard disk is recommended, but not required. A
LaserJet+ or compatible printer is not actually required, but Sfware is
probably a little pointless without one! Note:  the original LaserJet printer
does not have the ability to use softfonts; the Sfware utilities cannot help
you use fonts with the original LaserJet printer.

If you want to use the SfShell program, you will need 300-400KB of free
memory and either a hard disk, a ram disk, or sufficient expanded memory for
swapping. You cannot use a removable (floppy) drive for swapping. The shell
is not required for any of the features available in Sfware, but it does
provide a user-interface for the Sfware utilities that is less intimidating
than the command line.

If you are running a version of DOS prior to 3.30, read the configuration
section carefully since you may have to do a little more work to get Sfware
installed.

1.1.2. Software Requirements

In addition to Sfware, you must have at least one HP LaserJet softfont file.

1.1.3. Packing List

Sfware is distributed in four archive files. The archives are named SFWverP1,
SFWverP2, SFWverD1, and SFWverD2. In each file, the ver is replaced by the
Sfware version number. Every archive contains a file called PACKING.xx that
lists the files that should be present in the archive.  Please make sure that
you have complete archives before you proceed to install Sfware.

The ``P'' archives contain the Sfware programs and both are required in order
to install Sfware. The ``D'' archives contain documentation. The ``D1''
archive documents the SfShell interface, the ``D2'' archive documents the
individual utilities. Please refer to the file PRINTDOC in SFWverP1 for
instructions describing how to print the documentation.

1.2. Installation

1.2.1. Making Backups

Like any software package, it is always advisable to make backup copies of
the distribution diskettes or distribution archives. This is especially
important if you use an ``on the fly'' compression program to compress
executable files (e.g. PkLite). Sfware cannot be registered after it has been
compressed--you will need the original programs in order to register Sfware.
There is no compelling reason not to compress the programs after you have
registered them.

1.2.2. Hard Drive Installation

Create a subdirectory on your hard drive for the Sfware utilities; it does
not matter what drive you install onto or what you name the directory.  For
the purpose of this manual, the directory D:\SF is assumed.

Copy all of the files from the distribution diskette (or from the
distribution archive) into the Sfware directory.

1.2.3. Floppy Disk Installation

Copy all of the files from the distribution diskette (or from the
distribution archive) onto a floppy disk. This manual assumes that Sfware has
been installed in the directory D:\SF but it is not necessary to install
Sfware onto a hard disk.

Due to space limitations on floppy disks, it may not be possible to place all
of the files on a single diskette. If is the case, it is recommended that you
put SFSHELL.EXE and SFSHELL.HLP, on one floppy and all of the other utilities
on a second floppy. If you do not plan to use the shell, you will not need
the SfShell files on a diskette.

If you use a floppy-only system, you will only be able to use the SfShell
program if you have sufficient expanded memory (EMS) for SfShell to use a
swapping space when it runs the other utility programs.  SfShell requires
either sufficient EMS or a non-removable disk for swapping.

Splitting the Sfware utilities across two floppies does not present any real
technical difficulties (aside from the location of swapping space) but you
should read the Configuration chapter carefully to make sure that you have
set things up properly. In particular, you will need to tell SfShell where
the utility programs are located.

1.3. Initial Configuration

Before you can use Sfware, you must run SfConfig to establish an initial
configuration.  Please follow the 'quick start' instructions in the READ.ME
file or read the Configuration chapter before trying to run Sfware.

2. Conventions Used in This Manual

  [NOTE: Typographic conventions are not present in this unformatted file]

2.1. Typographic convensions

2.1.1. typewriter

Typewriter type is used within this manual to denote explicit words or
commands or filenames that you type exactly the way they appear in this
manual. In this manual, FRUIT means you type ``F'' ``R'' ``U'' ``I'' ``T'' ,
whereas a fruit (italics are described below) might mean apple, or pear, or
any specific fruit.

2.1.2. italics

Italics are used to name a general ``class'' of things. If a command in this
manual contains a word in italics, you should replace that word with a
concrete example of ``one of those things'' when you type the command. For
example, a fontname in this manual means any valid, existing softfont; you
should type the name of an existing font file.

Occasionally, italics are used for emphasis (as they are in general
typography) but it will be clear from the context when that is the case.

2.1.3. boldface

Boldface is used to highlight words that appear in selection lists. It is
roughly analogous to the way typewriter text is used to indicate things you
should type; boldface indicates things you should select off of a list of
choices.

In this version of the manual, this convention is not always strictly
obeyed.  It will be in the next version of the manual.

2.1.4. [[ brackets ]]

The stylized square brackets denote optional parameters. You should only type
what appears within the brackets when you want to use the associated optional
feature.

2.2. Sections

2.2.1. Captured Screens

Many of the chapters contain ``captured screens'' to provide a context for
the discussion of the choices available. These captured screens are taken
directly from version 1.0 of SfShell.

2.2.2. Technically Speaking

Many chapters end with a ``technically speaking'' section. This section
describes, more technically, what Sfware does. You don't have to read it
unless you want to. If you find the material in the technically speaking
sections intimidating, just ignore it. On the other hand, if you find that
something is not performing exactly the way that you thought it was supposed
to, this section may help you figure out why Sfware is doing something other
than what you expected.

3. Configuring Sfware

In order to make Sfware easier to use, all of the programs read a
configuration file each time they are executed. This configuration file gives
you the flexibility to assign default values to many of the options and
parameters of each program.

3.1. Name of the configuration file

All of the utilities can share the same configuration file. However, rather
than hardcoding the name of the configuration file, Sfware relies on the
existance of a DOS environment variable to determine the name of the
configuration file. Each Sfware utility expects the DOS environment variable
SFCFG to name the complete drive, path, and filename of a suitable
configuration file. For example, if you make a configuration file called
SF.CFG and you put it in the D:\SF directory, the DOS command SET
SFCFG=D:\SF\SF.CFG would be appropriate.

If the DOS environment variable SFCFG is undefined, each of the utilities
looks for a configuration file with the same name as its executable file and
the extension .CFG. For example, SFFX.EXE looks for SFFX.CFG.

3.1.1. Special note for DOS 2.xx users

In versions of DOS prior to version 3.xx, it was not possible for a program
to find out the name or directory of its executable file.  If SFCFG is
undefined, the utilities will look in the current directory for configuration
files. It is especially important to define SFCFG if you are not using DOS
3.xx or later.

3.2. Using SfConfig

Frequently, the most difficult part of installing new software is the task of
configuring it to work correctly in your system. This may be true of Sfware
as well. In an effort to make the initial configuration as painless as
possible, Sfware comes with the SfConfig program.  SfConfig should be run
after the SFCFG environment variable, discussed above, has been set.

SfConfig will create a configuration file initialized with appropriate
defaults and allow you to select, interactively, the laser printer that you
use, the print device that you use, and name of your softfont directory.  These
are the most site-specific configuration options.

SfConfig can be run again to change any one of these values; it will not
change anything else in the configuration file that you have changed manually
since the first time that you used SfConfig.

The following three settings can be made from within SfConfig:

3.2.1. Laser Printer

The Laser printer selection helps Sfware decide if font compression should be
enabled.  Later versions of Sfware may make more use of this option.

3.2.2. Printer Output

The most common selection for printer output is LPT1. However, you can select
LPT1-4, PRN, or any valid file or device for printer output.

3.2.3. Font Directory

Most users keep all of their softfonts in one directory. If this is the case,
you can tell Sfware always to look for fonts in that directory regardless of
what directory you are currently in. This becomes the default font directory.
However, even if you do select a default font directory, you can still
override it and use any directory you want be selecting a new directory with
``F4'' in SfShell or by specifying a fontdir on the command line.

3.3. Format of the configuration file

The configuration file is a plain ASCII text file, and it should be edited
with a program that will not insert extra formatting characters when the file
is saved (I recommend Multi-Edit by American Cybernetics).

Each line of the configuration file is divided into three parts as follows:

programid parameter=value

The programid is seperated from the parameter by one or more spaces and the
parameter is separated from the value by an equal sign (=).

The programid is optional but the parameter and the value are required
(actually, the value can technically be empty or blank but that is exactly
the same as not defining it at all).

Individual Sfware programs use the combination of programid and parameter as
a key to lookup the default value of each parameter. Any configuration line
that does not contain a programid automatically matches all programid's for
that parameter. Case is insignificant in the programid and parameter.

A simple example should make everything clearer. Given the following
configuration file:

      PROG APPLE=1
      PROG ORANGE=2
      APPLE=3
      OTHER ORANGE=4

The value of PROG APPLE is 1, PROG ORANGE is 2, ANYTHING-ELSE APPLE is 3,
OTHER ORANGE is 4, and ANYTHING-ELSE ORANGE is undefined (blank, or
non-existant).

Each possible configuration parameter is described in the sections that
follow.  The section header lists only the parameter if the programid is the
name of the utility program that uses it. For configuration parameters that
make special use of the programid, both parts are listed.  The parameters are
listed in alphabetical order by parameter.

3.4. ActionListSize

Usage:    program ACTIONLISTSIZE=number
Used by:  SfShell

Controls the amount of memory reserved for the font action list.  Each time
you choose to do something to a font (download it, compress it, perform a
special effect, etc.) that choice gets added to an action list. The actions
in the action list get performed when you press ``F10'' in SfShell. The
ACTIONLISTSIZE can be large, but it is advantageous to keep it relatively
small unless you have a lot of expanded memory (EMS). If it is too large, it
will be written to disk which may have a considerable impact on program
performance (especially on response time).

3.5. CommandFile

Usage:    program COMMANDFILE=filename
Used by:  SfShell

Specifies the name of the SfShell command file. The command file is used to
communicate between SfShell and the utility programs. The command file can
also be saved for later use to automatically re-run the selected actions.

3.6. Compress

Usage:    program COMPRESS=YES or NO
Used by:  SfFx, SfRotate

The Sfware utilities that write new softfont files use this flag to determine
if the softfonts should be written in PCL4/5 compressed format or in the
older, non-compressed format. Compression can produce very dramatic decreases
in the amount of disk space required for a softfont.  However, the compressed
fonts are only recognized by LaserJet printers that are PCL4 compatible. The
LaserJet Series II is not PCL4 compatible.  Note, however, that the Sfware
utilities provide for decompression ``on the fly'' in most cases. Please
consult the section about downloading fonts for more information.

3.7. Device

Usage:    program DEVICE=filename
Used by:  SfLoad, SfShow

Names the output device for Sfware utilities that interact directly with the
printer. The most common value is LPT1, but any DOS file or device name may
be used.

3.8. Esc

Usage:    program ESC=YES or NO
Used by:  SfDir

Controls how SfDir displays font information. If ESC is YES, escape sequences
are displayed by default. Otherwise a readable, text description is displayed
by default.

3.9. ExecOutput

Usage:    program EXECOUTPUT=WINDOW or FULLSCREEN
Used by:  SfShell

The individual Sfware utilities are run as ``child tasks'' from within
SfShell to perform the actions. The EXECOUTPUT option controls how output is
redirected from each utility. If WINDOW is used, the utilities are run within
a window on the screen, if FULLSCREEN is used, the utilities run on a full
DOS screen. The WINDOW selection looks better but it is an option so that the
feature can be disabled if it causes problems with your version of DOS. If
SfShell hangs your machine whenever you try to execute an action list, the
first thing you should try is setting EXECOUTPUT=FULLSCREEN.

3.10. FontDir

Usage:    program FONTDIR=directory
Used by:  SfShell, SfCmpr, SfFx, SfLoad, SfRotate, SfShow

Names the DOS subdirectory where HP LaserJet softfonts are located. This is
the default input and output directory for Sfware utilities that read or
write softfont files.

3.11. FontExtn

Usage:    program FONTEXTN=ext
Used by:  SfShell, SfCmpr, SfFx, SfLoad, SfRotate, SfShow

Names the default filename extension for softfont files. If you specify
either an input softfont name or an output softfont name that does not
include an extension, the Sfware utilities will append this extension to the
filename. Note: it is possible to specify that a file should not have any
extension by ending the filename with a period.

3.12. FontListSize

Usage:    program FONTLISTSIZE=number
Used by:  SfShell

The size of the font list determines how many softfonts SfShell can place in
the scrolling font window. Like the action list, this parameter can be very
large but performance will be degraded if it is so large that it is written
to disk.

3.13. GraphBack

Usage:    program GRAPHBACK=number
Used by:  SfShell, SfView

Controls the background color in graphics mode. The following colors can be
used (they must be selected by number): 0=black, 1=blue, 2=green, 3=cyan,
4=red, 5=magenta, 6=brown, 7=light gray, 8=dark gray, 9=light blue, 10=light
green, 11=light cyan, 12=light red, 13=light magenta, 14=yellow, and
15=white.

3.14. GraphCard

Usage:    program GRAPHCARD=cardname
Used by:  SfShell, SfView

Tells SfShell what kind of graphics card you are using. By default, SfShell
tries to determine what kind of graphics card you have and adjust
accordingly.  However, if it makes the wrong choice, you can force SfShell to
select one of the following: CGA, MCGA, VGA, EGA, EGA64, EGAMONO, IBM8514,
ATT, HERC, and PC3270.

A complete list of available graphics resolutions for each card/mode is
available under the section on ``GraphMode''.

3.15. GraphForg

Usage:    program GRAPHFORG=number
Used by:  SfShell, SfView

Controls the foreground color in graphics mode.

3.16. GraphGrid

Usage:    program GRAPHGRID=number
Used by:  SfShell, SfView

Controls the color of the gridlines in the graphics display.

3.17. GraphMode

Usage:    program GRAPHMODE=number
Used by:  SfShell, SfView

Controls the graphics mode number for the selected graphics card. It is
impossible for SfShell to know if you have selected a reasonable graphics
mode. The results of using an incorrect or invalid graphics mode are
undefined (and unpredictable!).

The following table lists all of the graphics cards and the modes associated
with them. In general, it is not necessary to specify a graphics mode since
the highest resolution mode is selected by default:

    Card    |  Mode   | Resolution          | Palette
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
    CGA     |  0      | 320x200             | 0
    CGA     |  1      | 320x200             | 1
    CGA     |  2      | 320x200             | 2
    CGA     |  3      | 640x200             | 3
    CGA     |  4      | 640x200 (default)   | 2 colr
    MCGA    |  0      | 320x200             | 0
    MCGA    |  1      | 320x200             | 1
    MCGA    |  2      | 320x200             | 2
    MCGA    |  3      | 320x200             | 3
    MCGA    |  4      | 320x200             | 2 colr
    MCGA    |  5      | 640x480 (default)   | 2 colr
    EGA     |  0      | 640x200             | 16 colr
    EGA     |  1      | 640x350 (default)   | 16 colr
    EGA64   |  0      | 640x200             | 16 colr
    EGA64   |  1      | 640x350 (default)   | 4 colr
    EGAMONO |  3      | 640x350 (default)   | 2 colr
    HERC    |  0      | 720x348 (default)   | 2 colr
    ATT     |  0      | 320x200             | 0
    ATT     |  1      | 320x200             | 1
    ATT     |  2      | 320x200             | 2
    ATT     |  3      | 320x200             | 3
    ATT     |  4      | 640x200             | 2 colr
    ATT     |  5      | 640x400 (default)   | 2 colr
    VGA     |  0      | 640x200             | 16 colr
    VGA     |  1      | 640x350             | 16 colr
    VGA     |  2      | 640x480 (default)   | 16 colr
    PC3270  |  0      | 720x350 (default)   | 2 colr
    IBM8514 |  0      | 640x480             | 256 colr
    IBM8514 |  1      | 1024x768 (default)  | 256 colr
  --------------------------------------------------------------------

3.18. MsgFile

Usage:    program MSGFILE=filename
Used by:  SfShell

SfShell forces all of the Sfware utilities to write error and completion
messages to the message file that you specify. When you leave SfShell, this
file will be displayed to give you a summary of the things that you did.

3.19. Numbers

Usage:    program NUMBERS=base
Used by:  SfShow

The numbers parameter is used by SfShow to select the numeric base of the
numbers printed around the reference grid. Valid options are hex, oct, dec,
and none for hexadecimal (base 16), octal (base 8), decimal (base 10) and no
reference numbers respectively. The default value is hex.

3.20. Pattern name

Usage:    PATTERN name=pattern-string
Used by:  SfShell, SfFx

The pattern programid introduces named patterns. Any pattern that you plan to
use more than once or that is very complex should probably be saved in the
configuration file. There is a whole chapter devoted to patterns and pattern
strings. Please consult that chapter for more information about patterns.

The pattern created in the pattern chapter could be saved in the
configuration file with the name zig-zag by placing the following line in the
configuration file:

PATTERN ZIG-ZAG=0;34;85;136

3.21. Quiet

Usage:    program QUIET=YES or NO
Used by:  SfDir

Controls the degree of verboseness of messages from SfDir. In the future,
other utilities may use this flag for the same purpose.

3.22. RefSet

Usage:    program REFSET=symbol-set
Used by:  SfShow

If the reference set is defined, the reference character for each position in
the font will be printed in the upper right hand corner of each cell on
SfShow's grid. For example, setting sfshow refset=8u would make SfShow print
the reference characters with the 8U symbol set.  You must select a symbol
set that is available in your laser printer's line-printer font. If you don't
want reference characters to be printed, use sfshow refset=none.

3.23. Replace

Usage:    program REPLACE=YES or NO
Used by:  SfCmpr, SfFx, SfLoad, SfRotate, SfShow

Each of the Sfware programs that can create new files use this flag to
determine if existing files should be destroyed without warning. If you set
this flag to YES, you can shoot yourself in the foot; if you leave it NO, the
Sfware utilities will always make sure the safety is on!

3.24. Sentence

Usage:    program SENTENCE=string
Used by:  SfShell, SfView, SfShow

Identifies the sentence to be displayed on graphical font preview screens and
printed on the reference page. The default sentence is: The quick red fox
jumped over the lazy brown dog. I said (very loudly), ``THE QUICK RED FOX
JUMPED OVER THE LAZY BROWN DOG!'' How many times?0, 1, 2, or 3456789 times.

3.25. SwitchChar

Usage:    program SWITCHCHAR=char
Used by:  SfShell, SfCmpr, SfFx, SfLoad, SfRotate, SfShow, SfView, SfInfo

Identifies the switch character. It must be set to either ``/'' or ``-''.
Under MS-DOS, ``/'' is recommended. The switch character setting can be
ignored by SfShell users. SfShell makes sure that the correct switch
character is used when the utilities are invoked. For more information about
the uses of the switch character, consult the ``technically speaking'' note
at the end of the Conventions for Describing the Standalone Utilities
chapter.

3.26. Style name

Usage:    STYLE name=number
Used by:  SfShell, SfShow, SfFx

The ``style'' of a softfont is one of the font parameters that is used to
distinguish between two otherwise identical softfonts. The values defined by
HP are ``upright,'' ``italic'' and ``oblique.'' Using SfFx to create
variations on a font can potentially create two fonts that are
indistinguishable from each other. For example, ``hollowing'' a softfont does
not change any of its font characteristics. The STYLE parameter tells the
SfFx what style value to use in the font header for each effect. In this way,
it will always be possible to tell the old and new fonts apart.  The name of
the style must be one of the following: Bold, Fix, Fill, Fill3d, HalfTone,
Hollow, Hollow3d, Invert, Mirror, OutLine, Prop, Resize, Reverse, Shade,
Shadow, Stripe, and Threed.  The style value can be any number between 0 and
255. If the effect changes some other characteristic of the font, it is not
necessary to change the style; this is indicated with a style value of 0.

3.27. SfCmpr,
      SfFx,
      SfLoad,
      SfRotate,
      SfShow

Usage:    program name=filename
Used by:  SfShell

If the executable files for the Sfware utilities are kept in a different
directory or drive than the SfShell executable (for example, if you are using
the two-floppy disk setup described in the getting started chapter), these
parameters should name the respective executable files.  The filename given
should be a complete filename with drive, path and extension. For example, if
SfShell is in your utilities directory but you keep the other Sfware
utilities in the directory D:\SF, then SFSHELL SFCMPR in the configuration
file should be defined like this:

      SFSHELL SFCMPR=D:\SF\SFCMPR.EXE

And analogously for all the other utilities.

3.28. SwapFile

Usage:    program SWAPFILE=filename
Used by:  SfShell

The swapfile parameter names the file that SfShell should use for a swapfile
if it cannot swap to EMS. The swapfile filename should be a complete filename
with drive and path. The swapfile must be on a non-removable medium.  If you
specify a swapfile on a removable medium, SfShell will not be able to swap
and you will not be able to use the shell very effectively.

3.29. Typefaces

Usage:    program TYPEFACES=filename
Used by:  SfShell, SfInfo, SfShow

The typefaces parameter names the file that lists typeface names. Every
softfont has a typeface number. A name is associated with each typeface
number; this is the name displayed by SfShell in the typeface column, and by
SfInfo and SfShow. Because the number of typefaces is growing and is subject
to change, you can supply an additional typeface list that identifies any and
all typeface numbers. Sfware is distributed with the file TYPEFACES.LST
that contains all of the Hewlett Packard typeface names defined as of PCL5.
If you have an old or non-standard softfont, this name may not accurately
reflect the style of the characters contained in the font.

The typefaces file is a plain text file. Each line should begin with a
typeface number (typeface numbers 0 through 511 are valid as of PCL5; earlier
printers only recognize typefaces numbered 0 through 255).  The rest of the
line is the typeface name. Lines that begin with a semicolon are ignored. The
typeface numbers must be entered, one per line, in ascending order.

3.30. Sample File

This is a sample configuration file. This sample does not contain all of the
possible configuration variables because many require defaults that are
system-specific (graphics cards, program filenames, etc.) and many
repetitious lines have been deleted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device      = LPT1
FontDir     = .
FontExtn    = SFP
Replace     = No
Compress    = No
;
SfShow Sentence=The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.
;
SfShell CommandFile=SFSHELL.CMD
SfShell SwapFile=SFSHELL.\$\$\$
SfShell MsgFile=SFSHELL.MSG
SfShell ExecOutput=Window
;
SfShell FontListSize = 35
SfShell ActionListSize = 35
;
; The Pattern and Style lines are for SfFx
;
Pattern DarkSaw         = 255/127/62/28/8/128/193/227/247
Pattern LightSaw        = 128/65/34/20/8/0/0/0
Pattern NarrowBackslash = 136/68/34/17
Pattern TightSaw        = \$6B/\$DD/\$B6/\$6B/\$DD/\$B6
Pattern DecoSlash       = \$D2/\$69/\$B4/\$5A/\$2D/\$96/\$4B/\$A5
Pattern Cross           = \$11/\$BB/\$EE/\$BB
;
; Styles defined by HP:
;
; 0 = Upright
; 1 = Italic
; 2 = Oblique
;
Style Fill      =  5
Style Halftone  = 15
Style Hollow    =  3
Style Invert    = 14
Style Mirror    = 13
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.31. Command Files

The standalone utilities, whether they are run from the command line directly
or invoked automatically by SfShell, accept all of their input on the command
line. Since this imposes a severe limit on the amount of input that can be
provided, the utilities also accept input from a command file.

SfShell creates a command file automatically to communicate with the
standalone utilities and you can use them outside of SfShell, but
understanding what they are and how they work is not important to using
Sfware.  Feel free to skip this section.

The standalone utilities accept the name of the command file on the
/@:filename option.

If a command file is used, the utility will read commands from the file as if
they were typed as parameters. The format of the command file is simple: each
line should begin with an asterisk followed by the name of the utility
followed by a space. The rest of each line is interpreted exactly as if it
were typed on the command line.  Because each line identifies which utility
it is for, the same command file can be passed to several utilites. Each
utility will only use the lines that are intended for it.

For example, the command file below downloads several fonts:

      *sfload tr* /expand
      *sfload tr* /expand /landscape
      *sfload logo.sfp /expand

If this command file is saved as AUTOLOAD.CMD, I would tell SfLoad to execute
it by entering:

      SFLOAD /@:AUTOLOAD.CMD

In general, this ability is of little use beyond downloading fonts (every
morning, for example). However, the SfShell program makes extensive use of
this feature to pass parameters to child processes when it executes the
individual utilities to perform actions for the user.

4. Running SfWare

There are two ways to use the Sfware package. First, the SfShell program
provides an easy to use menu interface to all the utilities.  This is the
easiest way to become familiar with the Sfware utilities.  However, if you
have limited memory available, or if you want to run the Sfware utilities
automatically (from a batch file, for example) you can run each utility
separately. If you run the utilities individually, you must supply the
parameters as command line options. If you use Sfware from within the shell,
you will be prompted for each parameter.

The rest of this document assumes that you are using the shell.  If you do
not plan to use the shell, you should still skim this manual for a brief
overview of Sfware's features. The reference to the individual Sfware
utilities is in the files SFUTILSO.PCL and SFUTILSE.PCL.

To start the shell, go to (To ``go to'' the Sfware subdirectory, move to the
drive that contains Sfware and use the CHDIR command to make the Sfware
subdirectory the current directory (e.g. D:  ``Enter'' CHDIR \SF ``Enter''
).) the Sfware subdirectory (or the Sfware floppy) and enter:

      SFSHELL [[fontdir]] [[/MONO]] [[/NOEMS]]

When the shell is run, it will attempt to detect what kind of video adapter
you have and adjust itself accordingly. If you find that SfShell makes the
wrong decision, or you are using a computer with an LCD monitor and would
prefer a simple black-and-white display, use the /MONO switch. If you do not
want SfShell to use EMS memory for swapping, use the /NOEMS switch. The
/NOEMS switch forces SfShell to swap to disk. The optional parameter fontdir
selects what drive/directory and mask SfShell should use to scan for
softfonts. The default fontdir is set in the configuration file.

4.1. Up and running

When run, SfShell will display a brief startup message. The startup message
displays memory usage and indicates where various buffers are allocated.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D:\SF>sfshell
Ŀ
 SfShell vers 1.0:  Copyright (c) 1990-92 by Small Planet Software 

184kb of RAM, 2176kb of EMS, and 1052kb of disk space available.
Temporary files will be written to D:\TMP\
Font list allocated, 35 elements in EMS, 2144 kb remain.
Action list allocated, 35 elements in EMS, 2080 kb remain.
















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Figure 4.1.  Initialization message

Performance may suffer noticably if SfShell is forced to place one or more 
buffers on disk. It is probably better to make the buffers small enough to 
fit in main memory (or EMS, if it is available). Consult the configuration 
chapter for more information about buffers and memory usage.

After the startup message, SfShell will display its main title screen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------







Ŀ
 SFSHELL vers 1.0: Copyright (c) 1990-92 by Small Planet Software 
ٰ


ReadingDirectory...




* Please register this program *





19/20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 4.2.  Main title screen

The numbers at the bottom left of the title screen will change as SfShell 
reads the font directory. The first number is the number of fonts that 
SfShell has found so far, and the second is the number of files that match 
the fontdir mask.

4.2. Main menu

After reading the font directory, SfShell will display the main menu.  The 
main menu is the starting point for all further font actions.  If there are 
no softfonts in the font directory, SfShell will present the ``changing 
directories'' prompt discussed below. If the number of fonts in the directory 
exceeds the size of the font list buffer, SfShell will print a message 
indicating that the main-menu font-list is incomplete.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

Ŀ
  Typeface         Sty   Set  O  Bold  Height  Pitch    Filename     
ĳ
  Courier          Upri  10J  P  Med    9.9pt  12.0cpi  ar010aaa.esp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  L  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfl 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    9.9pt  n/a      cmr10.sfp    
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   10.0pt  n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   12.0pt  n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
                                                                            
į   for More ٰ

Enter=SelectFontF1=HelpF3=ExitF4=DirectoryF10=Process
168kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           Figure 4.3.  Main menu

The column headings across the top of the main menu describe the primary 
characteristics of each font.

 Heading    Font characteristic displayed
 ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------
 Typeface   HP typeface name of the font
 Fontname   The fontname in the softfont file
 Sty        Style of the font
 Set        Font symbol set
 O          Font Orientation, Portrait or Landscape
 Bold       Degree of ``boldness'' of the font
 Height     Font size in points
 Pitch      Font pitch (characters-per-inch) for fixed pitch fonts
 Filename   Name of the HP softfont file

SfShell attempts to display informative names for each characteristic.  
However, if the value of a characteristic falls outside the bounds expected 
by SfShell, the numerical value of the characteristic will be printed in 
square brackets.

Either the typeface or the fontname can be displayed in the first column.  
The ``Tab'' key alternates between them.

For proportionally spaced fonts, the pitch is listed as n/a because the font 
has no fixed pitch. For scalable fonts, the height is listed as n/a for the 
same reason. The great majority of actions that can be selected for softfonts 
apply to bitmapped (non-scalable) fonts only.  For example, SfShell cannot 
perform any special effects on scalable fonts.  SfShell can download scalable 
fonts and print font summaries of scalable fonts.

4.3. Selecting fonts

You can't see the highlight bar in the screen-capture images in this document 
but it is apparent when you are running the shell. The arrow keys allow you 
to select which font you want to work with. You can apply multiple actions to 
a single font.

4.4. Changing Directories

The initial font directory, fontdir, is either the default font directory 
specified in the configuration file or is selected with a command line option 
when running SfShell. You can change the current font directory by pressing 
``F4'' while the main menu is displayed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                SfShell vers 1.0








 Enter new softfont drive/directory Ŀ
                                                                 
 New softfont mask: D:\FONTS\*.*                                 
                                                                 
                F1=Help   Esc=Exit   Enter=Accept                
ٰ









168kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                   Figure 4.4.  Changing font directories

The directory that you select must contain at least one font file. If no 
fonts match the fontdir mask that you enter, you will be returned to the 
directory prompt.

4.5. Font actions (in brief)

After selecting a font with the highlight bar, press ``Enter'' (or ``Return'' 
, as appropriate). SfShell will respond by ``popping up'' the action menu.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0                   

ĿĿ
 Download  Effect  Compress  Rotate  Show  View  Info tch    Filename     
ĳ
  Courier          Upri  10J  P  Med    9.9pt  12.0cpi  ar010aaa.esp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  L  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfl 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    9.9pt  n/a      cmr10.sfp    
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   10.0pt  n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   12.0pt  n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
                                                                            
į   for More ٰ


158kb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Figure 4.5.  Action menu (overlaying the main menu screen)

The action menu has seven choices. These seven choices correspond to seven of 
the utility programs that come with Sfware(actually, the View and Info 
choices are builtin, but corresponding utilities are provided).  The action 
choices are described in detail in future chapters. You select an action by 
moving the highlight bar with the arrow keys and pressing ``Enter'' when the 
highlight bar is on the selection you wish to make. You can select more than 
one action per font.

4.6. Pulling the Trigger

After you have selected an action (as described above) for a softfont, 
pressing ``F10'' will cause SfShell to perform the action.  You can select 
more than one effect for more than one font before you press ``F10'' . If you 
do not press ``F10'' before you leave SfShell, no actions will be performed. 
Later chapters describe exactly what happens when press ``F10'' but you do 
not need to know how your actions are performed if you are always going to 
use the shell.

5. Downloading Fonts

Downloading fonts ``teaches'' the LaserJet printer how to print a particular 
font.  The actual downloading is performed by the SfLoad utility.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
DownloadĿct  Compress  Rotate  Show  View  Info tch    Filename     
Ĵĳ
 Image          Upri  10J  P  Med    9.9pt  12.0cpi  ar010aaa.esp 
  Expand         Upri   0Q  L  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfl 
  Compress       Upri   0U  P  Med    9.9pt  n/a      cmr10.sfp    
  Portrait       Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Landscape      Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
    Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   10.0pt  n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   12.0pt  n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
                                                                            
į   for More ٰ


164kb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Figure 5.1.  Download options

5.1. Options

As you can see, there are five additional options that can be selected for 
the download action. These options are described below. The option(s) that 
are selected are marked with a small square. The options that do not have a 
square are not selected. Use the ``Spacebar'' to toggle an option between 
selected and unselected.

Some combinations of options are not allowed (for example, you cannot select 
both Compress and Expand at the same time). When you select an option, other 
options that cannot be selected in combination with it will be unselected 
automatically.

5.1.1. Image

Downloading a softfont as an image has two advantages: first, it is the 
fastest method and second, it should work for softfont formats that the 
Sfware utilities are not otherwise equipped to handle. For example, if a new 
laserjet printer, the Series IV perhaps, is developed with a new kind of 
softfont, downloading will continue to work with that new printer as long as 
you select the image option. The image option is the default.

If the image option is so great, why would I use anything else?  Good 
question.  There are two possible reasons. First, softfonts, especially large 
softfonts, take up a lot of disk space. The LaserJet IIP, III, and IIIP 
printers all support softfont compression (which provides substantial disk 
space savings for large softfonts). However, the LaserJet Series II printer 
does not support compression. If you have a LaserJet Series II printer and 
you always use Sfware to download your softfonts, you can still take 
advantage of the substantial space savings of softfont compression:  compress 
all of your softfonts on disk and expand them when they are downloaded. You 
can't use the image option if you want to expand them when they are 
downloaded.

In a similar manner, softfonts can be rotated as they are downloaded if your 
laser printer does not support auto-rotation of fonts.

5.1.2. Expand

When the expand option is used, softfonts that are in PCL4 compressed format 
are expanded as they are being downloaded to the printer. This allows you to 
keep compressed softfonts on disk even if your printer does not support 
softfont compression.

5.1.3. Compress

When the compress option is used, softfonts are compressed using the PCL4 
compression format as they are being downloaded to the printer.  I can't 
think of a single good reason to use this option. It is provided only to 
satisfy the author's compulsive desire to provide the greatest possible 
flexibility.

5.1.4. Portrait

The Portrait option rotates the softfont to portrait orientation before 
downloading it.  This option has no effect if the font is already portrait.

5.1.5. Landscape

The Landscape option rotates the softfont to landscape orientation before 
downloading it. This option has no effect if the font is already landscape.

Note: downloading both orientations does not imply that you will be able to 
use both orientations on the same page. The LaserJet Series II printer, for 
example, cannot print both portrait and landscape fonts on the same page.

6. Special Effects

Because they are many and varied, each special effect is described in its own 
chapter (later in this document). All of the effects are produced by the SfFx 
program. The effects are available from the following menu (and the 
appropriate submenus from this menu):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Download  Effect  Compress  Rotate  Show  View  Info tch    Filename     
ĳ
  Courier   Bold        10J  P  Med    9.9pt  12.0cpi  ar010aaa.esp 
  Times Rom Fade/Mist   0Q  L  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfl 
  Times Rom Fill         0U  P  Med    9.9pt  n/a      cmr10.sfp    
  Times Rom Halftone     0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Rom Hollow       0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
  Times Rom Invert       0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Rom Mirror       0Q  P  Med   10.0pt  n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Rom Outline      0Q  P  Med   12.0pt  n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Rom Resize       0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Rom Reverse      0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Rom Shade        0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers   Shadow       0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers   Slant        0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers   Spacing     0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ Stripe     ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


168kb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Figure 6.1.  Effect options

Although you can select more than one effect for a given font, this does not 
apply the effects in sequence. In order to perform two effects in sequence, 
you must perform the first effect by selecting it and pressing ``F10'' , then 
perform the second effect on the font produced as output by the first effect.

In the following chapters, where each effect is discussed, there are no 
examples of the effects because it was necessary to limit the number of fonts 
used in this document. This reflects a limitation in some LaserJet printers 
that prohibits printing more than sixteen different fonts on a given page.

A second document called EXAMPLES.PCL is included in the Sfware distribution.  
This file contains examples of some of the effects that are possible.  The 
corresponding document EXAMPL16.PCL is provided for those printers that 
cannot print more than sixteen fonts per page.

Technically, every character within a softfont is defined within a rectangle.  
The rectangle is subdivided into squares like a sheet of graph paper.  Inside 
the rectangle, some of the squares are black and some are white. Because the 
squares are very small, the effect of printing them on a sheet of paper is 
that they form the lines and curves that make up each charcter. In the 
descriptions of effects that follow, it is sometimes necessary to describe 
the way that ``squares'' within the rectangle are manipulated. The region of 
the grid that defines the character (the black dots on the ``graph paper'') 
is referred to as either the black area or the foreground, and the other 
``squares'' are referred to as the white area or the background.

6.1. Ranges

Because the range option is available on almost every effect, it is described 
once here rather than repeating it for every effect.

The range option is available on all of the effects except proportional and 
fixed spacing. Specifying a range limits an effect to certain, specific 
characters. For example, you could limit the range of an effect to all of the 
uppercase letters.

Pressing ``F2'' on any of the special effect panels that support the range 
option will present a list like the following:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ  Select Range Start Ŀ                  ĳ
   ^@   sp    @    `                  Ŀ                r010aaa.esp 
   ^A    !    A    a                          rb1ctxc.sfl 
   ^B    "    B    b                            mr10.sfp    
   ^C    #    C    c                  ٰ            rb1ctxc.sfp 
   ^D    $    D    d                            rr0ousc.sfp 
   ^E    %    E    e                          rr0wusc.sfp 
   ^F    &    F    f                            rr14txc.sfp 
   ^G    '    G    g                            rr1ctxc.sfp 
   ^H    (    H    h                            rr1ktxc.sfp 
   ^I    )    I    i                            rr1kusc.sfp 
   ^J    *    J    j                          rr1kxxc.sfp 
   ^K    +    K    k                                    nb1ctxc.sfp 
   ^L    ,    L    l                                    nr0ousc.sfp 
   ^M    -    M    m                  t/Preview Pattern nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ ^N    .    N    n                  ĳ
    ^O    /    O    o                                                 
 More    (  0-255) į   for More ٰ


160kb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Figure 6.2.  The Range selection menu

Use the arrow keys (and ``PgUp'' and ``PgDn'' ) to move the highlight bar to 
the desired character then press ``Enter'' . The first time that you press 
``Enter'' , you will be selecting the first character of the range and the 
second time you will be selecting the last character of the range.

The range effect is limited to a specific, contiguous subset of the ASCII 
character set. That is, you can specify any single range but you cannot 
specify an ``exception range'' (e.g. do all the characters except the 
lowercase letters) or two or more discontiguous ranges (e.g.  do all the 
upper case letters and all the lower case letters).

6.2. Technically Speaking

Most fonts do not contain a real blank space character. The LaserJet printer 
moves over by the default HMI everytime it encounters a character that does 
not exist in the current font; most fonts rely on the fact that the default 
HMI is exactly one space wide. This can create an unpleasant, choppy 
appearance if a special effect (e.g.  halftoning) is applied that modifies 
the white background of each character.

In several places, SfShell inserts a physical space for you to circumvent 
this problem. There is no way to control this action from within SfShell, but 
if you run SfFx directly you can have complete control.

7. Compressing Fonts

Compression, available in the LaserJet IIP and subsequent printers, allows 
you to keep softfonts in a compressed format on disk. For fonts with large 
point sizes, this can achieve a very significant space savings.  The actual 
compression is performed by the SfCmpr utility.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Download  Effect CompressĿ  
Ĵĳ
  Courier          TRR14TXC.SFP is compressed.  It will be expanded.    p 
  Times Roman      Expanded file: D:\FONTS\TRR14TXC.SFP                 l 
  Times Roman       
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   10.0pt  n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   12.0pt  n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
                                                                            
į   for More ٰ


163kb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 7.1.  The Compress panel

The panel indicates the name of the current font and whether it will be 
compressed or expanded. You must enter the name of the font file which will 
be created to hold the new font. The default filename is the same as the 
original filename. In this case, the original file will be replaced by the 
compressed or expanded font.

8. Rotating Fonts

Softfonts come in two orientations: portrait and landscape. Newer LaserJet 
printers are capable of ``automagic'' internal font rotation but older 
LaserJets and some compatibles do not have this ability. Sfware provides the 
ability to convert from one orientation to the other. The actual rotation is 
performed by the SfRotate utility.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Download  Effect  Compress RotateĿ  
Ĵĳ
  Courier          Upri  1 TRR14TXC.SFP is a portrait font.           p 
  Times Roman      Upri    Landscape file: TRR14TXC.SFL               l 
  Times Roman      Upri     
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   10.0pt  n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   12.0pt  n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
                                                                            
į   for More ٰ


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Figure 8.1.  The Rotate Panel

The panel indicates the name of the current font and its orientation.  You 
must enter the name of the font file which will contain the rotated font.  
The default filename is the same as the original filename.  In this case, the 
original file will be replaced by the rotated font.

9. Showing Fonts

Showing a font creates a reference page that displays every character in the 
font. The reference page includes all of the font characteristics, the font 
selection sequence and a chart of all of the characters in the font.  This 
function is performed by the SfShow utility.

9.0.1. What's to Show?

Every softfont can contain up to 256 different characters numbered from 0 to 
255. Most fonts don't define all 256 different characters. The character 
chart is a grid that has ``spaces'' for each of the possible characters.  If 
there are some character positions in the font that are not used, the spaces 
for those characters will be blank in the chart.

For small fonts, the character chart is a 16x16 grid on a single page.  If 
the font is larger than about 36pt (or has some very tall or very wide 
characters), the characters may be too large to fit into the spaces in a 
16x16 grid. In this case, multiple reference pages may be printed for the 
font. When multiple reference pages are required, SfShell attempts to use the 
minimum number of pages.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Download  Effect  Compress  Rotate ShowĿfo tch    Filename     
Ĵĳ
  Courier          Upri  10J  P  Image       12.0cpi  ar010aaa.esp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  L   Expand      n/a      trb1ctxc.sfl 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P   Compress    n/a      cmr10.sfp    
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P   Portrait    n/a      trb1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P   Landscape   n/a      trr0ousc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P   No grid     n/a      trr0wusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P   No refset   n/a      trr14txc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P ٳ n/a      trr1ctxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1ktxc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0U  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kusc.sfp 
  Times Roman      Upri   0Q  P  Med   14.0pt  n/a      trr1kxxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0Q  P  Bold  12.0pt  n/a      unb1ctxc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    6.0pt  n/a      unr0ousc.sfp 
  Univers          Upri   0U  P  Med    8.0pt  n/a      unr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
                                                                            
į   for More ٰ


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          Figure 9.1.  Show options

9.1. Options

As you can see, there are five additional options that can be selected for 
the download action. These options are described below. The option(s) that 
are selected are marked with a small square. The options that do not have a 
square are not selected. Use the ``Spacebar'' to toggle an option between 
selected and unselected.

Some combinations of options are not allowed (for example, you cannot select 
both Compress and Expand at the same time). When you select an option, other 
options that cannot be selected in combination with it will be unselected 
automatically.

9.1.1. Downloading Options

In order to create a reference page, SfShow must first download the softfont.  
The following options control how each font is downloaded--they have 
precisely the same meaning as the SfLoad options with the same names: Image, 
Compress, Expand, Portrait, and Landscape.

9.1.2. No grid

The No grid option supresses grid lines on the reference page.

9.1.3. No Refset

For decorative or special purpose fonts, it may be helpful to have an 
additional reference character printed (in plain ASCII) next to each symbol 
in the chart. If reference marks are used, the reference character for each 
position in the font will be printed in the upper right hand corner of each 
cell on the grid. The No Refset option turns off the reference characters for 
this font.

You must specify the reference set in the configuration file.

9.2. Technically Speaking

When multiple reference pages are required, SfShell attempts to use the 
minimum number of pages, however, there are a few ``hidden'' constraints on 
how it selects the first character for each page. In particular, it will not 
skip characters on any single page (i.e. if the font defines ABCEFG but not 
D, SfShell will not print ABCEFG on a reference page without an intervening 
blank space where the D would be if it was defined. It wouldn't be difficult 
to provide this option but it would make numbering the grid much more 
difficult.

The reference numbers (printed around the chart) can be printed in 
hexadecimal, decimal or octal or they can be turned off. The numbers option 
(discussed in the configuration chapter) is provided to control this feature.  
At present, this option cannot be changed from within SfShell.

10. Viewing Fonts

Viewing a font is the on-line equivalent of printing a reference page.  
Viewing displays every character in the font on a grid similar to the printed 
output created by showing a font. It can also display a sentence in the font. 
A graphics adapter is required to view fonts.  The following adapters are 
supported at this time: CGA, MCGA, VGA, EGA, EGA (Mono), PC3270, IBM 8514, 
AT&T, and Hercules.

Selecting view switches to graphics mode and displays something like the 
following:

      [NOTE: Graphics screens are not included in this unformated file]
                       Figure 10.1.  The view display

10.1. Running View

The keys described below allow you to change the range of characters 
displayed, the quality of the display, and the format of the display.

10.1.1. ``Esc''

You can leave at any time by pressing ``Esc'' .

10.1.2. ``PgUp'' / ``PgDn''

Pressing ``PgDn'' moves the range of characters displayed forward by one 
``screenfull.'' If ASCII 255 is currently in the display, pressing ``PgDn'' 
has no effect. Pressing ``PgUp'' moves the range of characters displayed 
backward by one screenfull. If ASCII 0 is currently in the display, pressing 
``PgUp'' has no effect.

10.1.3. ``Alt'' + ``A''

If you are displaying the font in a graphics mode that has the same number of 
pixels-per-inch both horizontally and vertically across the display, the 
``Alt'' + ``A'' key combination is not available.

If the number of pixels-per-inch horizontally and vertically is not the same, 
(i.e.the display has a non-square aspect ratio) it is impossible to display 
the characters without some distortion because the softfont is defined with 
the same number of pixels-per-inch both horizontally and vertically.

There are two kinds of distortion: stretch-distortion and ``reduced 
resolution'' distortion.  If every pixel of each character is displayed, the 
letters will be stretch-distorted by the fact that the pixels are ``closer 
together'' on the screen in one direction than the other.  Alternatively, 
some rows or columns of pixels can be removed to avoid stretch distortion; 
characters drawn this way suffer from distortion because they are printed at 
a reduced resolution.

The ``Alt'' + ``A'' key-combination alternates between these two types of 
distortion.

10.1.4. ``Alt'' + ``S''

Sometimes it is more useful to look at a font in the context of a sentence 
than it is to look at each individual character. This allows you to see how 
the characters interact with each other on the ``printed page.''  The ``Alt'' 
+ ``S'' key-combination alternates between the grid display and the sentence 
display. The sentence display looks like this:

      [NOTE: Graphics screens are not included in this unformated file]
                   Figure 10.2.  The view sentence display

10.1.5. ``Other''

Pressing any other key changes the range of characters displayed to begin 
with the key you pressed.

11. Softfont Information

If you have difficulty printing a particular font, SfInfo can help pinpoint 
the source of the problem. SfInfo displays the contents of the softfont 
header and the header of each character in the font. In addition, SfInfo 
examines the font looking for possible printer incompatibilities.  New 
printers have a much more relaxed opinion about what constitutes a valid 
font. A font that works on a LaserJet III may not work on a Series II; SfInfo 
will be able to tell you why.

11.1. Running Info

Selecting Info displays a panel something like the following:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                SfShell vers 1.0
Į Softfont Information Ŀ
                                                                              
 Font name: CG Times              Font filename: D:\FONTS\TRR14TXC.SFP        
                                                                              
 Orientation  : Portrait        [  0]        All distances are in PCL dots    
 Symbol Set   :  0Q, Name unknown            Ŀ                        
 Spacing      : Proportional    [  1]                Baseline=30          
 Pitch        :  25.00cpi       [ 48,  0]            _                    
 Height       :  10.00pt        [166,171]      x      Xheight=19.00      
 Style        : Upright         [  0]        Ĵ                      
 Stroke weight: Medium          [  0]        -----       Uline=8          
 Typeface     : Times Roman     [  5]          Cell height=40         
 PCL5 Typeface: Times Roman     [4101]       Ĵ                          
                                                 Cell width=43               
                                                                              
 Font selection : <ESC>(0Q<ESC>(s1p25h1v0s0b5T                                
 PCL5 selection : <ESC>(0Q<ESC>(s1p25h1v0s0b4101T                             
                                                                              
                                                                              
                                                                              
       F1=Help  F4=Char Info  F5=Addnl Desc  F6=Warnings  Esc=Exit            


163kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Figure 11.1.  Info Main Panel

11.1.1. ``F1''

Pressing ``F1'' provides context-sensitive help for the Info panels.

11.1.2. ``Esc''

You can leave at any time by pressing ``Esc'' .

11.1.3. ``F4''

Pressing ``F4'' displays character information for the font. The dimensions 
of the largest character in the font are summarized and a scrolling list of 
the characters in the font is displayed.

The additional info panel looks like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0
Į Character Information Ŀ
                                                                              
  Widest bounding box on any character:   39 ("W")                            
 Tallest bounding box on any character:   38 ("j")                            
     Tallest ascender on any character:   30 (Ctrl-D)                         
    Deepest descender on any character:   10 ("<")                            
                 Largest combined cell: 39x40 (max width X max height)        
                                                                              
     Ŀ       
      Character  Cl  Or  Left  Top   Wd    Ht    dX    Data         
     ĳ       
      Ctrl-@      2   P     2    28    21    29   100     40        
      Ctrl-A      1   P     1    28    26    29   112    116        
      Ctrl-B      1   P     2    29    26    31   120    124        
      Ctrl-C      1   P     0    28    27    29   112    116        
      Ctrl-D      2   P     1    30    25    34   112    124        
      Ctrl-E      2   P     1    28    28    29   120     26        
     ĳ       
     į   for More        
                                                                              
                     F1=Help  Arrows=Move  Esc=Exit                           


163kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Figure 11.2.  Additional Character Information Panel

The scrolling list of characters displays the class, orientation, leftoffset, 
top-offset, width, height, delta-X, and data sizes of every character in the 
font. These are technical measurements in the softfont and can be ignored by 
most users.

The left-offset, top-offset, width, and height fields are PCL coordinate 
system dots.  The delta-X field is in 1/4 dot units. The data size is in 
bytes.  For compressed fonts (class 2 characters), this is the data size of 
the compressed character, not the expanded character.

11.1.4. ``F5''

Pressing ``F5'' displays any additional information present in the font 
header. The most common use of this area is font copyright information.  The 
special effects program in Sfware uses this area to describe what effects 
have been performed on the font.

Not all fonts have additional information in the header.

11.1.5. ``F6''

When the font is scanned, it is frequently possible to recognize that it is 
not ``valid'' for some printers. The LaserJet III printer (and, presumably, 
printers that follow it) have a very relaxed set of guidelines as to what 
constitutes a valid font. Older printers, the LaserJet Series II in 
particular, have very stringent requirements. Info recognizes these 
incompatabilities and will display a warning message for each problem that it 
finds. If the problem can easily be corrected, the appropriate action is 
described.

12. The Bold Effect

Emboldening a font makes it appear darker on the page. Adding a large amount 
of boldness to a font will cause it to blur and become difficult to read. In 
professional typography, the characters in a bold version of a font have 
different shapes and proportions. This is beyond the ability of Sfware. A 
normal font made bolder with Sfware will not look the same (and probably will 
not look as good) as a real bold version of the original font.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Amount of boldness: 0                         r010aaa.esp 
                                              rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The Bold effect emboldens each                  mr10.sfp    
  character by adding dots to the                     rb1ctxc.sfp 
  perimeter.  The amount specified                  rr0ousc.sfp 
  above is the number of dots that                 rr0wusc.sfp 
  will be added.                                   rr14txc.sfp 
                                                     rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                     rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                 rr1kusc.sfp 
                                             rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                 nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Figure 12.1.  The Bold panel

12.1. Options

12.1.1. Amount of boldness

The amount of boldness controls how much darker the characters are made to 
appear. The larger the number, the darker the characters will be.  For best 
results, the amount of boldness should be small with respect to the size of 
the font. It's difficult to define ``small'' in this context; one-tenth of 
the point size of the font (or less) is probably a good estimate.  Experiment 
and see what looks most pleasing to the eye.

12.2. Technically Speaking

The bold effect locates ``edge'' pixels (that is, pixels that are on a border 
of the character) by scanning horizontally across each row of pixels. Every 
time a pixel position is found that is currently off and adjacent to, but not 
surrounded by, pixels that are on, the pixel is turned on. This has the 
effect of adding pixels to the border of the character.  The appropriate font 
and character parameters are updated so that the original character shape 
(now surrounded by a border) prints in the same position as the original. In 
other words, the left offset is incremented by one, the baseline is 
incremented by one, and the character bounding box is expanded. If an amount 
of boldness greater than one is specified, the above algorithm is iterated to 
produce the correct amount of boldness.

13. The Fixed Spacing Effect

Fixed spacing uses the same width for each character in the font.  This is 
the opposite of proportional spacing in which each character is given a width 
appropriate to its appearance. In a fixed spaced font, all characters have 
the same width. The fixed spacing effect creates a fixed spaced font from a 
proportionally spaced font. This can be useful if you need to line up columns 
of characters, for example, although it's generally better to use a font 
specifically designed for fixed spacing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  The Fix effect creates a fixed                  r010aaa.esp 
  spaced font from a proportionally                   rb1ctxc.sfl 
  spaced font.  Each character will                     mr10.sfp    
  be centered in a character box                      rb1ctxc.sfp 
  as wide as the widest character in                rr0ousc.sfp 
  the font.                                           rr0wusc.sfp 
                                                      rr14txc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                      Enter=Done  F1=Help                     nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D    Proportional                                     
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Figure 13.1.  The Fixed Spacing panel

13.1. Options

There are no options for this effect.

13.2. Technically Speaking

In the fixed spaced version of the font, all characters have the maximum cell 
width. Bitmaps that are narrower than the maximum cell width are adjusted to 
print as if they were centered in a box as wide as the maximum cell width.

14. The Fill Effect

Filling a font creates outlined characters filled with a user-specified 
pattern.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Pattern:                      Ŀ Ŀ      r010aaa.esp 
                                         Ŀ    rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The Fill effect is essentially         ĿĿĿ    mr10.sfp    
  the combination of two effects.       Ŵ  İ    rb1ctxc.sfp 
  Filled characters are hollowed            ٰٰ    rr0ousc.sfp 
  characters with their centers             Ĵ    rr0wusc.sfp 
  shaded with the specified pattern.        ĿĿ  rr14txc.sfp 
                                              Ŀ  rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                              ٰ  rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                          ٰٰ  rr1kusc.sfp 
                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range  F4/F5=Select/Preview Pattern nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Figure 14.1.  The Fill panel

14.1. Options

14.1.1. Pattern

Patterns can be specified directly or by using names defined in the 
configuration file.  The Patterns chapter describes how to create patterns; 
the Configuration chapter describes how to save and name patterns.

14.2. Technically Speaking

Patterns are described in more technical detail in the Patterns chapter.

15. The Halftone Effect

Halftoning a font can produce a wide variety of results. It is one of the 
most general effects in SfFx's repertoire. In brief, it allows you to specify 
the fill patterns for both the foreground and the background of two different 
regions of each character. This can create, for example, half-inverted 
characters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Black top    :                      İ      r010aaa.esp 
  White top    :                      Ŀ            rb1ctxc.sfl 
                                         *           mr10.sfp    
  Invert start :   0.00 (% from top)                  rb1ctxc.sfp 
  Invert stop  :   0.00 (% from top)       ۰ rr0ousc.sfp 
                                           ۰۰ rr0wusc.sfp 
  Black bottom :                      İ۰ rr14txc.sfp 
  White bottom :                      ۰۰ rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                           ۰۰ rr1ktxc.sfp 
  The Halftone effect allows you to create ۰ rr1kusc.sfp 
  partially Inverted characters.            rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range  F4/F5=Select/Preview Pattern nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      Figure 15.1.  The Halftone panel

15.1. Options

Every character is divided into two areas, a selected area and a non-selected 
area.  These areas are referred to as as the ``top'' area and the ``bottom'' 
area because that is the way they are drawn in the reference panel. Within 
each area, two shading patterns are applied-- one to the currently black 
portion of the character cell (the character itself) and one to the white 
portion of the character cell (everything else).  The reference panel 
displays a font that is being halftoned with the following parameters: the 
black top is using a pattern of 170;85, the white top is using a pattern of 
0, the invert start is 50%, the invert stop is 100%, the black bottom is 
using a pattern of 0, and the white bottom is using a pattern of 170;85.

Please refer to the Patterns chapter elsewhere in this manual for more 
information about patterns.

15.1.1. Black top

The black top pattern replaces the black areas of the non-selected region.

15.1.2. White top

The white top pattern replaces the white area (everything in the cell that 
isn't black) of the non-selected region.


15.1.3. Invert start

The invert start specifies where the selected area begins. This value should 
be expressed as a percentage from the top of the tallest character in the 
font. For example, specifing 25 begins the selected area 1/4 of the way down 
from the top of the character, similarly, 50 selects a position halfway down 
the character and 67 selects a position 67% of the way down from the top of 
the character.

The panel refers to these areas as ``top'' and ``bottom;'' however, there is 
no reason why you cannot specify a selected region that forms a band across 
the middle of the character (e.g. from 33% to 66%).

15.1.4. Invert stop

By analogy with invert start, this option specifies where the select region 
ends.  The invert stop value should be larger than the starting value.  The 
area between the start position and the stop position is the ``selected 
region'' of the character.

15.1.5. Black bottom

The black bottom pattern replaces the foreground (black) area of the selected 
region.

15.1.6. White bottom

The white bottom pattern replaces the background (white) area of the selected 
region.

15.2. Technically Speaking

This effect forms the heart of several effects in SfFx. For example, the 
``shade'' effect is nothing more than the halftone effect applied to a 
selected region from 0% to 100% of the character! If you understand the 
concept of a pattern (discussed in the Patterns chapter), it shouldn't be too 
difficult to understand the halftone effect.

Note:in any effect that changes the background pattern, it may be necessary 
to turn off ``kerning'' within the word processor or other program that you 
use to print the font. Normally, causing two characters to overlap by a small 
amount (for example a capital ``T'' followed by a lowercase ``o'') is not 
noticable because they only overlap in the ``white'' background. However, 
after you have changed the background to a pattern other than plain white, 
the effect of overlapping two characters by even a small amount may be 
undesirable.

16. The Horizontal Fade/Mist Effect

Fading a font with this effect ``smudges'' out the leading or trailing edge 
of each character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Fade percent :   0.00                           r010aaa.esp 
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfl 
  Fade backward: N                                      mr10.sfp    
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The fade effect fades a character from            rr0ousc.sfp 
  left to right or (if backward is Y) from            rr0wusc.sfp 
  right to left.  The fade percent determines         rr14txc.sfp 
  where the fade reaches 100% black.  If              rr1ctxc.sfp 
  it is greater than 100%, the fade will              rr1ktxc.sfp 
  reach 100% before the right edge of the         rr1kusc.sfp 
  character.  If it is less, the fade will                    rr1kxxc.sfp 
  never reach 100%.                                           nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                 nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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                   Figure 16.1.  The Horizontal Fade panel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

16.1. Options

16.1.1. Fade Percent

The fade percent determines what percentage of the character is faded out.A 
fade factor of 100% applies the fade all the way across each character so 
that a 100% black saturation is achieved in the last column of pixels. Fade 
factors below 100% apply the fade more rapidly so that a 100% black 
saturation is achieved before the edge of the character.  Conversly, fade 
factors above 100% draw the fade out so that it never reaches saturation.

16.1.2. Fade Backward

By default, a horizontal fade begins with 0% black on the left edge of the 
character and proceeds towards 100% on the right edge (at a rate determined 
by ``fade percent.'' See above). If backwards fading is selected, the fade 
proceeds from right to left instead of left to right.

16.2. Technically Speaking

The fade effect examines each pixel in the bitmap and decides randomly if the 
pixel should be turned off. In any given column, 
100*ColumnNumber*(FadePercent/100)/CharacterWidth percent of the pixels are 
turned off.

17. The Hollow Effect

Hollowing a font produces an unfilled outline of each character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  The Hollow effect removes all interior    Ŀ       r010aaa.esp 
  'black' space from each character.           Ŀ Ŀ     rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The result is similar to outlining.                    mr10.sfp    
  However, hollowed characters are exactly           rb1ctxc.sfp 
  the same size as the originals, whereas      Ŀ Ŀ     rr0ousc.sfp 
  outlined characters are one row of              Ŀ Ŀ   rr0wusc.sfp 
  dots larger in each direction.  In                  rr14txc.sfp 
  short, outlining traces around each                rr1ctxc.sfp 
  character and hollowing carves out               rr1ktxc.sfp 
  the middle out of each character.                           rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range               nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 17.1.  The Hollow panel

17.1. Options

The hollow effect has no options.

17.2. Technically Speaking

The hollow effect and the outline effect are very closely related. The only 
difference is the placement of the outline. In the hollow effect, the 
existing perimeter of each character is left in place and the interior is 
``scooped out''. For the outline effect, the entire character is erased and a 
new perimeter is added just around the character.  In effect, an outlined 
character is a hollowed bold character (see the technically speaking section 
of the bold effect for more details).

It should also be noted that the hollow and fill effects are closely related.  
A hollowed character is a filled character with a pattern of 0.

18. The Invert Effect

Inverting a character creates a ``reverse video'' effect. However, the choice 
of patterns in this effect can dramatically change the result.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Black pattern:                      Ŀ    r010aaa.esp 
                                                       rb1ctxc.sfl 
  White pattern:                                 mr10.sfp    
                                                  rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The Invert effect replaces the                    rr0ousc.sfp 
  `black' and `white' regions of                      rr0wusc.sfp 
  each character with the specified                 rr14txc.sfp 
  patterns.                                         rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                    rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                    rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                       rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                            nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range  F4/F5=Select/Preview Pattern nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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                       Figure 18.1.  The Invert panel

18.1. Options

Both of the options for this effect are patterns. See the Patterns chapter 
elsewhere in this manual for more information.

18.1.1. Black pattern

This pattern replaces all of the black areas of the character.

18.1.2. White pattern

This pattern replaces all of the white areas of the character.

18.2. Technically Speaking

See the technically speaking section of the halftone effect for more 
information.

19. The Mirror Effect

Mirroring a font creates characters that are upside down.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Mirror baseline adjustment: 0                   r010aaa.esp 
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The Mirror effect turns each character              mr10.sfp    
  upside down.  The Mirror baseline                   rb1ctxc.sfp 
  adjustment changes the placement of                 rr0ousc.sfp 
  the 'mirror.'  Positive values move               rr0wusc.sfp 
  it above the baseline, negative values              rr14txc.sfp 
  below.                                                rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


160kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 19.1.  The Mirror panel

19.1. Options

19.1.1. Mirror baseline adjustment

The mirror baseline adjustment changes the relative position of the (virtual) 
mirror across which each character is rotated. A value of zero specifies that 
the mirror is on the baseline, values larger than zero move the mirror above 
the baseline, smaller values move it below.

19.2. Technically Speaking

If you plan to use a font and its mirror to create a special display effect 
(by placing one above the other), you may find that the descenders on the 
original font overlap the ``descenders'' (now ascenders!)on the mirrored 
font. This is where it is helpful to change the mirror baseline adjustment.  
By making the adjustment roughly equal to the number of pixels in the 
descenders of the original font, you can move the mirrored font ``down'' a 
little so that the mirrored descenders don't overlap the descenders on the 
original font.

20. The Mist Effect

Misting a font ``smudges'' each character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Mist percent :   0.00                           r010aaa.esp 
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The mist effect is very much like the                 mr10.sfp    
  shade effect.  However, there is no                 rb1ctxc.sfp 
  pattern; instead, each character is               rr0ousc.sfp 
  uniformly faded by the specified percent.           rr0wusc.sfp 
  The fade is randomly distributed over the           rr14txc.sfp 
  character which produces a random, misty            rr1ctxc.sfp 
  appearance.                                         rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                 nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


160kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Figure 20.1.  The Mist panel

20.1. Options

20.1.1. Mist Percent

The mist percent determines what percentage of the character is misted 
(faded) out.  Larger mist percentages remove more pixels than smaller ones.  
A 100% (or larger) mist percent removes all trace of the character.

20.2. Technically Speaking

This effect is identical to the horizontal and vertical fade effects with the 
exception that the fade percentage is calculated once and does not vary for 
each row or column in the bitmap.

21. The Outline Effect

Outlining a font produces an unfilled outline of each character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  The Outline effect creates              Ŀ      r010aaa.esp 
  characters that are outlined.                       Ŀ    rb1ctxc.sfl 
  Each character is replaced by a         Ŀ    Ŀ        mr10.sfp    
  tracing of its perimeter.                              rb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                        rr0ousc.sfp 
  Outlining is similar to hollowing.                   Ĵ    rr0wusc.sfp 
  For a more complete discussion of             Ŀ    Ŀ  rr14txc.sfp 
  the differences, please read the                Ŀ      rr1ctxc.sfp 
  description of the Hollow effect.                     rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                    rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                          rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


159kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 21.1.  The Outline panel

21.1. Options

The outline effect has no options.

21.2. Technically Speaking

See the technical discussion of the hollow effect for more information.

22. The Proportional Spacing Effect

Proportional spacing is the opposite of fixed spacing. In a proportionally 
spaced font, each character is only as wide as its printed image, plus a 
small border. The proportional spacing effect creates a proportionally spaced 
version of a fixed spaced font.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  The Prop effect creates a                                   r010aaa.esp 
  proportionally spaced font from                 rb1ctxc.sfl 
  a fixed spaced font.  Each character                mr10.sfp    
  will be as wide as its image with                     rb1ctxc.sfp 
  two additional columns of dots on                   rr0ousc.sfp 
  each side for padding.  The default               rr0wusc.sfp 
  HMI for the font will be the width                  rr14txc.sfp 
  of the lowercase letter 'i'.                        rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                      Enter=Done  F1=Help                     nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D    Proportional                                     
į   for More ٰ


160kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                Figure 22.1.  The Proportional Spacing panel

22.1. Options

There are no options for this effect.

22.2. Technically Speaking

In the proportionally spaced version of the font, all characters are four 
dots wider than the natural width of the bitmaps required to print each 
character (two dots on each side). Note: in many fonts, conversion from 
proportional spacing to fixed and back to proportional will yield a 
proportionally spaced font that is not as attractive as the original font 
since conversion to fixed spacing effectively destroys any special spacing 
information. For example, in many fonts the tail of a lower case letters like 
``j'' and ``g'' are allowed to ``hang back'' below the character that 
precedes them. When a font is converted from fixed spacing to proportional 
spacing, there is no way to insert this kind of aesthetic hint automatically.

23. The Resize Effect

Resizing a font creates characters that are larger or smaller than the same 
characters in the original font. The characters can be scaled uniformly 
(creating more or less accurate renditions of the original characters with 
the same proportions) or non-uniformly (creating elongated or widened 
characters).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  New width :   0.00  (% of orig. width)                      r010aaa.esp 
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfl 
  New height:   0.00  (% of orig. height)                 mr10.sfp    
                                                       rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The Resize effect allows you to change                  rr0ousc.sfp 
  the height and width of the characters              rr0wusc.sfp 
  in the font.                                                rr14txc.sfp 
                                                              rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 23.1.  The Resize panel

23.1. Options

23.1.1. New Width

The new width specifies the width of each resized character as a percentage 
of its original size. Values less than 100 make the characters narrower, 
while values larger than 100 make them wider.

23.1.2. New Height

Like the width, the new height specifies the height of each resized character 
as a percentage of its original height.

23.2. Technically Speaking

In practice, this effect has few uses. Unlike more modern font scaling 
technology (which relies on mathematical descriptions of each character) SfFx 
has only the bitmap description of each character to work with.  As a result, 
gross changes in the size of a character create ``jagged'' edges and very 
poor quality letters. Making fonts larger generally works better than making 
them smaller. As a rule of thumb, you probably won't like the results if you 
try to resize a font by more than a factor of two. If you hold one dimension 
constant (100%), it may be possible to stretch or compress the other 
dimension by a larger factor without significant loss of detail.

24. The Reverse Effect

Reversing a font creates backwards characters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  The Reverse effect makes each                               r010aaa.esp 
  character in the font backwards.                rb1ctxc.sfl 
                                                      mr10.sfp    
                                                        rb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr0ousc.sfp 
                                                    rr0wusc.sfp 
                                                      rr14txc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 24.1.  The Reverse panel

24.1. Options

There are no options for the reverse effect.

24.2. Technically Speaking

The reverse effect simply rotates each bitmap through its center. The left 
offset and delta-x values of each character are adjusted to keep the correct 
amount of space ``in front of'' and ``behind'' each character.

25. The Shadow Effect

Shadowing attempts to produce the effect that you would get if all you could 
see on the page were the shadows from an embossed image of the original 
character. It's a bit difficult to describe, but it is one of my favorite 
effects.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Shadow width : 0    dots Ŀ                  r010aaa.esp 
                                          Ŀ            rb1ctxc.sfl 
  Shadow height: 0    dots Ŀ              mr10.sfp    
                                                       rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The Shadow effect removes each                     rr0ousc.sfp 
  character and leaves behind only                       rr0wusc.sfp 
  the shadow that might be present                   rr14txc.sfp 
  if they were embossed letters                      rr1ctxc.sfp 
  illuminated obliquely.                             rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                    rr1kusc.sfp 
                                       Ĵ         rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                             nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                 nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Figure 25.1.  The Shadow panel

25.1. Options

25.1.1. Shadow Width

The shadow width controls the width (in dots) of the shadow to the right or 
left of the original character. Positive values create a shadow on the right 
hand side of the character, while negative values create a shadow on the 
left. This value should be small relative to the total width of the 
character.

25.1.2. Shadow Height

By analogy with the shadow width, the shadow height controls the height of 
the shadow above or below the character. Positive values create shadows below 
the character, negative values above. This value should be small relative to 
the total height of the character.

25.2. Technically Speaking

The effect is produced by moving a copy of the character over and down by the 
specified amounts and then removing all dots that fall within the original 
character (including all of the original character).  For small widths, this 
works fine; however when the widths become larger than the widths of the 
strokes that make up the chacter, the effect falls apart.

26. The Shade Effect

Shading a font replaces all off the ``black'' areas of a font with the 
specified shading pattern. This effect changes dramatically depending on the 
pattern that you select.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Pattern:                      Ŀ                r010aaa.esp 
                                                  rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The shade effect replaces all of                    mr10.sfp    
  the 'black' areas of each character       ٰ            rb1ctxc.sfp 
  in the font with the specified                      rr0ousc.sfp 
  pattern.                                          rr0wusc.sfp 
                                                      rr14txc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range  F4/F5=Select/Preview Pattern nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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                        Figure 26.1.  The Shade panel

26.1. Options

26.1.1. Pattern

All of the black areas of each character are replaced by the specified 
pattern.  Please refer to the chapter on patterns elsewhere in this manual 
for more information about patterns.

26.2. Technically Speaking

Patterns are described in more technical detail in the pattern chapter.

27. The Slant Effect

Slanting is a poor-man's version of italics. In practice, italic fonts are 
not just slanted versions of the upright characters. But slanting will 
suffice in a pinch and it does allow you to produce oblique characters 
(slanted backwards), which are occasionally useful.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Slant:   0.00                                  r010aaa.esp 
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfl 
  The Slant effect creates italic-                      mr10.sfp    
  like characters.  Each character                    rb1ctxc.sfp 
  can be slanted forward or obliquely               rr0ousc.sfp 
  by as much as 60.                                  rr0wusc.sfp 
                                                      rr14txc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                              rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 F1=Help  Enter=Done  F3=Exit                 nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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                        Figure 27.1.  The Slant panel

27.1. Options

27.1.1. Slant

The slant specifies the amount of slant in degrees. A positive value causes 
the characters to slant toward the right. A negative value causes the 
characters to slant toward the left.

27.2. Technically Speaking

This effect is produced by calculating how far over each row of pixels must 
be moved in order to produce a slant of the requested angle.  Using a little 
bit of trigonometry, it is easy to calculate how far over the top row must be 
moved. Each row below the top must be moved over some fraction of the total 
height of the character.  Rows below the baseline must be moved in the 
opposite direction.

Considering that this algorithm does nothing more than slide rows of dots 
back and forth, it should be easy to see that large slant values may produce 
jagged, non-contiguous characters.

28. The Stripe Effect

Striping places alternating white and black horizontal lines across each 
character in the font.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Black stripe width: 0    dots                               r010aaa.esp 
                                                  rb1ctxc.sfl 
  White stripe width: 0    dots                       mr10.sfp    
                                                        rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The Stripe effect creates letters                   rr0ousc.sfp 
  formed from alternating black and                 rr0wusc.sfp 
  white stripes.  The stripes in                      rr14txc.sfp 
  different characters of the same                    rr1ctxc.sfp 
  font will line up.                                  rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                                      rr1kusc.sfp 
                                                  rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


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                       Figure 28.1.  The Stripe panel

28.1. Options

28.1.1. Black stripe width

Selects the width (in dots) of the black stripes.

28.1.2. White stripe width

Selects the width (in dots) of the white stripes.

28.2. Technically Speaking

In each character, the stripes are adjusted so that a black stripe begins at 
the baseline. This assures that the stripes will line up when characters are 
placed next to each other. Note: a similar effect with vertical stripes can 
be created with the shade effect using an appropriate pattern.

29. The Three-D Drop Shadow Effect

Three-D drop shadows create a patterned shadow-image of each character that 
appears to be below the original. It is possible to change the apparent 
``distance'' of the shadow by changing the offsets used to create it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  X-Offset: 0    dots Ŀ     r010aaa.esp 
                                         ڰ        rb1ctxc.sfl 
  Y-Offset: 0    dots       mr10.sfp    
                                            Ŀ      rb1ctxc.sfp 
  Pattern :                      Ĵ     rr0ousc.sfp 
                                            ۰    rr0wusc.sfp 
  Three-D characters are created with a          rr14txc.sfp 
  patterned shadow beneath them.  The             rr1ctxc.sfp 
  shadow is created down/right X/Y-Offset       rr1ktxc.sfp 
  dots using the pattern specified.            rr1kusc.sfp 
                                          ۰    rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                  nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range  F4/F5=Select/Preview Pattern nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D   Ŀ                                     
ĳ Drop shadow į   for More ٰ
 Hollow/Drop 
 Filled/Drop 
158kbٰ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Figure 29.1.  The Three-D Drop Shadow panel

29.1. Options

29.1.1. X-Offset

The x-offset controls the distance (in dots) of the shadow to the right or 
left of the original character. Positive values create a shadow on the right 
hand side of the character, negative values create a shadow on the left.

29.1.2. Y-Offset

By analogy with the x-offset, the y-offset controls the distance of the 
shadow above or below the character. Positive values create shadows below the 
character, negative values above.

29.1.3. Pattern

The pattern specified is applied to the areas used in the shadow.

29.2. Technically Speaking

The original character is moved left or right and up or down by the distances 
specified. If necessary the character cell is enlarged to accommodate the new 
character. The character is then shaded with the specified pattern and the 
original character is painted back into the character cell at its original 
position.

30. The Hollow Three-D Drop Shadow Effect

Hollow Three-D drop shadows are simply a combination of the three-d drop 
shadow effect and the hollow effect. It is a limitation of the algorithms 
used to create the three-d drop shadow effect that it is not possible to 
hollow a three-d character. This effect is provided to circumvent that 
limitation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  X-Offset: 0    dots Ŀ     r010aaa.esp 
                                                 rb1ctxc.sfl 
  Y-Offset: 0    dots  Ŀ   mr10.sfp    
                                            ۳  Ŀ    rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The Hollow-3D effect combines the         ۳   ۳    rr0ousc.sfp 
  hollow and three-d effects.  A            ۳      rr0wusc.sfp 
  `hollow'ed character is given a           ۳      rr14txc.sfp 
  solid `three-d' shadow.                   ۳     Ŀ  rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                            ۳     ۳   rr1ktxc.sfp 
                                            ۳     rr1kusc.sfp 
                                          ۳      rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                               nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                 Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D   Ŀ                                     
ĳ Drop shadow į   for More ٰ
 Hollow/Drop 
 Filled/Drop 
160kbٰ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Figure 30.1.  The Hollow Three-D Drop Shadow panel

30.1. Options

30.1.1. X-Offset

The x-offset controls the distance (in dots) of the shadow to the right or 
left of the original character. Positive values create a shadow on the right 
hand side of the character, negative values create a shadow on the left.

30.1.2. Y-Offset

By analogy with the x-offset, the y-offset controls the distance of the 
shadow above or below the character. Positive values create shadows below the 
character, negative values above.

30.2. Technically Speaking

This option is exactly the same as the three-d drop shadow effect except that 
the shadow is always solid black and instead of painting the original 
character back into the cell, a hollowed version of the original character is 
painted back in.

31. The Filled Three-D Drop Shadow Effect

Filled Three-D drop shadows are simply a combination of the three-d drop 
shadow effect and the fill effect. It is a limitation of the algorithms used 
to create the three-d drop shadow effect that it is not possible to create a 
filled three-d character. This effect is provided to circumvent that 
limitation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
                                                              ilename     
ĳ X-Offset: 0    dots Ŀ    ĳ
                                                 r010aaa.esp 
  Y-Offset: 0    dots  ۰     rb1ctxc.sfl 
                                            Ŀ   ۰   mr10.sfp    
  Pattern :                      Ĵ     rb1ctxc.sfp 
                                            ٰ    rr0ousc.sfp 
  The Fill-3D effect combines the fill      ۰      rr0wusc.sfp 
  and three-d effects.  A 'fill'ed letter   ۰   ۰   rr14txc.sfp 
  is given a solid 'three-d' shadow.        ۰   ۰ rr1ctxc.sfp 
                                            ۰   rr1ktxc.sfp 
  Note: the fill outline isn't shown      ۰    rr1kusc.sfp 
  in this representation.                         rr1kxxc.sfp 
                                                              nb1ctxc.sfp 
  Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range  F4/F5=Select/Preview pattern nr0ousc.sfp 
 nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ Stripe     ĳ
            Three-D   Ŀ                                     
ĳ Drop shadow į   for More ٰ
 Hollow/Drop 
 Filled/Drop 
159kbٰ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Figure 31.1.  The Filled Three-D Drop Shadow panel

31.1. Options

31.1.1. X-Offset

The x-offset controls the distance (in dots) of the shadow to the right or 
left of the original character. Positive values create a shadow on the right 
hand side of the character, negative values create a shadow on the left.

31.1.2. Y-Offset

By analogy with the x-offset, the y-offset controls the distance of the 
shadow above or below the character. Positive values create shadows below the 
character, negative values above.

31.1.3. Pattern

The pattern specified is applied to the original character.

31.2. Technically Speaking

This option is exactly the same as the three-d drop shadow effect except that 
the shadow is always solid black and instead of painting the original 
character back into the cell, a pattern-filled version of the original 
character is painted back in.

32. The Vertical Fade/Mist Effect

Fading a font with this effect ``smudges'' out the top or bottom edge of each 
character.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               SfShell vers 1.0

ĿĿ
 Ŀilename     
ĳ                                                             ĳ
  Fade percent :   0.00                           r010aaa.esp 
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfl 
  Fade backward: N                                      mr10.sfp    
                                                      rb1ctxc.sfp 
  The fade effect fades a character from            rr0ousc.sfp 
  top to bottom or (if backward is Y) from            rr0wusc.sfp 
  bottom to top.  The fade percent determines         rr14txc.sfp 
  where the fade reaches 100% black.  If              rr1ctxc.sfp 
  it is greater than 100%, the fade will              rr1ktxc.sfp 
  reach 100% before the bottom of the             rr1kusc.sfp 
  character.  If it is less, the fade will                    rr1kxxc.sfp 
  never reach 100%.                                           nb1ctxc.sfp 
                                                              nr0ousc.sfp 
                Enter=Done  F1=Help  F2=Range                 nr0wusc.sfp 
ĳ
            Three-D                                                      
į   for More ٰ


160kb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Figure 32.1.  The Vertical Fade panel

32.1. Options

32.1.1. Fade Percent

The fade percent determines what percentage of the character is faded out.A 
fade factor of 100% applies the fade all the way down each character so that 
100% black saturation is achieved in the last row of pixels.  Fade factors 
below 100% apply the fade more rapidly so that a 100% black saturation is 
achieved before the bottom of the character.  Conversely, fade factors above 
100% draw the fade out so that it never reaches saturation.

32.1.2. Fade Backward

By default, a vertical fade begins with 0% black on the top row of the 
character and proceeds towards 100% on the bottom row (at a rate determined 
by ``fade percent.'' See above). If backwards fading is selected, the fade 
begins with 0% black on the bottom row of the character and proceeds towards 
100% on the top row.

32.2. Technically Speaking

See the technically speaking section for the Horizontal Fade/Mist effect.  
The vertical fade algorithm is a natural analog of the horizontal fade 
algorithm.

33. Patterns

33.1. What are patterns?

Patterns change the appearance of many effects. A pattern is a rectangular 
region of on-and-off dots that is repeated across and down to cover the 
region being filled. The pattern is specified as a series of numbers 
separated by commas and semicolons. The binary representation of the numbers 
separated by commas indicates the dots that are on and off in each row and 
semicolons separate rows.

33.2. How do I create one?

Creating a new pattern is not difficult. The best way to begin is with a 
piece of graph paper and a pencil. Experiment until you have something that 
you like and then follow the directions below.

For example, suppose that you wish to create a zig-zag pattern. Here is one 
possibility:

      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

33.2.1. Isolate a ``generating region''

Isolate the smallest region that can be used to generate the pattern.  This 
region, when repeated to the right and down, should create the entire 
pattern.  In this case, the smallest acceptable region is this:


      +---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+
      |   |   | * |   |
      +---+---+---+---+
      |   | * |   | * |
      +---+---+---+---+
      | * |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+

Note: there is frequently more than one smallest region that will produce the 
pattern. I have intentionally chosen this region because it is not the 
upper-left hand corner. Usually the upper-left hand corner contains a 
generating region, but not always.

33.2.2. Round to 8-dots

The region used to generate the pattern must be an even multiple of eight 
dots wide. Repeat the smallest region to the right until it is a multiple of 
eight dots wide. You must repeat the entire pattern (for example, if the 
region is 6 dots wide, you will have to repeat it until it is 24 dots wide). 
In this case the smallest region a multiple of eight dots wide is this:


      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   |
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

33.2.3. Use zeros and ones

Redraw the pattern using zeros for ``off'' dots and ones for ``on'' dots.  If 
the pattern is more than eight dots wide, write the zeros and ones of each 
row in groups of eight as you copy the pattern.  In our example, the result 
is this:

      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | = 00000000
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 
      |   |   | * |   |   |   | * |   | = 00100010
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   | * |   | * |   | * |   | * | = 01010101
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      | * |   |   |   | * |   |   |   | = 10001000
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

33.2.4. Convert to number

Treat each group of eight digits in each row like a binary number.  Using a 
calculator or a conversion chart (there is a conversion chart in the online 
help facility for SfShell), change each eight digit binary number into a 
decimal number. If the rows have more than one group of eight digits, 
separate the resulting decimal numbers with commas.  Our example becomes:

      00000000 = 0
      00100010 = 34 
      01010101 = 85 
      10001000 = 136

33.2.5. Rewrite

Use the decimal numbers to create the pattern command. Optionally, you may 
wish to add the pattern to the configuration file (as described below).  The 
decimal numbers for each row are separated by commas and the rows are 
separated by semicolons. The pattern we set out to create can be specified as 
follows:

      0;34;85;136

Remember that you can use preview to look at the pattern before creating a 
font with it. This is a good way to check that you did the conversion 
correctly.

33.3. Saving the pattern

Alternatively, the patterns may be saved in the configuration file and 
selected by name. Read the Configuration chapter for more information.

33.4. Previewing Patterns

It is possible to preview any pattern by pressing ``F5'' when you are on a 
pattern field or when the list of patterns is displayed.  The list of 
patterns will be displayed if you press ``F4'' when you are on a pattern 
field.

33.5. Technically Speaking

The fact that patterns are used for so many effects makes it apparent that 
Sfware really needs a pattern editor and a better mechanism for storing 
patterns. These are planned additions but Sfware is already beginning to 
suffer from ``creeping featurism'' (in the author's opinion, at least) and it 
has been decided that these changes will just have to wait until the next 
release.

However, in view of the fact that creating patterns by the above method is 
very tedious, a simple program (PATTERN.EXE) has been added to Sfware that 
eliminates most of the ``hard parts.'' Please consult the file PATTERN.DOC 
for more information.

34. Softfont Directory Listings

The softfont directory program, SfDir, is not integrated into SfShell.  This 
chapter describes the standalone SfDir program. The SfShell main menu 
contains most of the features of the standalone program.

The SfDir program provides a useful alternative to the standard DOS DIR 
command for softfonts. SfDir prints the font characteristics of each softfont 
that matches the fontmask.

34.1. Example

      Directory of D:\FONTS\*.*

      AR010AAA ESP  Port 10J Fix 12.00cpi  9.96pt Up Medium  Courier
      TRB1CTXC SFL  Land  0Q Pro          12.00pt Up Bold    TmsRmn
      CMR10    SFP  Port  0U Pro           9.96pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRB1CTXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          12.00pt Up Bold    TmsRmn
      TRR0OUSC SFP  Port  0U Pro           6.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRR0WUSC SFP  Port  0U Pro           8.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRR14TXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          10.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRR1CTXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          12.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRR1KTXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          14.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRR1KUSC SFP  Port  0U Pro          14.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      TRR1KXXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          14.00pt Up Medium  TmsRmn
      UNB1CTXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          12.00pt Up Bold    Univers
      UNR0OUSC SFP  Port  0U Pro           6.00pt Up Medium  Univers
      UNR0WUSC SFP  Port  0U Pro           8.00pt Up Medium  Univers
      UNR14USC SFP  Port  0U Pro          10.00pt Up Medium  Univers
      UNR1CTXC SFP  Port  0Q Pro          12.00pt Up Medium  Univers
      UNR1KUSC SFP  Port  0U Pro          14.00pt Up Medium  Univers
      NB010AAA USP  Port  0U Pro           9.96pt Up Medium  Typeface# 210
      VGA20    SFP  Port 10U Fix 20.00cpi  1.68pt Up Medium  Courier
      VGA20SH  SFP  Port 10U Fix 20.00cpi  1.68pt 14 Medium  Courier
            20 Font(s)     268420 bytes

34.2. Usage

SFDIR fontmask [options]

34.3. Options

34.3.1. /esc

If SfDir is run with the /esc option, it prints the LaserJet escape sequence 
required to select each font instead of a textual description of the font 
characteristics. In the escape sequence, a raised dot is used to represent 
the ESC character (ASCII 27d).

34.3.2. /noesc

With the /noesc option, SfDir prints a textual description of the font 
characteristics for each font that matches the fontmask. This is generally 
the default.

34.3.3. /verbose

All of the Sfware utilities print regular progress messages. The /verbose 
option causes many utilities to print more detailed progress messages.

34.3.4. /quiet

The /quiet option suppresses some informative messages. For example, the 
/quiet option will suppress the %-complete messages in SfLoad.

34.3.5. /$

The /$ option displays registration information for the Sfware utilities.  If 
you are using an unregistered program, this information will be displayed 
automatically.  Please register your shareware!


35. Sfware Registration

The software registration program, SPS-Reg, is not integrated into SfShell.  
This chapter describes the standalone SPS-Reg program. Registering shareware 
is an investment. Your registration will provide the support and 
encouragement required to continue the development of Sfware. The Sfware 
utilities represent an investment of more than two years of my time and 
effort.  You get the results of this toil for a fraction of what a commercial 
package would cost. Plus, you get the benefits of a trybefore-you-buy license 
agreement. If you continue to use the Sfware utilities, you are required to 
register them.

Return the enclosed order form with your check or money order today!

35.1. Usage

The SPS-Reg registration program requires key information that will be mailed 
to you when you register the Sfware utilities. You cannot make any use of the 
program until you mail in your registration.

36. Contacting the Author

36.1. By Mail

You can reach the author by mail at the following address:

      Norman Walsh 
      #42I Southwood Apts 
      Brittany Manor Dr 
      Amherst, MA 01002

36.2. Electronically

If you have access to electronic mail, the fastest way to reach the author is 
to send electronic mail to walsh@cs.umass.edu. In this case, electronic mail 
implies access to Internet domains (through BITNET or UUCP, for example). 
This is possible from CompuServe and from several of the large national BBS's 
as well.

37. Glossary

ASCII

ASCII stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange.  
Text files are usually referred to as being ``plain ASCII'' if they contain 
no additional formatting information. The CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files 
on your boot disk are examples of a plain ASCII files. The spreadsheets, 
database files, or word processing documents produced by large application 
programs are generally not plain ASCII.

baseline

The baseline is an imaginary line upon which each character rests.  
Characters that appear next to each other are (usually) lined up so that 
their baselines are on the same level. Some characters extend below the 
baseline (``g'' and ``j'', for example) but most rest on it.

bitmap

A bitmap is an array of dots. If you imagine a sheet of graph paper with some 
squares colored in, a bitmap is a compact way of representing to the computer 
which squares are colored and which are still white.

In the context of softfonts, the dots are always black and white.  In a 
bitmapped softfont, every character is represented as a pattern of dots in a 
bitmap. The dots are so small (300 dots-per-inch usually) that they are 
indistinguishable on the printed page.

bounding box

Every character in a bitmapped softfont is represented as a pattern of dots 
in a rectangular grid. The bounding box is an imaginary box just large enough 
to hold the character. The box is as wide as the widest row of dots and as 
tall as the tallest column of dots.

character

A character is an individual symbol in a font. The letter ``A'' is a 
character.  So is a period. All of the printed symbols that can appear in a 
font are characters.

decimal

Decimal refers to the number base composed of ten symbols (0-9).  Normal, 
ordinary math is performed in decimal (which can also be referred to as base 
10).

device

A device is a special piece of hardware that exists (either physically or 
logically) and can be communicated with. Your printer is a device.  So is 
your modem. Your computer also includes several logical devices (for example, 
the NULL device which is an infinite sink and a null source--that means you 
can always write to it (it never fills up) and you can never read from it).

download

Downloading is the process of transferring information from one device to 
another.  This transferral is called downloading when the transfer flows from 
a device of (relatively) more power to one of (relatively) less power.  
Sending new fonts to your printer so that it ``learns'' how to print 
characters in that font is called downloading.

EMS

EMS memory (also called LIM EMS) is expanded memory in your computer.  EMS 
exists outside of normal DOS main memory. You must have a device driver to 
provide support for EMS. Sfware uses EMS memory to store font and action 
lists as well as for swapping when SfShell runs the other utilities.

file

A file is a collection of information stored on your disk. All the data that 
you ever save to disk is saved in a file. You can write to files and read 
from files.

filemask

A filemask is a DOS filename which may include the ``wildcard'' characters * 
and ?. The wildcard characters in a filemask allow you to select a group of 
files. Please consult your DOS reference for more information about wildcard 
characters.

font

A font is a collection of symbols that have similar characteristics.  The 
symbols in a font have a fixed typeface, size, weight, style and symbol set. 
For example, upright, bold Times Roman at 10pt is a font.  Contrast with 
typeface.

fontdir

In the context of this manual, a fontdir is the filemask ( optionally 
including a path) that identifies LaserJet softfont files. For example, if 
you keel all of your softfonts in the directory d:\fonts then d:\fonts\A*.SFP 
is one example of a valid fontdir. The canonical font directory would be 
d:\fonts\*.*.

hexadecimal

Hexadecimal refers to the number base composed of sixteen symbols ( 09,A-F). 
Hexadecimal is frequently used in computing because 256 different values can 
be represented in only two digits. Hexadecimal is sometimes called base 16.

kerning

Kerning refers to slight changes in the spacing between characters. Some 
letter combinations (``AV'' and ``To'', for example) appear farther apart 
than others because of the shapes of the individual letters. Many 
sophisticated word processors move these letter combinations closer together 
automatically (compare ``AV'' with ``AV'', for example).

laserjet

Laserjet is a trademarked name for laser printers used by Hewlett Packard.  
In this document, it simply means an HP LaserJet printer or a compatible 
laser printer from some other manufacturer.

mask

See filemask.

memory, expanded

See EMS.

memory, extended

Extended memory is memory above the 1 megabyte boundry in your computer.  
Sfware cannot directly use extended memory. Many programs exist which map 
extended memory as expanded memory. For more information about expanded 
memory, see EMS.

memory, main

Main memory is the DOS memory below 640K in your computer. This is the area 
where normal DOS programs run. The DOS chkdsk program, for example, reports 
the amount of main memory that is free.

octal

Octal refers to the number base composed of eight symbols (0-7). Octal is 
sometimes called base 8.

pathname

A pathname is a filename (please consult your DOS reference for more 
information about what constitutes a valid DOS filename) with its associated 
drive and path. For example, if tr100.sfp is the name of a file in the 
directory \fonts on drive d:, then d:\fonts\tr100.sfp is the pathname of 
tr100.sfp.

scalable font

A scalable font, unlike a bitmapped font, is defined mathematically and can 
be rendered at any requested size (within reason). Sfware can download and 
show scalable fonts but other manipulations (including on-screen previewing) 
are not possible.

selection sequence

Your laser printer can print in many different fonts. Some of the fonts are 
built in, some may come from a cartridge and many can be downloaded.  In 
order to tell the laser printer which font you want text to be printed in, 
you must send it a selection sequence. The selection sequence describes, in a 
well defined, precise manner, the typeface, symbol set, height, width, style, 
and degree of boldness of font that you want.

softfont

A softfont is a bitmapped or scalable description of a typeface or font.  
They can be downloaded to your printer and used just like any other printer 
font.

symbol set

The symbol set of a font describes the relative positions of individual 
characters within the font. Since there can only be 256 characters in any 
font, and there are well over 256 different characters used in professional 
document preparation, there needs to be some way to map characters into 
positions within the font. The symbol set serves this purpose.  It identifies 
the ``map'' used to position characters within the font.

typeface

A typeface is generic term for a collection of symbols with a similar style.  
Times Roman and Helvetica are typefaces. Contrast with font.


                               SfWare Order Form


Name: ______________________________________    Phone: (____) ____-___________

Company: ___________________________________

Mailing Address: _____________________________________________________________

                 _____________________________________________________________

                 City: ____________________________ State: ____ Zip: _________


Please pay by check or money order, do not send cash through the mail.  Make
all checks payable to Norman Walsh.


  Individual utilities:                             Quantity   Price  Total
                                                               Each

  _____ SfFx (softfont special effects)              _____  @  $25    _____

  _____ SfCmpr (softfont compression)                _____  @  $10    _____

  _____ SfLoad (download softfonts)                  _____  @  $10    _____

  _____ SfRotate (landscape/portrait conversion)     _____  @  $10    _____

  _____ SfShow (print summary page)                  _____  @  $10    _____

  _____ SfView (preview font on screen)              _____  @  $10    _____

  _____ SfDir (directory replacement for fonts)      _____  @  $ 5    _____

  _____ SfInfo (complete font information)           _____  @  $ 5    _____

  Software bundles:

  _____ SfShell (menu interface shell) and           _____  @  $60    _____
        ALL utilities

  _____ All of the utilities (excluding SfShell)     _____  @  $40    _____

  _____ Any three utilities (excluding SfFx)         _____  @  $20    _____
        Please select individual utilities above.


                                                          Subtotal:   _____

         Massachusetts residents, please add appropriate sales tax:   _____

                                                             Total:   _____


            Complete this form and return it with your payment to:

                                 Norman Walsh
                              #42I Southwood Apts
                               Amherst, MA 01002
