 Fontographer 3.5.2 ReadMe           Dec 28, 1993 

Welcome to Altsys premiere Windows Product, Fontographer 3.5.2! We have
assembled a few notes which will help you learn more about the software.
Please read this document before calling Customer Support for assistance.

Here are some things you need to know about Fontographer 3.5.2

1. We can now open the following fonts correctly: SYMBOL.TTF, which ships with Windows
 3.1; LINEDRAW.TTF, which is the new Word for Windows line draw font available on
 Compuserve, and UCLUCIDA.TTF (be prepared for a long wait opening this one), which 
 comes with Windows NT.

2. We can now generate wide character TrueType fonts. TrueType fonts consisting of
 characters that were two and three times the size of the em square caused inaccurate 
 spacing in the font. Open your Fontographer database, and generate TrueType fonts with 
 characters up to 8 times the em square.

3. We have updated the fsType to the new standard for embedding in TrueType: 0, 2, 4,
 and 8. See Help panel for fsType under TrueType Parameters in the More Font
 Attributes dialog for more info.

4. We have corrected some problems with our .FON output. Use this release if you intend
 to create .fon files for Modular Windows.

5. We now encode your Symbol character set fonts with Symbol Unicodes instead of ANSI
 Unicodes. A warning dialog will alert you when you switch from ANSI to Symbol encoding
 vectors.

6. You can now convert Symbol encoded Type 1 fonts to TrueType and have them work
 correctly. After opening the Type 1 font, go to Font Attributes from the Edit pull down 
 menu, change your character set from ANSI to Symbol, press Yes to the Unicode message, 
 save as a Fontographer database, and generate TrueType.

7. We have now corrected or have information on how to correct printing problems with
 the HP LaserJet 4.

A. Our Symbol encoded TrueType fonts now work on the HP LaserJet 4. In your old version
 of Fontographer, open your Fontographer database and change your character set from 
 Symbol to ANSI (unless already set to ANSI) and save as a Fontographer database. Open 
 your newly saved Fontographer database in 3.5.2, go to Font Attributes from the Edit 
 pull down menu, change your character set from ANSI to Symbol, press Yes to the Unicode 
 message, save as a Fontographer database, generate TrueType, install, and use.

B. Keymaps print correctly on HP LaserJet series printers.  The page break and font 
 label change that use to happen is now fixed when printing to any of the HP LaserJet 
 series printers, including the HP LaserJet 4.

C. Keymap characters print correctly when printed on HP LaserJet 4. The choppy
 characters when printing Keymaps are due to the fact that Fontographer does not 
 support the default graphics mode, HP-GL/2, of the HP LaserJet 4 driver. To correct 
 this problem you need to set your graphics mode to Raster in the HP LaserJet 4 driver.
 Follow the steps after part D for setting your graphics mode to Raster.
 
D. Error 21 when printing Sample Text. The Error 21 when printing Sample Text is due to
 the fact that Fontographer does not support the default graphics mode, HP-GL/2, of the
 HP LaserJet 4 driver. To correct this problem you need to set your graphics mode to
 Raster. Follow the steps below for setting your graphics mode to Raster.

 Setting your graphics mode to Raster in the HP LaserJet 4 driver.
  If you want to do this for your entire system, double-click on the Control Panel icon, 
  double-click on the printers icon, select the HP LaserJet 4 printer driver, press the 
  Setup button, press the Options button, change the Graphics Mode from HP-GL/2 to 
  Raster in the Graphics section, press OK, press OK again, press the Close button, and
  close the Control Panel. If you want to do this for your Fontographer session, choose
  Printer Setup from the File pull down menu, press the Options button, change the
  Graphics Mode from HP-GL/2 to Raster in the Graphics section, press OK, and press OK
  again. It will only be set to Raster for Fontographer (not your other applications)
  and you will have to reset it each time you start Fontographer if you plan on printing
  Keymaps or Sample Text.

8. Fontographer databases can go up to decimal 4096 now. Because of the emergence of
 Unicode fonts, we have had to adapt Fontographers databases to handle more than 1024
 characters. As usual, if you want to make a font that contains characters past decimal 
 255, open the edit window of decimal 255, and issue the keystroke Ctrl+2 for however 
 many characters you need up to 4096 characters. Be advised that the US version of 
 Windows 3.1 does not allow access to characters above decimal 255. The new Fontographer
 database cannot be opened in prior versions of Fontographer for Windows. You can still
 open your old Fontographer for Windows databases in this new version.

9. We have fixed our moving guidelines. We successfully made a 50 X 50 guideline grid
 without any of the lines moving.

10. We now read in all the character names in a Type 1 font that exist beyond decimal
 255.

11. Dont forget about our new FONTOG35.INI. To access it, backup your old .INI or erase
 it, run Fontographer 3.5.2, and then exit Fontographer. This will build the new .INI
 file.

12. If you have either the Diamond Speedstar 24X (crash), Diamond Stealth (blurry
 bitmaps in font window), or Orchid Fahrenheit Card (blurry bitmaps in font window),
 exit out of Fontographer 3.5.2 and edit your new FONTOG35.INI file (see # 11) using 
 Notepad. The last line in the GeneralPrefs section is ProblematicDriver. Change the 0
 to 1, save the FONTOG35.INI, and restart Fontographer 3.5.2. Be sure to have
 Fontographer 3.5.2 turned off when you edit or the change will not take effect.

13. We now can open the PostScript Type 1 Unix format. However, the font must have the
 .NXT extension. So if you have already installed the font on a Unix system and want to 
 open it in Fontographer 3.5.2, you have to put the .NXT extension back on it.

14. We now output char 127 (DEL) with TrueType fonts.

15. Support for the Calcomp line of tablets (Drawing Board, Drawing Slate, etc.) has 
 been renewed to work with their latest software.

User Guide Errata

Bitmaps

Some changes were made to Fontographers use of bitmaps after our users
guide went to press. As the Font window image is no longer related to the bitmap
sizes which are generated in the "Generate Fonts" dialog, Fontographer will no
longer automatically generate a 24-point bitmap. You can select any bitmap
sizes you prefer up to the maximum of 255 points. Be forewarned, sizes above
100 may not generate completely. In order to be DOS-friendly we must limit our
data structure to 64k. Fonts consisting of hundreds of characters will likely reach
that 64k limit on sizes above 96 points. In such cases, you will get an error
message stating that an error occurred while generating fonts. Now you know
why!

The very first time bitmaps are generated for a font, you need only enter the
sizes and all the characters will have fonts generated in those sizes. On
subsequent generations, you will need to select the characters you want
regenerated before generating fonts and then select the "Selected characters"
radio button in addition to checking "Regenerate bitmaps." If you select all the
characters in the font, Fontographer will regenerate bitmaps for all the
characters in the font and all the sizes, including your hand edited bitmaps. To
leave your hand edited bitmaps alone, select the "Changed characters" radio
button.

Read Only Check Box

The Read Only check box which can be seen on the Open, Import, and Save As
dialogs in the user guide is not in the program. It is just a screen shot error.

More about the "More" Button in Font Attributes

WARNING:  You now have absolute control over your fonts, and you really dont
have much of a safety net. If you incorrectly edit some fields which you dont
completely understand, the font may become unusable. We have confidence
that the data we set are according to the spec, but we have no way of bullet-
proofing all the possible combinations of changes. In fact, there are a fair
number of fields that we dont really know the purpose of, but since they exist in
the written spec, we gave you access to them. To be safe, save your font before
entering this territory and be prepared to experiment and spend a lot of time
reading hard to get specs.

Some of the fields in "TrueType extra" are generic; they will affect both Adobe
Type 1 PostScript and TrueType fonts. Some are even unique to PostScript,
such as "PCL style", which is written only to the .INF file.

In general, these fields are for advanced experts. If you dont understand them,
dont change them, and Fontographer will select reasonable default values.


Tips & Techniques

Printing to PostScript Printers

"PreferPSPrinting" is a preference in the Fontog35.ini file that is on by default.
When this preference is on, Fontographer will enable higher quality output when
printing to PostScript printers. You should keep this preference on most of the
time. If you dont use PostScript printers then you can ignore this preference.

When using PostScript printers there may be rare times when you will wish to
turn off PreferPSPrinting. When it is on you wont be able to print characters
whose numbers are higher than 255, and you wont be able to print multiple
copies of keymaps. In either of these cases you may wish to turn
PreferPSPrinting off. To do so, exit Fontographer, open fontog35.ini (in your
Windows directory) in "NotePad", change the 1 to a 0, and restart Fontographer.
Once again, this preference only effects PostScript printers.

Printing samples to non-PostScript printers sometimes causes the Windows
Print Manager to create some fairly large temporary files (sometimes larger than
1 megabyte). If by chance your disk runs out of space while these temporary
files are being created, printing speed will be drastically reduced. If
Fontographers printing dialog stops showing progress for more than 30 seconds
or so it is probably because you are low on disk space. You can either cancel
printing and free up some disk space, or wait patiently while the Print Manager
prints a few pages and deletes its temporary files. This problem can also occur
with PostScript printers, however, it is less likely because the temporary files
created for PostScript printing are much smaller.

Full Title

Fontographer defaults to showing just the full font name in the font window. If
you have a high resolution display, you may also wish to display the filename.
Open the fontog35.ini file (in your Windows directory) in "NotePad", locate the
line which reads "FullTitle=0", change the 0 to a 1, and run Fontographer. When
you open a font or select a new font, the full font name will appear in the font
window label, followed by the path and filename. This will avoid any confusion
as to where your font is saved.

ScaleToScreenResolution

Fontographer will scale the size of the font window letter boxes, the tool icons,
and the metrics window characters if the screens horizontal resolution is greater
than 800 pixels. This is done to make the characters easier to see. If you prefer
smaller letter boxes, you may disable this scaling by editing the fontog35.ini file
(located in your Windows directory). Locate the line which reads "ScaleTo
ScreenResolution=1" and change the 1 to a 0. If you have a monitor with a
resolution of 1024 x 768, for example, this change enables the font and metrics
window to display more characters in the same amount of space.

Generating EPS

If you look at the "Generate Fonts" dialog, you will notice the second option from
the top reads "Encapsulated PostScript". This option will generate an Adobe
Illustrator 1.1 format file which can be opened and fully edited in many drawing
programs, including Aldus FreeHand and CorelDRAW!. If you want just
certain characters generated, select the characters in the font window.

Help Menu

If you need a little help in finding the right tool or command while working in
Fontographer, look under the "Help" menu. It works as other Windows
application help files work, with one new wrinkle: Topic search. This is a context
sensitive help which, once selected, will create a question mark cursor. Press
the question mark cursor on any menu item and the help card for that item will
appear.

Magnify Tricks

Fontographer sports a magnify tool in the tool pallette. Select it and click in the
area you would like magnified. If you would like to zoom back out, hold down the
shift key and click the magnify tool on the spot in the window you would like to
have centered.
You can also access the magnify tool by holding down the space bar and
Control key at the same time. For the de-magnify tool, add the shift key to the
combination.

Escape key

Most long operations display a progress box with a "Cancel" button. For these,
and other shorter operations, you can cancel the operation by pressing the
Escape key on your keyboard.


We hope you enjoy using Fontographer. If you need further assistance, our
customer support lines are available Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to
5:00 PM Central time. Our support phone number is (214) 680-2085 and
the fax number is (214) 680-0537.
