DEGAS-to-GEM Font Converter Version 1.1 By Tom Hudson This program will convert the special DEGAS font files into a format which the GDOS program can use. Background. The original DEGAS program used a built-in function which allowed the user to size a font to one of six sizes. This was necessary because at the time DEGAS was written, there was no way to load GEM font files into the ST. As the Atari GDOS became available, we decided to utilize the GDOS font-loading ability. Because there is a large number of DEGAS fonts available and GDOS will not load them as-is, this converter program was written so that the DEGAS fonts could be used in all new GDOS applications. Using a special set of scaling routines, the original DEGAS could take one font file and display it in six sizes, the combinations of single/double width and half/single/double height. The normal size of the font was 8 pixels wide and 16 pixels high, and with the various scaling options, DEGAS could produce fonts that were 8X8, 8X16, 8X32, 16X8, 16X16 and 16X32 pixels in width & height. The GEM GDOS font structure is substantially different from that used by DEGAS. Instead of deriving all text sizes from one font file, GDOS must have a font file for each size desired. In order to get all six DEGAS font sizes, therefore, it is necessary to build six font files for GDOS. But a problem arises here: Two of the font files have a height of 8 pixels (also known as "points"), two have heights of 16 pixels, and two have heights of 32 pixels. GDOS will get confused, because when it's told to select a character height of 8 pixels, 16 pixels or 32 pixels, it won't know which one to use! This is where the concept of a font "family" comes into play. Each font family is made up of several different font files, each one of which has a different height. The characters in each font file that makes up a family look alike, but are simply different sizes. In addition, each font family must contain a unique identification number, ranging from 1 to 32767, so that GDOS knows which font files are a part of which family. The font families are also assigned a name up to 32 characters long so that you can choose the font from a menu. The converter. The FONTCONV program is designed to take a single DEGAS-format font file and create up to six GEM-format font files for use with DEGAS Elite or other programs that use the GDOS utility. Each font is turned into two font families, one of which is 8 pixels wide, the other of which is 16 pixels wide. The 8-pixel family is termed single-width, and the 16-pixel wide family is termed double-width. These font families MUST contain a unique font identifier number, otherwise GDOS will become confused. When run, a file selector dialog appears. Select a DEGAS-format font file that you want to convert. After the font file is read into memory, another dialog appears. This one lets you select the sizes you want to use and assign names and font IDs to the fonts you create. The program creates default values initially, but you can modify them as desired. The font NAME is a 32-character string which will appear in the DEGAS Elite font selection dialog -- be sure the names assigned to the single-width font and the double-width font are different, so you know which you are selecting. The "EXTENDED" suffix is recommended for the double-width font. The face ID number is a number that you enter to differentiate the font from all others. This number MUST BE UNIQUE to this font! I recommend that you keep a small notebook which holds the font numbers you have used. The importance of unique font identifier numbers cannot be stressed too much, because if you try to use two font families with the same identifier number, one of the fonts will not be available or will be intermixed with the other. If you aren't sure of which ID number to use, enter a large value (you can go up to 32767) to avoid accidental duplication. DON'T use ID values below 50, because some existing GEM fonts may use those numbers. Both the single- and double-width fonts allow you to select the various heights that will be used in creating the GEM font files. Click on the HALF, SINGLE and DOUBLE buttons to select or deselect that height. Turning all the buttons off for a font width prevents that font family from being created. If the original DEGAS font file had the half-height option disabled, you will not be able to create the half-height version of the font. After setting the two font family settings to the appropriate values, you can set the four-character filename prefix for the GEM fonts. The program automatically sets this, but you can change it as needed. For a font called COMPUTER, the prefix is set to COMP, and the files that are written are: Filename Size ------------ ------ COMPHS08.FNT 8X8 COMPSS16.FNT 8X16 COMPDS32.FNT 8X32 COMPHD08.FNT 16X8 COMPSD16.FNT 16X16 COMPDD32.FNT 16X32 The first three font files are the single-width family, the last three are the double-width family. Using the fonts. After you have converted the DEGAS fonts into the appropriate GEM font files, you simply add the font file names to your startup disk and place the names of the fonts you want to use in the ASSIGN.SYS file. CAUTION: Loading fonts requires a substantial amount of memory. If you are using DEGAS Elite in a 512K system and try to load a large number of fonts, you may run out of memory when the program tries to load the fonts. If this happens, none of the file selector dialogs will appear when you try to load pictures because of lack of memory. Exit the program and remove some of the font filenames from the ASSIGN.SYS file before retrying. If you have desk accessories in memory, they can also cause this problem. Use only the desk accessories and fonts you need. | More fonts to convert? | ][ YES |NO]Single-width font:_______________________________