Xerox Elixir Forms Development Software User guide

ElixiFont

User Guide

Publication #720P22843

June 1999

Version 4.00

Elixir Technologies Corporation

P.O. Box 1559

Ojai, CA 93024

Corporation for exclusive publication by Xerox

Corporation.

Publication #720P22843June 1999

Version 4.00

Printed in the United States of America

Xerox®, 2700, 3700, 4030, 4045, 4050, 4075, 4135,

4235, 4650, 4700, 4850, 4890, 8700, 8790, 9700,

9790, XES, UDK, FRM, FSL, VIPP and all Xerox

products mentioned in this publication are trademarks

of Xerox Corporation.

Trademarks and Service Marks/Company:

Bitstream/Bitstream, Inc.

Elixir/Elixir Technologies Corporation

HP, LaserJet II/Hewlett Packard Company

IBM, Personal Computer AT, PS/2, and all IBM prod-

ucts

mentioned in this publication/International Business

Machines

MS-DOS, Windows, Microsoft Mouse/Microsoft

Corporation.

All other product names and trade names used herein

are trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright protection claimed includes all forms and

matters of copyrightable material and information now

allowed by

statutory or judicial law or hereinafter granted, includ-

ing without limitation, material generated from the soft-

ware programs which are displayed on the screen

such as icons, screen display looks, etc.

Changes are periodically made to this document.

Changes, technical inaccuracies, and typographic er-

rors will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Notes and cautions

The following note applies to ElixiFont.

Elixir HP driver

The Elixir HP driver is no longer available when print-

ing from the font sampling pad, accessible through the

Sample tool.

Table of contents

Notes and cautions

1. Introduction 1-1

Customer support 1-2

ElixiFont environment 1-3

Who should use this guide 1-3

Conventions 1-4

Display conventions 1-4

Typographical conventions 1-4

On-line help 1-5

Organization of this Guide 1-6

Installing ElixiFont 1-7

Starting ElixiFont 1-7

Exiting ElixiFont 1-9

2. ElixiFont basics 2-1

Main screen components 2-1

ElixiFont menu bar 2-2

File menu 2-3

Open Font 2-3

Save Font 2-3

Save Font as 2-3

Exit <Alt + F4> 2-3

System menu 2-3

Usage Switches 2-3

Reset to Defaults 2-4

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE v

Save Configuration 2-4

Window menu 2-5

Help menu 2-5

Toolbox 2-5

Tools 2-5

Toolbox options 2-6

Work Area menu bar 2-6

Font menu 2-7

Edit menu 2-7

Char menu 2-8

Transforms menu 2-8

3. Creating andediting fonts 3-1

Font basics 3-1

Creating a new font 3-4

Loading a font 3-6

Toolbox 3-8

Select toolbox 3-8

Edit toolbox 3-9

Edit toolbox options 3-10

Edit Window menu bar 3-12

Edit Window Toolbar 3-13

Transform toolbox 3-14

Kill toolbox 3-16

Character Properties toolbox <F2> 3-16

Copy toolbox 3-18

Swap toolbox 3-18

Merge toolbox 3-18

Sample toolbox 3-20

Font Properties toolbox <Ctrl> +

<F2> 3-22

Header submenus 3-23

4. Transforming fonts 4-1

Transformation tool options 4-1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

vi ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Resize 4-3

Rotate 4-4

Shift 4-5

Slant 4-6

Darken 4-7

Lighten 4-9

Underline 4-10

Reverse 4-11

Filter 4-12

Outline 4-13

Halftone 4-15

Mirror 4-16

5. Frequent operations and advanced functions 5-1

Changing the font orientation 5-1

Changing the width of character cells 5-3

Changing the baseline offset 5-4

Changing the font internal name 5-4

Horizontal character spacing 5-5

Null character conversions 5-6

Production/distributed font conversion 5-7

Production and distributed printer

differences

5-7

Working with reversed fonts 5-8

Kerning characters 5-9

Producing large ascenders/descenders 5-9

A. Keyboard shortcuts A-1

B. Conversion chart B-1

Glossary GLOSSARY-1

Index INDEX-1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE vii

1. Introduction

This User Guide describes ElixiFont, a sophisticated

Windows-based bitmap font editor that allows you to

create and edit fonts in what-you-see-is-what-you-get

(WYSIWYG) format.

ElixiFont allows you to perform the following opera-

tions to fonts:

edit individual characters in a font by providing

tools to manipulate each character bitmap

apply transformations to one, all, or a sequence

of characters in a font, enabling you to embolden,

italicize, underline and to perform other

transformations

display and change character or font properties

such as kerning, baseline offset, orientation, etc.

For fonts converted from Xerox format, ElixiFont also

allows you to display and change Xerox header

information.

The ElixiSys Desktop enables you to import fonts and

convert them to Elixir's generic font format. In this for-

mat, you can display or edit fonts on your PC and re-

convert them back to the original or other formats.

See the printer specific sections of the ElixiSys Desk-

top User Guide for information about formats to and

from which you can convert Elixir fonts.

Note that the minimum point size supported in Elixi-

Font is 4 points, and the maximum point size sup-

ported is 99 points.

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-1

Customer support

Elixir customer support centers provide telephone

technical assistance for Elixir users during business

hours.

If you have purchased your Elixir product directly

from Xerox Corporation then you should contact

the Xerox customer support center telephone

number provided by Xerox.

If you have purchased your Elixir product directly

from Elixir Technologies then contact one of the

support center hotlines.

See the Elixir Getting Started Guide for information

about contacting your support center.

ElixiFont environment

ElixiFont is designed to work with the ElixiSys Desk-

top, a Windows-based desktop. The ElixiSys Desktop

simplifies file conversions and management by pre-

senting the user with icons which you can manipulate

with simple mouse drag-and-drop techniques (see the

ElixiSys Desktop User Guide for more information).

Other Elixir products you can use with the ElixiSys

Desktop are:

ElixiGraphics, a Windows-based bitmap graphics

editor which you can use to tile Elixir-format

graphics into Elixir-format fonts (see the Elixi-

Graphics User Guide for more information).

ElixiForm, a forms creation package that enables

users to create and edit boilerplate forms using

standard FSL form elements. See the ElixiForm

User Guide for more information.

INTRODUCTION

1-2 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Who should use this guide

This guide is intended for users familiar with Xerox

font resources.

Knowledge of Windows and DOS, especially naviga-

tion through directory and subdirectory structures and

file operations is also required.

Conventions

This section describes display and typographical con-

ventions used in this guide.

Display conventions

ElixiFont adheres to Microsoft Windows conventions

for using menus, menu commands, dialog boxes,

command buttons, icons, and a mouse. See your

Windows manual for more information.

Typographical conventions

The following typographical conventions are used

throughout this guide:

Keystrokes are shown enclosed in < > (angle

brackets). For example, <Enter>.

Key combinations are denoted by a plus sign be-

tween keys. For example, <Shift> + <F1> indi-

cates to simultaneously press the <Shift> and the

<F1> keys.

Menu titles are shown in bold. Menu options are

enclosed in [ ] (square brackets). For example,

Pull down the File menu and select [New font].

INTRODUCTION

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-3

Commands, options, actions, and parameters

that require description are shown in bold fol-

lowed on the next line by the description. For ex-

ample:

Delete

Deletes the selected characters.

Steps in a procedure are shown in numbered bold

paragraphs. For example

1. Pull down the Window menu and select [Tile].

Comments relating to a step (such as this para-

graph) are shown in regular text following the bold

paragraph.

On-line help

ElixiFont uses the Microsoft Window Help program to

provide on-line Help for functions.

For more information about Windows Help, select the

[How to Use Help] option in the Help menu, or see

your Microsoft Windows documentation.

The Help files included with ElixiFont include graphics

which were created using screen drivers with large

fonts. If you use a screen driver with small fonts, the

Help file graphics may not display clearly. For opti-

mum graphics display, use a screen driver that uses

large fonts. .

You can display on-line Help in the following ways:

Bubble Help

Click on an icon with the right mouse button to view its

properties (if applicable) or to display "bubble help".

Bubble help is a short description of the icon function

that displays in a bubble extending from the icon.

INTRODUCTION

1-4 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Quick Help

Enable the quick help function by selecting the [Show

Quick Help] option in the Usage Switches dialog box.

When you move the screen pointer over an icon on

the screen, a short description of the icon function dis-

plays in the Message area of the screen. During cer-

tain operations a message about the function you are

performing also displays in the Message area. You

can disable Quick Help if you prefer to see these op-

erational messages.

Context sensitive Help

To use this function, click on an icon and press <F1>.

If available, the appropriate Help topic displays. If no

specific topic is available, the Help table of contents

displays.

Help menu

Select [Help] from the ElixiFont menu bar and select

one of the displayed topics.

Dialog box Help

Click on the [Help] button in a dialog box to view an

associated Help topic. Under Windows 95 and Win-

dows NT, right-click on a dialog box option to display

an associated Help topic.

Help pop-ups and jumps

Within Help topic text, words or phrases underlined in

green are pop-ups or jumps. When you click on a

pop-up topic, a box displays within the current Help

topic with additional information. When you click on a

jump, a different, associated Help topic displays.

Help Hypergraphics

Hypergraphics are special graphics within Help files

that contain "hot spots". Hot spots are either pop-up

topics or jumps. Hypergraphics in Elixir Help are most

commonly dialog boxes with option hot spots (pop-up

definitions), toolboxes with tool hot spots (topic

jumps), and menus with option hot spots (topic jumps

or pop-up definitions). Move the cursor over a hyper-

graphic until a hand displays, then click on this hot

spot to display a pop-up topic, or a "jump".

To close a pop-up topic, click the mouse button. To

return to the original Help topic from a jump, click on

<Back> in the Help file menu.

INTRODUCTION

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-5

Organization of this Guide

This guide provides the following information:

an overview of Elixir font structure

how ElixiFont handles fonts converted from other

formats

ElixiFont features and how to use them.

This User Guide is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, "Introduction," is an overview of ElixiFont

and provides information about hardware and soft-

ware requirements for successful installation. The

chapter also describes installing and starting ElixiFont

and gives additional information about the contents of

this manual.

Chapter 2, "ElixiFont basics," describes the layout and

components that make up the ElixiFont main screen.

Chapter 3, "Creating and editing fonts," describes how

you can create or edit a character or an entire font.

Chapter 4, "Transforming fonts," describes how to

apply a variety of transformations to individual char-

acters and to the entire font.

Chapter 5, "Frequent operations and advanced func-

tions," describes some of the frequent operations and

advanced functions available with ElixiFont.

Glossary.

INTRODUCTION

1-6 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Installing ElixiFont

The current release of ElixiFont installs during ElixiSys

Desktop installation. No additional installation is

required.

See the Xerox Elixir Getting Started Guide for installa-

tion information.

Starting ElixiFont

You can only start ElixiFont from the ElixiSys Desktop.

To start ElixiFont from the Desktop:

Open (double-click on) the ElixiFont icon at the right of

the Desktop.

The ElixiFont main screen shown in the following fig-

ure displays.

Figure 1-1. ElixiFont main screen

INTRODUCTION

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-7

Alternatively, with the Desktop displayed, open the

Elixir Fonts folder to display the Elixir Fonts window.

Figure 1-2. Elixir Fonts folder

Open (double-click on) any .HDR font file. The Elixi-

Font main screen displays with the font loaded.

Figure 1-3. Loaded font

See the "Creating and editing fonts" chapter for a de-

scription of the ElixiFont screen layout.

INTRODUCTION

1-8 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Exiting ElixiFont

To exit ElixiFont, double-click on the Exit button at the

top left of the ElixiFont main screen, or pull down the

File menu and select [Exit].

INTRODUCTION

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 1-9

2. ElixiFont basics

This chapter describes the layout and components

that make up the ElixiFont main screen.

Main screen components

The ElixiFont main screen contains the following com-

ponents:

ElixiFont menu bar

Toolbox

Work area menu bar

Start the ElixiFont application by double-clicking on

the ElixiFont icon. The main screen displays.

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-1

Figure 2-1. ElixiFont main screen

ElixiFont menu bar

The ElixiFont menu bar controls:

loading and saving fonts

usage switches and defaults

window display

access to Help files.

Figure 2-2. ElixiFont menu bar

2-2 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Toolbox

Message area

ElixiFont menu bar

Work area

Work area menu bar

File menu

The

File

menu allows you to:

load and save fonts

exit ElixiFont

Open Font

When you select this option, the Load Font dialog box

listing .HDR files displays. Select a font and click on

[OK].

Save Font

Select this option to save the loaded font with the

same name unless it is a new font and then you are

prompted for a new name. This option acts as the

quick-save feature.

Save Font as

Select this option to save the loaded file with a new

name.

Exit <Alt + F4>

Select this option to exit ElixiFont and return to the

Desktop.

System menu

The System menu allows you to set usage switches,

reset to defaults, and save customized configurations.

Usage Switches

When you select this option, the Usage Switches dia-

log box displays.

ELIXIFONT BASICS

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-3

Figure 2-3. Usage Switches dialog box

The Usage Switches dialog box contains the following

options:

Save State on Exit

Select this option to save your customized settings.

Deselect this option to return settings to ElixiFont

defaults.

Show Quick Help

Select this option to display a short description of an

icon as your cursor passes over it, in the message

area.

Always Bring Toolbox to Top

Select this option to display the Toolbox on top of any

window.

Truncate Long Font

Select this option to truncate characters with ASCII

values over 255 (hex FF) when loading a font that

contains more than 256 characters.

Reset to Defaults

When you select this option, all configuration parame-

ters are reset to the ElixiFont default values.

Save Configuration

Select this option to save your customized settings

rather than resetting to ElixiFont defaults.

ELIXIFONT BASICS

2-4 ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE

Window menu

The

Window

menu controls the way each open win-

dow displays. You can:

tile all displayed windows

toggle the display on or off for the Toolbox and

Work Area.

Help menu

The Help menu loads the online Help file for the Elixi-

Font application. You can choose [Contents] or any of

the topic options.

Toolbox

The left side of the screen displays the Toolbox which

contains buttons you can select to view, edit, and ma-

nipulate individual characters or the entire font.

Tools

The top of the Toolbox contains the tools you can se-

lect. These display in two rows as shown in the fol-

lowing figure:

Figure 2-4. ElixiFont tools

ELIXIFONT BASICS

ELIXIFONT USER GUIDE 2-5

Select

Edit Bitmap

Transform

Kill

Character

Properties

Copy

Swap

Merge

Sample

Font Properties

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Xerox Elixir Forms Development Software User guide

Xerox Elixir Forms Development Software User guide

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