Contents

Using FontView

General Typographical Information

Windows Font Usage

Glossary

Index


FontView Usage
Using FontView

Overview

Menu Commands

Button Bar

Status Bar

Keyboard Commands

The Display

Tutorial

Demo


Typographical Information
General Typographical Information

What is a Font?

Computerized Typography


What Is A Font
What Is A Font?

A font is a set of characters, each of which has common design characteristics and size. Examples of common design characteristics are weight, size, type of serif, stress, color, shape, x-height and style. The size of a font is measured in points, which are almost exactly 1/72 of an inch. Point size originally measured the vertical length of the lead slug that supported characters in printing shops. Point size only loosely refers to the size of the characters.


Computerized Typography


Windows Fonts Usage
Windows Font Usage


Overview of FontView

FontView is an application that was written to assist developers better understand how fonts work in Windows, and to see how to correctly select the proper font in their application. This version of FontView is a preliminary version that is only performing the most rudimentary of operations. It is also not yet taking full advantage of the new TrueType fonts that are being included in Windows.


Menu Bar

File Menu	-	Allows the user to perform whatever file operations are allowed in this application.

Edit Menu	-	Allows the user to perform Cut, Copy, Paste, and related operations.

View Menu	-	Allows the user to control the visual layout

Metrics Menu	-	Allows the user to view, and change various metrics that determine which font will be chosen

Help Menu	-	Brings up various types of assistance for this program


File Menu
The File Menu

New	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Open	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Close	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Save	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Save As...	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Print	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Print Setup	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Exit	-	Use this to quit FontView


Edit Menu
The Edit Menu

Undo	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Cut	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Copy	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Paste	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Delete	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Find	-	This menu item is not currently implemented

Replace	-	This menu item is not currently implemented


View Menu
The View Menu

Character Set	-	This will display all available characters in the currently selected font.

(see Character Set Mode)

Glyph Metrics	-	This will display a single character of the currently selected font. The character will be 'expanded' to fill as much of the display area that is available, without altering the aspect ratio.

(see GlyphMode)

ButtonBar	-	This is the control bar that is display at the top of the display window. It contains controls that allow you to alter the paramters that will be used to select a font

StatusBar	-	This is the small display region at the bottom of the window, it contains a field for displaying messages, and menu descripttion strings, and the current time.


Metrics Menu
The Metrics Menu

CreateFont	-	This menu option will bring up a dialog box that will allow you to see what values are being used to select the current font via a call to CreateFont. You can also modify any of the values being used.

TextMetrics	-	This will display the TEXTMETRIC data structure for the current font. If you close the dialog with the 'Select' button, then all appropriate values will be copied into the current CreateFont structure.

EnumFonts	-	This will display a dialog that will allow you to browse through all of the fonts that are currently installed on the system. You will be able to see the TEXTMETRIC and LOGFONT structures for each font, as well as a display sample. If you close the dialog with the 'Select' button, then all appropriate values from the currently displayed font will be copied into the CreateFont structure that controls the font that is currently being selected in the main window.

OutlineTextMetrics	-	When completed, this will bring up a dialog that will let you see the OutlineGlyphMetrics for the currently displayed font.


Help Menu
The Help Menu

Contents

Index

Overview

Glossary

Tutorial

Demo

Help On Help

About


Button Bar

CreateFont

Parameter Selection ComboBox

Parameter Value ComboBox


Status Bar

Menu Description Field

Time Field


Keyboard Commands


Display
The Display

The FontView window displays fonts in two different ways, it can either display all of the characters, in the size selected, or it can display individual characters, in a 'zoom' mode so that you can see the individual pels of that chosen glyph, along with guidelines that indicate how the fonts metrics relate to this particular character.

Character Set Mode

Glyph Mode


Character Set Mode

In this mode, all of the defined characters will be displayed. The range of characters that will be displayed is determined by the 'tmFirstChar' and 'tmLastChar' values of the TEXTMETRIC data structure. The characters will be displayed left-to-right in ascending order.

From this display, if you double click on a particular character, the display will be shifted to Glyph Mode using that particular character. This allows you to quickly and easily zoom in on a particular character.


Glyph Mode

In this mode, the user can look at individual characters of the chosen font. The characters are presented within a Bounding Box that indicates the width of the character, and the height of the font. The baseline is drawn through the bounding box, and any External Leading is indicated by a line drawn from the top center of the bounding box upwards. A future version of this application will also take into account ABC Widths (if supported by this font), and display the starting and ending location for this character by an 'X' drawn on the baseline to indicate the Advance Width of this character.

To switch from this display mode to Character Set Mode, you need to pick the 'Character Set' item from the View menu.


Glossary

A

ABC Width

Advance Width

Ascender

B

Bounding Box

Bow

Button Bar

C

Cap Height

Clothoid Curves

Counter

Crossbar

D

Descender

Diagonal

E

Ear

em square

External Leading

FGHIJKL

Hairline

Lead Slug

Link

LOGFONT

Loop

MNO

OUTLINETEXTMETRIC

P

Panose

Point

Point Size

QRS

Sans Serif

Serif

Shoulder

Side bearing

Size

Spline

Spur

Status Bar

Stem

Stress

Style

Swash

T

Tail

Terminal

TEXTMETRIC

UVW

Weight

XYZ

x-height


Index


Tutorial


Demo


(Misc. Popups)

Screen1Display


ScreenToolBar


ScreenCombo1


ScreenCombo2


ScreenStatus


ScreenStatus1


ScreenStatus2


(Glossary Definitions)


ABC Width


Advance Width


Bounding Box


Button Bar


External Leading


em Square

When a character is drawn, you can envision it as being drawn into a 'square', within which the entire character will fit. If this square is enlarged so that any given character of the font will fit within it, then this is the 'em square'. The width and height of the em square are supposedly equal. Often, the 'resolution' of the em square is specified as a particular value. This refers to the number of  'units' that the square is divided into. This can either be the pixel resolution of the font as it is drawn on the screen, or if it refers to the logical definition (program) of the font, then it describes the granularity required to accurately create the font. Often, this is 1000.


Lead Slug


LOGFONT


OUTLINETEXTMETRIC


Point

For most computer usages, a 'point' is agreed to be exactly 1/72 of an inch, but actually it is 1/72.08246 of an inch. This is known as a 'Pica Point'. Europe and Brazil however use the 'Ditot Point', which is 1/69.54103 of an inch.

The term 'Point' dates back to the days of the first moveable lead typesetting. It was the sliver of metal spacing that was used to raise and lower, as well as seperate characters on a line.


Point Size

Point Size is used to refer to the size of a particular font. If a font is said to be a '12 Point Font', this means that this font was most likely designed to be printed with a 12 point measurement from baseline to baseline. This does not mean you should assume that an 'H' in one 12 point font has the same height as an 'H' in another 12 point font. It is up to the typographer who designed the font to specify the point size. The point size can be considered an 'artistic' measurement, because it rarely is specifically determined by actual measurements of specific features of a font.


Sans Serif


Serif


Size


Status Bar


Style


TEXTMETRIC


Weight