#CG Font?? TypeSmith
4 messages in this thread
Mike: I have tried transforming at least six different .dmf fonts to
compugraphic fonts using TypeSmith and Fountain. In every case, I get
an ampersand (char 38) appearing on the screen when the quoteright
(char 39) is used in applications using the exported CG font. I have
checked the composition table for the two character positions and
they are o.k. but maybe I don't know what I'm looking for. By the
way, I am using wb 2.1 and the Fountain it came with (doesn't seem to
have a version number.) The TypeSmith I use is version 1.0. The
most frustrating thing is that if I import the CG font back into
TypeSmith, the quoteright position is, indeed, a quoteright.
Anything else I could do. How about if I uploaded the CG font for you
to use. Would you be able to see anything?
Rick
Rick: what happens if you access the quote right in PageStream? What
about in DPaint? I tried this and couldn't duplicate it. Try using CG
Times from bullet outlines with DPaint or another WB application. If
it works ok, load the font into TS and save it back out. This coverts
it to the internal DMF format and then re-exports it as a CG font.
Does it still work ok?
Mike: By following your advice, I finally solved the problem I described with
the ampersand (char 38) appearing instead of the "quoteright" (char 39) with
exported compugraphic fonts. I "exported" TSTimes as a compugrahic and then
used fountain to put it into the fonts: directory. To my surprise, the
"quoteright" showed up in DPaint and ProWrite. I then transferred fonts I had
trouble with, and they DID NOT WORK. Same old problem; as soon as the
"quoteright key was pressed, an ampersand appeared. I then transferred the
troublesome fonts as compugraphics to PageStream and THEY WORKED! Now I was
really confused. Finally, by studying each character in TSTimes, I saw that
character 166 (quotesingle) was present. It was nor present in my trouble
fonts. When I added this character, my problems were solved.
So it appears that some applications such as PageStream use character 39 for
"quoteright" while others such as DPaint and ProWrite use character 166
(quotesingle). The only question remaining is why the applications substitute
an ampersand when "quotesingle" is missing. Got any philosophical insights?
Thanks for your help
Rick Geren
This is all due to the Amiga's lousy font system.
The next edition of the TypeSmith manual will have more info on character
mapping, which is where this problem comes into play. TypeSmith has a 255
character set. So does AmigaDOS. They are not the same. There will be a table
showing how characters are mapped between TypeSmith and AmigaDOS which should
make this easier.
Some programs use the Amiga's font system. Others do not so that they can get
around its limitations. PageStream is an example of a program that does not use
the Amiga font system. And since the TypeSmith character set is based on
PageStream's, they are very similar. DPAint and ProWrite use the Amiga's
character set.
The problem is that there are just too many characters to fit into 255
characters. We have to support all the foreign language characters. PgS 3.0
uses unicode (which has zillions of possible characters) to avoid these
problems. I believe MS Windows does the same thing. CBM needs to do something
to improve the Amiga's character set.
Cheers,
Michael @ Soft-Logik Publishing Corp.