Utility: genfont

Syntax

genfont {inputfile {outputfile}}

Description

Create a Fire software font binary file from a font source data file.

Parameters

• inputfile
  The font source data file. If omitted, the operator is prompted for the name of the source file.

• outputfile
  The name of the binary file to be created from inputfile. If omitted, the filename of inputfile is used with a change of extension to .fnt.

Switches

None

Notes

Fire software fonts are widely used within Fire. They are referenced through font identifiers via the font command: e.g. font myfont, myfont.fnt, and are used in the display of text primitives (gtext and glabel) in graphic windows.

Characters defined within a software font may be printable or non-printable. Non-printable characters, often referred to as special, have ascii codes 0 through 31, and 127 onward.

Special characters may be incorporated in Fire strings to be drawn in a software font by enclosing their codes within grave characters, e.g.

"Character 210 is `210`"

would be displayed as:

Character 210 is #

where # represents the image of character 210.

Consecutive non-printables may be separated within the graves by commas, e.g.

"Mandarin `1602,1603,7925` characters"

would be displayed as:

Mandarin ### characters

The data in a font source data file comprises general control information for the font followed by vector stroke information for every character in the font. For full details of this source format consult font file.

Examples

Creates myfont.fnt from myfont.ann.

genfont myfont.ann

See Also