Easy Fonts FAQ



Q1.  What is Easy Fonts?
A1
.  Easy Fonts is a program for creating new CHR fonts for the BGI (Borland Graphic Interface) in a quick and easy way.  If you reached this page directly from a search engine, visit the Easy Fonts home page to get more info and a list of international ftp sites.

Q2.  If I rename a font it doesn't work anymore. Why?
A2
.  You cannot rename a CHR file unless you change its name in the file header too. The new name must be exactly 4 chars long like the previous one was.  This is due to the BGI design.

Q3.  If I scale your CHR fonts they look strange. Why?
A3.
  The BGI scaling algorithm is poor.  It works badly with fonts drawn by hand (like Borland's ones) and even worse with fonts created automatically because they are optimized for looking fine at normal size (size=4), not for scaling.  If you need chars of different sizes for the same font, just create a separate CHR file for each size.

Q4.  Your SHOWFONT.PAS doesn't work!
A4
.  SHOWFONT is a very simple program: it expects only a font name on the command line (without a path); it also expects that you properly adjust the PATH_TO_BGI constant at the beginning of the source (if necessary).

Q5.  Your SHOWFONT.C doesn't work!
A5
.  The C version of the BGI has a little bug in the installuserfont function; because of this bug, installuserfont works with SMALL memory models only.  SHOWFONT.C uses installuserfont so it requires a SMALL memory model.
If this answer doesn't help you, see the previuos one (it is valid both for C and Pascal).  If you want to use a LARGE model in your programs, see the next question.

Q6.  Can I avoid of using installuserfont?
A6
.  Yes, you can.  The installuserfont function just tells the name of a new font you have created to the BGI and is not needed if your fonts have one of the 10 predefined names.  These names are:

TRIP, LITT, SANS, GOTH, SCRI, SIMP, TSCR, LCOM, EURO, BOLD.

If you don't like the idea of giving one of this names to your fonts, you can change the predefined names by patching GRAPHICS.LIB (C compilers) or GRAPH.TPU (Pascal compilers): search one of these names in the library file (they appear just once) and change it with a binary file editor.

Q7.  Can Easy Fonts for Windows convert the Euro currency symbol too?
A7.
  Sure, you can convert any character of your TrueType fonts but note that old TrueType fonts haven't this symbol.  Use the Windows' CharMap tool or a word processor to check for the presence of the Euro symbol in the fonts you want to convert.  Easy Fonts for Windows assigns the ASCII code 127 to the Euro symbol in CHR fonts.

Q8.  Can Easy Fonts for Windows convert Greek/Russian/Arabic/Chinese (and so on...) fonts too?
A8.
  It can handle any single-byte charset; this includes Greek, Russian, Arabic and many others.  If you need Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) support, contact me.




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