more background on fonts
- Posted by Norm Goundry <bonk1000 at HOTMAIL.COM> May 17, 1999
- 487 views
Colin The schematic I follow is the layout according to that laid down in print for the Imperial Library of Emperor Kang-hsi around 1692 AD. This is massive and consequently ignored nowadays by almost everyone. Ignored that is, until someone has to try and decode an older character (and this happens quite a bit: the written characters have been in use since about 1200 BC!, and this applies to the Japanese and Koreans too, especially since both still have royal families and subsequent official documents needing either an exact character which gives a clear definition, or an exact character which gives a obtuse, unclear definition! Politicians are all the same no matter where you go.) or has to update a new idea from an old one. I agree with you on the HBF and BDF formats being unsuitable. As to shrinking the size of the overall font set, I can live with or without it. Ram is cheap. But what you say IS true. I will think about how to make this happen if you like, but I don't think the gain is a real factor at this point. Yes, I do indeed use your Sprite tools, they made a lot of what I am doing right now possible. How about EXTENDING the Font Editor you built so that it works as a graft onto one of the available Hex Editors... large jumps can be made and the raw material read. Well, its only an idea (probably too nuts-- the kind of stuff I come up with most of the time). Please remember that I work with fixed-size bitmaps because of the needs of what I am doing, but after all, who cares what happens inside of the box as long as what comes out of the box is OK. Will write more on this but need to mull over your suggestions first. Norm