Increasing the capabilities of the Template Editor
Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 12:01 pm
In the Scanahand 4 Template Editor, one can include a sequence of items such as the following, namely a single code point and a range of code points, an item separated from the next item in the sequence by a comma.
$E001
$E005-$E100
Suppose that there were the option available to place a lower case n in front of the first, or only, $ in each item, as follows.
n$E4C2
n$E500-$E50B
In a sequence, some items could have an n and some not have an n, as desired.
If there were an n then the glyph for each character cell in that item would have no white space at either the left or right side of the glyph.
So, for example, if one wanted to make a font that includes an arabesque combining border in the twelve locations U+E500 through to U+E50B, then one could include the following in the sequence of codes in the template editor, thereby stopping there being any white space to the left or the right of the glyph, so that the combining border would work well straight away without needing to adjust the font manually in FontCreator.
n$E500-$E50B
Suppose that there were the option available to place a lower case s in front of the first, or only, $ in each item, as follows.
s$2000-£200A
s$E50F
If there were an s then the glyph for each character cell in that item would have no contours at all, but the advance width would be produced as if the glyph were there and the n had been used. The end user would draw a line as long as the width of the desired space, or, for an arabesque designed using Microsoft Paint, simply paste a copy of one of the arabesque glyphs into the cell so that Scanahand would be able to know the desired width of the space.
This would enable space characters of known width to be included in the font.
For example, the use of U+E50F is for a space of the same advance width as a unit from the arabesque, so that arabesque designs with holes in them can be produced straightforwardly.
I produce artwork for Scanahand mostly directly in Microsoft Paint using a .png version of the template file.
The examples refer to U+E500 through to U+E50B and also U+E50F.
This is because those are the code points that I used for an arabesque in my Quest text font.
I have tried an arabesque using Scanahand 4 using just U+E500 through to U+E507 so as to try the technique of making a template and then making some artwork and making a font. The technique works well, but the white space to the left and right of the glyphs mean that they do not join together as they ideally should when used in an application program such as WordPad. I could adjust the font manually using FontCreator. However, if the n facilty and the s facility were added into the template editor then including an arabesque into a font directly from Scanahand alone would be possible.
The n facility might also be useful for making fonts where the desire is to produce letters that join together.
William Overington
10 May 2013
$E001
$E005-$E100
Suppose that there were the option available to place a lower case n in front of the first, or only, $ in each item, as follows.
n$E4C2
n$E500-$E50B
In a sequence, some items could have an n and some not have an n, as desired.
If there were an n then the glyph for each character cell in that item would have no white space at either the left or right side of the glyph.
So, for example, if one wanted to make a font that includes an arabesque combining border in the twelve locations U+E500 through to U+E50B, then one could include the following in the sequence of codes in the template editor, thereby stopping there being any white space to the left or the right of the glyph, so that the combining border would work well straight away without needing to adjust the font manually in FontCreator.
n$E500-$E50B
Suppose that there were the option available to place a lower case s in front of the first, or only, $ in each item, as follows.
s$2000-£200A
s$E50F
If there were an s then the glyph for each character cell in that item would have no contours at all, but the advance width would be produced as if the glyph were there and the n had been used. The end user would draw a line as long as the width of the desired space, or, for an arabesque designed using Microsoft Paint, simply paste a copy of one of the arabesque glyphs into the cell so that Scanahand would be able to know the desired width of the space.
This would enable space characters of known width to be included in the font.
For example, the use of U+E50F is for a space of the same advance width as a unit from the arabesque, so that arabesque designs with holes in them can be produced straightforwardly.
I produce artwork for Scanahand mostly directly in Microsoft Paint using a .png version of the template file.
The examples refer to U+E500 through to U+E50B and also U+E50F.
This is because those are the code points that I used for an arabesque in my Quest text font.
I have tried an arabesque using Scanahand 4 using just U+E500 through to U+E507 so as to try the technique of making a template and then making some artwork and making a font. The technique works well, but the white space to the left and right of the glyphs mean that they do not join together as they ideally should when used in an application program such as WordPad. I could adjust the font manually using FontCreator. However, if the n facilty and the s facility were added into the template editor then including an arabesque into a font directly from Scanahand alone would be possible.
The n facility might also be useful for making fonts where the desire is to produce letters that join together.
William Overington
10 May 2013