Copyright: Made with Shalom Help Maker www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/shelpm/


Introduction

CreateFont is a program that allows you to create new fonts for ReadManiac.

Creating font
Drawing your own font
Installing font to phone

ReadManiac Copyright (C) 2003 by  Roman Lut.


Creating font

Picture 1. Program main window.

You can create a new font in a few simple steps:

   Choose system font from a listbox;

   Choose desired font size;

   Choose BOLD and ITALIC options;

   Check OVERHUNG option if your font have overhung glyphs, f.e. PUNJAB script;

   Check UPPER CASE option to convert all letters in the font to upper case;

   Press "Create" button;

   Specify destination file name.

When you change the options, a picture on the right side of program window shows a final font picture. Note, that final font height can be different from chosen font size.

Use OVERHUNG option only if necessary, because these fonts work much slower.

UPPER CASE option should be disabled for some languages, f.e. PUNJAB.

In order to ReadManiac to use new font , you should install it to phone properly.


Installing font to phone

Font installation is done in a few simple steps:

 For phones without working browser:

    Copy "*.fnt" file to "ReadManiac\Storage\" directory;

    Create new or edit existing file named "fontlist.dat". This is a simple text file. It can be created or edited with f.e., Notepad. Each line of the file should contain one font file name, for example:

  -------- cut ---------
  myfont5x4.fnt
  smallfont.fnt
  ----------------------

   Copy "fontlist.dat" to "ReadManiac\Storage\" directory.

 For phones which can browse storage directory:

    Copy "*.fnt" file to "ReadManiac\Storage\" directory;

 For 55 and 65 series:

    Copy "*.fnt" file to any directory on the phone;

    Specify this directory in ReadManiac.jad file: property "fontpath". The default is ".", which means storage directory.
For example, you can put files in "\misc" and specify "fontpath: a:\misc\". Trailing "\" is essential.

If you made all properly, a new font will be available in ReadManiac Options->Font menu.


Drawing your own font

   General Windows fonts are designed for sizes "12" and more. This means that you can not create nice font with size "7" or "8" from them, because with this sizes letters became unreadable. However, you can draw nice small fonts yourself. You will need some program for creating vector (TFF) or raster (FON) fonts. Raster fonts tend to be better, because you have precise control on every pixel with them.

   I have found a simple program named Softy to be very usefull for drawing raster fonts. You can find it here:

http://users.iclway.co.uk/l-emmett/.

   Here are the steps you need to take to create your own font for ReadManiac:

   Create TTF or FON font with your favorite program;

   Install this font to system: Control panel->Fonts->Install font;

   Run CreateFont program, choose your font from the listbox and create "*.FNT" file for ReadManiac;

   Install your font to phone.