From: noren@trident.datasys.swri.edu (Greg Noren)
Newsgroups: fj.mail-lists.x-window
Subject: Re: Making big fonts, how to start?
Date: 6 Sep 92 10:09:11 GMT
Distribution: fj
Organization: Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas

Date: 4 Sep 92 16:06:06 GMT
Message-Id: <125@trident.datasys.swri.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x

In article <1992Sep4.085756.17778@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu> mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse) writes:
>In article <123@trident.datasys.swri.edu>, noren@trident.datasys.swri.edu (Greg Noren) writes:
>
>> I want to make a few "large" fonts - something on the order of 128
>> pixels tall by 64 pixels wide at 100 dpi, or even 64 tall by 32 wide
>> at 200 dpi.
>
>> We're using R4 on [...].  I've got access to R5, but my project team
>> wants to stay with R4 for now as that's what our customer is running.
>> So, no R5 servers.
>
>> I'd like to minimize the effort and time required to create these
>> fonts.
>
>In that case, what you might do is grab getbdf.  Point it at your R5
>server and ask for a big size of some scalable font.  Feed the
>resulting BDF file to your R4 server (perhaps first tweaking the XLFD
>info, if it's not already correct) and everything should be cool: once
>you've got the BDF file, it'll work fine with R4; R5 is not needed past
>that point.  (getbdf is something I wrote.  It can be fetched from
>larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (132.206.1.1), /X/getbdf.c.)
>
>					der Mouse
>
>			    mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu

I want to thank der Mouse and the others who responded to this post.  The
general approach seemed to be:

    o Query the R5 server ("getbdf" can come into play here) to get a
      BDF file to use as a boilerplate.

    o Tweak the BDF file as necessary to "pretty up" the glyphs.  Tune
      the BDF/XLFD parameters as needed.

    o Compile the BDF file [using bdftosnf(1) or bdftopcf(1) for example].

    o Install the compiled result as per the FAQ, subject #39, on the R4
      server.

Let me add a few clarifications to the approach.

Rather than starting an R5 server, I used "getbdf" to obtain BDF files
from my R4 server.  Mark Martin (mmm@cetia.fr) provided me a useful shell
script to double the size of a BDF file; it handles the BITMAPs and the
BDF/XLFD parameters quite nicely.  Thanks, Mark.

Clean up of the glyphs was accomplished via "xfed" (export.lcs.mit.edu in
/pub/R5untarred/contrib/clients).  This is somewhat tedious but very
strightforward.  "xfed" works like the R4 bitmap(1) client only directly
against BDF files.

Compiling and installing were no problem on my SGI Personal Iris.  The
directory containing the compiled fonts is a target for mkfontdir(1).
Then, you add the directory to the server font path via xset fp+ <$dir>.
See the FAQ for more on this.

I'll end with a hypothetical question on this subject.  Say you were to
choose one of the commercial fonts in X (adobe, sony, b&h, etc.) and
scale it up - double size, quadruple size, whatever.  What are the legal
implications of including the scaled font as part of an X client of
your own?  I'm speculating the original copyright must stay in place
in the font.  But what if you surgically alter the bitmaps (via "xfed"
or whatever you like).  What happens to the copyright then?  Thoughts
and comments anyone?

--
I disclaim:  The words above are mine... My company speaketh their own.

Gregory Noren                             (512)522-5531 (a human)
Southwest Research Institute              (512)522-5499 (just the FAX)
Internet:  noren@trident.datasys.swri.edu (129.162.50.211)