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Introduction

      FLIPPER writes bitmapped fonts from a file structure compatible with
      GEM and Ventura Publisher. Fonts from these programs can be read and
      used by the font functions.

      FLIPPER uses internal fonts:
      All PCs have an 8x8 fixed width font in the ROM BIOS, and EGA cards
      also have an 8x14 font, while VGA cards have an 8x16 font. These are
      always ready for use and can be accessed as font handles (number) 1,
      2 and 3, respectively. If you do not have an EGA card then only font
      1 will be available.

      FLIPPER can load other fonts from disk:
      Opening a disk font file is done with FONT_OPEN(). The name of the file
      is given with the function. A font handle (number) will be returned
      and that font will then be accessed by that number beginning with the
      number 4. Only GEM compatible fonts can be used. The font handle
      of the files loaded from disk begin with font handle 4 and can be
      accessed with FONT_NEW().

      There are two types of disk based fonts available, bitmapped fonts
      and stroke fonts. The bitmapped font contains an .@ for the extension
      of the file name. The stroke font extension is a .#.
      The bitmapped fonts are a fixed size from device to device and will
      look large on a CGA monitor in mode 1 (320x200) and smaller on a VGA
      monitor (640x480). When you expand a bitmapped font, the expansion
      routine doubles each pixel which makes it look blocky. These fonts
      can only be rotated in 90 degree increments.

      A stroke font is a set of vectors drawn from one point to another.
      Making these fonts larger extends each line resulting in a much
      smoother scaling with FONT_SIZE(). Small vector fonts can look angular
      if they are expanded very large. Stroke fonts can also be rotated to
      10th's of a degree with FONT_ROTAT().

      RAM memory is allocated for these font files. When you no longer need
      a font, the memory can be released with FONT_CLOSE(). With sufficient
      memory, you can load up to 28 disk based fonts.

      Writing text requires setting both font and line attributes. Font
      attributes set how characters will be displayed: alignment,
      color, magnification, rotation, spacing, and underline position.
      Line attributes set how the string of characters will be displayed:
      direction, justification, and underlining.

      The GEM fonts can be modified or a new set created with a font editor
      (FE.EXE) included with FLIPPER (see appendix A).

      Compiled Fonts:
      **** The library described here is available on ProWorks BBS. ***

      Compiled fonts are fonts that have been converted to programming code
      and put into a library as normal functions. Most of the fonts that
      came with FLIPPER, also can be found as compiled fonts in the
      FLP_FONT.LIB library. Programs can be linked with this library in
      the same way that they can be with the main FLIPPER library.
      However, they are not opened in the same way that other fonts are.
      The font's function must be called, which is usually started with the
      characters "F_" and then the name of the font. The names actually
      correspond to the fonts included on the FLIPPER font disks with the
      extension left off. For example, the font file RMN8_15.@ would
      have a compiled font counterpart function by the name of
      F_RMN8_15(). There is a complete listing of the functions elsewhere
      in this database. To call a compiled font, all that is needed
      is to assign a font handle variable to it. For instance, to load the
      F_RMN8_15() function, the line "nFh = F_RMN8_15()" would be all
      that was needed. After that, all of the font functions can be used
      on the font by using the font handle nFh (you can, of course, use
      any variable name you wish). So, to define the font as the current
      font, the command "FONT_NEW(nFh)" would be used. The only functions
      that cannot be used on the compiled fonts are FONT_OPEN() and
      FONT_CLOSE(), because they are associated with files and not library
      functions.

      Creating Compiled Fonts:
      The process of compiling fonts requires the Microsoft C or QuickC
      compiler and the FLIPPER Font Compiler program, which is available
      from ProWorks. If you have the Microsoft C or QuickC compiler and
      want the FLIPPER Font Compiler, call ProWorks to order your copy.
      The process will be completely documented with the Font Compiler
      program.