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Contents
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Copyright
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Welcome to VPF Heading Composer
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Installing VPF Heading Composer
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Uninstalling VPF Heading Composer
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The VPF Fonts
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Using VPF Heading Composer
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Copyright |
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We have done our best to ensure that the information in this manual is both accurate
and useful; however, please be aware that errors may exist, and that Dimac Development / Duplo AB
(hereafter referred to as Duplo) does not give any guarantees concerning the accuracy of the information here
or in the use to which it may be put.
Duplo may have patents and/or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document.
Copyright © 2004 Duplo AB. All rights reserved.
This document may only be reproduced (in whole or part),
copied, photocopied, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine readable form with the prior
permission of Duplo.
If any problems occur using this application, please visit our web site http://www.dimac.net
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Welcome to VPF Heading Composer |
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The VPF Heading Composer is a free windows application
used to compose fonts in VPF format.
The program does not require any programming skills and is very straight
forward to use (by following the steps in the manual and in the application).
The program creates the VPF font from a color image, which gives the user
nearly unlimited possibilities to create the ultimate font with special
effects, transparency and millions of colors.
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Installing VPF Composer |
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To use Dimac’s VPF Heading Composer you must first remove
any previous installations of the program.
Then double click the setup.exe file to run the installation program.
The installation will by default install at:
c:\Program Files\Dimac Development\VPF\VPF Heading Composer\
together with the manual and some example vpf fonts.
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The VPF Fonts |
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The VPF Heading Generator and the VPF Info Reader component uses font files (vpf) created by VPF Heading Composer.
The font files are created from a source image that contains all the characters
that you want your font to be able to handle. You can create the source image with your favorite
image editor, and let VPF Heading Composer generate a nice vpf font out of it.
When creating the source image it is important that the characters are positioned using
some kind of grid line, so that it is possible for the image to be divided in equally sized grids.
Each grid should contain one character.
When creating a source image you must be sure that:
- The image is saved in BMP, PNG or GIF format (recommended 32-bit PNG, ARGB)
- The image does not contain noise.
- The characters can be separated in equally sizes grids.
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Using the VPF Heading Composer |
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Create or edit a font
The VPF Heading Composer makes it possible for you to create and edit vpf
files. When creating a new font a source image is needed (see The VPF Fonts
fonts section for more information about the source image). To edit a font,
press the Browse button and select the vpf font that you wish to edit.
Step 1 - Image analyzis
Step 1 - Image analyzis (Screenshot)
1.1 Select source image
In order to create a font, a valid source image must be selected. Press the Browse
button to select the image that you want to use as the source of your font.
1.2 Edit/Change analyze information
In order to perform a correct analysis of the source image, you have to provide
the characters that are represented in the source image. The characters must be
entered in exactly the same order as they appear in the source image. The
characters must be in one row, you cannot have several rows of characters in
your source image.
You must also specify a gridline value if the calculated value is not correct. This
value determines where to split the image.
It's important that every character is in a grid box and that it is only one character
in each box. The gridline is not visible but must be imagined.
Explanation of the grid value. We have used a grid with the width of 25 pixels.
The background color value is detected automatically. If you for some reason need to
change this value, you can do that by pressing the Pick color button and then click
on a pixel in the source image.
When these values are correctly set, press the Analyze image to perform the analysis.
This image shows an example of how the characters are analyzed. The analyze algorithm
searches for the first and last vertical row containing character data. The characters do
not have to be centered in the grid boxes. The character with the highest and lowest point
determines the upper and lower point of all characters.
1.3 Analyze results
This is where the results of the analysis are displayed. You may need to correct
some of your settings if you receive error messages.
Step 2 - Kerning settings (Advanced)
Step 2 - Kerning settings (Screenshot)
2.1 Preview text
To preview a text, type some characters in the Preview text field. Press
the Preview button, and an image containing the specified text will be generated and
displayed. This is very useful when experimenting with the kerning values.
2.2 Edit/Change kerning of a single character
Here you may edit the kerning values for a specific character. It is possible to edit the
values for each character in the font. The values are the amount of pixels that are added
before and after the specific character. The values may be negative.
2.3 Edit/Change kerningpairs
Here you can add and edit new kerning pairs. The kerning value is the space in pixels between
the two characters in the character combination specified. The value can be positive or negative.
Additional settings
Here you may set the width in pixels of the space character, and an additional kerning value.
The additional kerning value applies to ALL characters, and is a fast way to increase
(or decrease) the space between the characters.
The kerning values can be loaded directly from a font that is installed on the computer.
If you for example have been using the font Tahoma when creating your source image you might
want to copy the kerning pairs from that font so you don't have to add them manually.
Step 3 - Font information (Advanced)
Step 3 - Font Information (Screenshot)
3.1 General information
Font name
The full name of the font.
Description
The description of the font.
3.2 User information
Author
The author of the font.
Email
The email address of the author.
Homepage
The homepage of the author.
Copyright
Copyright information.
Step 4 - Testing and saving the font
Step 4 - Testing and saving the font (Screenshot)
4.1 Preview text
To preview a text, type some characters in the Preview text field. Press the Preview
button, and an image containing the specified text will be generated and displayed.
4.2 Saving preview image
Saves the preview image. Change the background value if necessary.
4.3 Saving font
Saves the font as a vpf file that can be loaded by the VPF Heading Generator and the VPF Info Reader component.
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