Welcome to FEdit 1.3!

FEdit is a small and nice visual editor for the MGRX own font format. It runs
in all plarforms supported by the MGRX Graphics Library.

FEdit installation instructions
===============================

Requirements:
-------------

  The source files:  fedit13.zip
  This document:     readme.txt
  
Dependencies:
-------------

  Before compiling FEdit you must have MGRX instaled in your system, at least
  in his version 1.3.5. Go to www.fgrim.com/mgrx for instructions.

A. Unpacking the FEdit archive
------------------------------

  1) 'cd' to a directory where you want the FEdit file tree to be created
     as a subdirectory. Examples are:

        DJGPP : C:\MYPROGS
        Mingw : C:\MYPROGS
        Linux : ~/myprogs

  2) Unpack the FEdit archive:

        unzip fedit13.zip

     This will create the subdirectory 'fedit13'.

B. Compiling FEdit
------------------

  1) Go to the "fedit13" directory

  2) run 'make -f <your makefile>':

     makefile.dj2 for DOS/DJGPPv2
     makefile.w32 for Win32/Mingw
     makefile.lnx for Linux/framebuffer
     makefile.x11 for Linux/X11

     This process generates the "fedit" executable ("xfedit" for the
     X11 version) and the two utility programs getright and putright.

     Note for DJGPP/Mingw users: Do _not_ use an environment variable
     `SHELL' leading to `bash', e.g. `SHELL=/djgpp/bin/bash.exe'.
     Do not use MSYS either. The DJGPP/Mingw Makefiles must be run with
     the normal 'command.com'.
     
     Note for Mingw users: use "mingw32-make" instead "make". The 
     compilation was tested with the 32 bit version of "TDM-GCC"
     mingw32 distribution.

Runing FEdit
============

  To faciltate first tests some MGRX fonts have been included in the
  "fonts" subdirectory. If you want, you can copy all the fonts that
  come with the MGRX distribution to this subdir, to work with them
  without breaking anything.
  
  Run FEdit using this command (use "xfedit" for the X11 version):
  
  "fedit [--gm width height bpp] [--mx maxglyphs] [--nodb] [fontname]"
  
  "--gm width height bpp" are optional parameters to set the desired
  graphic resolution (default 1200 800 8). Note that the graphics
  drive will set the nearest possible resolution to the desired one.
  
  "--mx maxglyphs" sets the maxglyphs parameter (default 1024)

  "--nodb" doesn't use double buffer for graphics. By default a double
  buffer is used, this producess always smoother graphics, but it can
  be slower or faster depending of the videodriver.
  
  "fontname" must be the name of a .fnt file  or any font name that MGRX
  can read and convert to his own .fnt format (by example in X11 you can
  use a system font like
  "-adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--34-240-100-100-m-200-iso8859-1").

  Examples:

  fedit fonts/pc8x16.fnt

  fedit fonts/ncen40b.fnt --gm 8000 8000 32  (this goes fullscreen)

  Note that with the X11 and W32 versions you can resize the FEdit window
  in run time.

Using FEdit
===========

  Obviusly some knowledge about fonts and specifically about MGRX fonts
  is needed, but I expect the use of FEdit will be intuitive. After
  loading the font you will see a menu bar and two main panels. Note that
  only one of them has the focus (the one with a yellow border). Use
  F8 or click the mouse in a panel to change the focus.

  The left panel, with space for 1024 glyphs by default (it can be changed
  with the --mx parameter), will be loaded with the font glyphs, wich number
  will be probably smaller, you can use the rest of glyph space like a work
  area (or to make a font with more glyphs of course).

  You can select one glyph using the cursor Keys or the mouse, hit Return
  or the rigth mouse button to show a context menu and load or paste the
  glyph from the right panel.

  The right panel is a zoomed dot matrix showing the glyph pixels where
  you can edit them. To navigate and changing pixels either use the cursor
  and Return keys or click with the left mouse button.

  For proportional fonts note that there is a yellow vertical line (the
  glyph width) that you can move left or right. You can change any pixel
  but only pixels left to the vertical line will be saved when you paste
  the glyph.

  Explore the menu bar for the different options avaliable. We only explain
  here some of the less obvios characteristics.

  "Save Font" will let you select the glyph range to save, to change other
  font properties use "Edit properties" first.

  "Append glyphs from Font" load a glyph range from a different font into
  the font being edited. It is not necesary that both fonts have the same
  box dimensions, the program copy as much as it can. The parameters X and
  Y origin defines the point where the top-left point of the loaded glyph
  will be draw.

  "Convert to fixed Font" convert a proportional font to fixed. All witdh
  glyphs will be changed to maxwidth and centered.

  "Convert to prop. Font" do the oposite, but it only sets the font as
  proportional without moving the glyphs, if desired you need adjust each
  glyph by hand.

  "Resize Font box" only resize the box, not the glyphs. A dialog will
  let you adjust each border box in a positive (expand) or negative
  (shrink) amount. You can use this option to move all glyphs at once, by
  example adding +1 to the left border and -1 to the right border you
  move all the glyphs 1 pixel to the right.
  
  "Resize Font" really resize the font, but only for the glyphs in the
  font range. Results can vary depending of the relation between the old
  font box and the new one. Note that you must supply the new mean width,
  no the new max width.

  The "Load Font from Hershey data" option generates a MGRX font from a
  Hershey vector font. A dialog appears to define the parameters for the
  conversion. A complete set of the Hershey vector fonts is distributed
  with FEdit. See the readme.txt file int the "hershey" subdirectory for
  more information.

  In doubt you can ask me or read the source.

getright & putright
===================

  The .fnt format doesn't carry copyright information, but it can be
  added at the end of the file and showed by example with the "strings"
  command. Indeed most of the fonts that comes with MGRX have copyright
  info in this way.
  
  The two utiliy programs getright & putright can get or put copyright
  information from/at the end of the font file.
  
  Usage:
    getright fontname [> rightsfile]
    putright fontname rightsfile

  Note that putright erases any previous copyright information.

License
=======

  FEdit is free software, you can redistribute and/or modify it under
  the GPLv3 license. See the "LICENSE" file for details.


Enjoy, M.Alvarez <malfer at telefonica.net>

