Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 22:00:29 -0500 (CDT)
From: Aaron Ucko <UCKO AT VAX1 DOT ROCKHURST DOT EDU>
Subject: Re: libgrx fonts
To: OKRA AT max DOT tiac DOT net
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Organization: Rockhurst College; Kansas City, MO

>  I've been looking over the LIBGRX stuff and I have a few questions that
>aren't answered in the docs.  I'd try to build the test progs and just
>answer them for myself, but none of the makefiles work for me.

I think they require NDMake or something like that.

>1. Do LIBGRX fonts support greyscales or are they just b/w?
>2. Is there any plan to make LIBGRX fonts scalable?  Does the font format 
>   used support scalable fonts?

LIBGRX fonts are simply monochrome bitmaps; the specific format seems to
be some rarely used old X format.  The monochrome part is the rule for
essentially all fonts used by all ``normal'' programs, and the bitmap part
is rather typical as well.  You _may_ be able to get something out of
Borland's vector fonts with BCC2GRX, but I'm really not certain.

>  If LIBGRX fonts don't support greyscales and won't support scaling, 
>could someone refer me to a different library that does support these 
>things?  Or even specs for a relatively simple font format that I could 
>implement myself?

Um.  I think most scalable formats are proprietary, except for the
(rather complex) Adobe one, and for Metafont (which is more a programming
language than a font format anyway)...Try the comp.fonts faq to see if
you can obtain any enlightenment.  Monochrome bitmaps _are_ pretty much
common fare, though.

If your application isn't time-critical you can put your graphics in a PS
file and call Ghostscript to display them, but that's rather klugey.

>  Thanks for bearing with me.  I've gotten really frustrated trying to
>understand LIBGRX.  The same has happened twice before to the point where
>I gave up and have basically re-written most of what I would have used it
>for.  I'm incredibly patient about reinventing the wheel, but trying to
>understand someone else's uncommented code can drive me insane.
>							Kim

LIBGRX can be rather irritating, which may be one reason I never did much
graphics-type programming with DJGPP.  Perhaps Csaba will have improved the
documentation in V2.

--- Aaron Ucko (ucko AT vax1 DOT rockhurst DOT edu; finger for PGP public key) -=- httyp!
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