FontGDOS Release - May 28, 1992 Legal Statement: FONTGDOS.PRG and its associated Drivers, Control Panel Extensions, Desk Accessories, and Installation Program ("FontGDOS") are Copyright 1989-1992 Atari Corporation. FontGDOS may not be uploaded to any bulletin board systems, included in any PD or user group libraries, sold, or distributed in any way without the express written approval of Atari Corp. In no event will Atari Corp. be liable to you for any incidental damages of any kind, including loss of profits or data, even if Atari Corp. is aware of the possibility of such damages arising from the use of this software. Atari is pleased to release FontGDOS, the latest version of the Graphic Device Operating System for Atari TOS-based computers. FontGDOS is a direct replacement for all existing versions of GDOS.PRG. It provides many benefits over the existing version of GDOS, as well as the "GDOS-clones" that are on the market: 1) Bitmap Caching for more efficient use of RAM; fonts are loaded into RAM on an as-needed basis instead of being resident constantly. 2) GEM/3 Bezier Curve VDI routines become instantly available to correctly written GEM applications. 3) More printer drivers are available than ever before, including Deskjet, Paintjet, Okidata Color, Epson Compatible 24-pin BW and Color. 4) Desk Accessories or Control Panel Extensions now allow you to easily change printer drivers on-the-fly. (Results will vary depending on how well-behaved the application is. Some applications will require that you select the driver before running it; well-behaved applications will allow you to select the driver anytime before actually printing.) 5) Desk Accessories or Control Panel Extensions now allow you to easily select or install other GDOS drivers and configure and install fonts. FontGDOS product support is provided in GEnie's Atari Roundtable, Category 14, Topic __. You may also send e-mail to me (B.REHBOCK) or Mike Fulton (MIKE-FULTON) if you have technical difficulties. Developers that are interested in correctly providing application printer output should contact Gail Bacani on 408-745-2022 to obtain the latest GDOS application information. It is available to registered commercial developers for free. United States and Canadian residents that are interested in GDOS programming can order the "GEM Programming Guide" from Atari Developer Relations for only $40.00 (US). The kit contains: 1) GEM Programming Guide, Volume 1 -- VDI (Third Edition: January 1989) Volume 2 -- AES (Third Edition: January 1989) 2) GDOS/FSM GDOS Developer Guide (10/91) 3) GEM Resource Construction Set (undated) 4) TOS Developer's Kit Disk #2: MicroEMACS / Source Code Examples / RCS Simply send a check or money order for $40.00 and a note indicating you would like to receive the "GEM Programming Guide" to: Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Attn: Developer Relations/Material Order Residents outside U.S. and Canada must contact their local Atari Subsidiary for the kit. Enjoy this latest operating system upgrade from Atari. Bill Rehbock Director of Applications Software, Atari Corp. A User's Guide to FontGDOS Copyright ½ 1992 by Atari Corporation Introduction: ------------- We should begin with a quick review of what GDOS is and what it allows you to do. GDOS is actually an extension of your operating system. It allows the programs that you run to output text and graphics to printers and other devices besides the screen. GDOS also enables you to print text in many different font faces. Instead of typing characters in the standard system font, you now have access to Swiss, Times, Typewriter, and a multitude of other fonts. GDOS is run when you first turn on your machine. For now, don't worry about where to put it or what it needs to run. Our install program will set your system up so that everything will be placed in the correct location. Basic Concepts: --------------- FontGDOS replaces the original GDOS. If you already have the original GDOS installed on your system, then your first question is probably, "What's the difference between the GDOS that I have now and FontGDOS"? The main thing is that FontGDOS uses memory much more efficiently than earlier versions of GDOS. For example, with the original GDOS v1.1, if you had 18 fonts installed for your printer, taking up 1.5 megabytes of disk space, then when your program tried to load printer fonts, GDOS would load all 18 fonts and use up 1.5 megabytes of your free memory (unless you didn't have that much memory available). This would be the case even if the document you were printing only used 3 or 4 of the 18 total fonts. One of the main new features in FontGDOS is "font caching". With font caching, you tell FontGDOS how much memory that you wish to devote to storing your bitmap fonts. This memory is called a cache. FontGDOS will wait to load in a font from disk until when it's actually needed, and then store it in the cache for quick access. When there is no longer any room in the cache for the next font, FontGDOS will remove something from the cache to make room. As long as the memory that you allocate for the cache is bigger than the largest font, FontGDOS will be able to use as many bitmap fonts as you wish in a limited amount of memory. An even more enhanced version of GDOS known as FSMGDOS is available separately for an additional charge. FSMGDOS uses special outline fonts which can be scaled to any size or rotated at any angle without a loss of quality (unlike bitmapped fonts). FSMGDOS also works with bitmapped fonts like FontGDOS, but FontGDOS does not work with FSMGDOS outline fonts. Contact your Atari dealer for information on obtaining FSMGDOS. Getting Started --------------- Installing FontGDOS onto your system is a simple task. Insert FontGDOS disk #1 into your floppy drive. Run INSTALL.PRG on this disk to install FontGDOS onto your system. The install program will walk you through the steps needed to install FontGDOS. When the installation is completed, you will have all of the necessary files on your system to begin. (The install program is the same for both FontGDOS and FSMGDOS. Make sure you select FontGDOS for installation unless you have FSMGDOS.) After the installation is completed, you must reboot your machine to enable FontGDOS. If you've installed it correctly, you'll get the new FontGDOS sign-on message while you boot up. If all went well, FontGDOS was installed and you should be seeing a normal desktop. If FontGDOS gives you an error message while booting up, run the install program again, paying close attention to any installation error messages which may come up. Note that the installation program will install brand new device drivers, and that old drivers for the original GDOS will not work correctly with either FSMGDOS or FONTGDOS. (However, Atari supplies drivers for most popular printers with FontGDOS and FSMGDOS.) FontGDOS should be compatible with all programs that use the original GDOS. Try running some of these programs to see how they work with FontGDOS. Note that the installation program will set up your system so that you can use all of your newly installed fonts immediately. To change the setup (e.g. if you want to use older GDOS fonts from an earlier GDOS installation), read the section below on how to use the FontGDOS Printer Selector accessory. Note: The remainder of the document will refer to accessories only, but in all cases the same thing applies to both the Desk Accessory the corresponding CPX modules as well. Refer to the documentation for the eXtensible CONTROL Panel (XCONTROL) for more information on installing CPX modules. In addition to the FontGDOS program, three accessories have been provided: Printer Config: This accessory is used to change your printer driver configuration; you can change the print quality, page size, number of colors, etc. Printer Selector: This accessory is used to select the type of printer that you are currently using and to control the installation of bitmap fonts and other GEM device drivers. FSM Font Manager: This accessory is used to set the size of the FontGDOS memory cache (and for several other purposes when FSMGDOS is installed.). You should not need to use these accessories very often, since the install program should set up your system to be ready to use. For more information on these accessories, please refer the sections below. The ASSIGN.SYS & EXTEND.SYS files --------------------------------- The ASSIGN.SYS file and EXTEND.SYS file contain the information for your FontGDOS setup. The ASSIGN.SYS file is used in exactly the same way with FontGDOS or FSMGDOS as with the original GDOS. All of the new information required by FontGDOS or FSMGDOS is controlled by the EXTEND.SYS file. If you use the accessories to create or modify your FontGDOS setup, they will manipulate the ASSIGN.SYS and EXTEND.SYS files for you, and you won't have to worry about doing anything with these files. Even if you have experience manipulating the ASSIGN.SYS file for the original GDOS, you will find using the accessories much easier. Setting Your Cache Size ----------------------- As mentioned before, FontGDOS does memory caching of bitmap fonts. It is a good idea to make the bitmap cache larger than the file size of the biggest bitmap font that you have installed. If the cache is too small for a font, the font cannot be loaded into the system. If the cache is too small to hold any bitmap fonts, then FontGDOS will ignore them altogether. To set the amount of memory used for the bitmap font cache, go to the "Options Menu" of the FSM Font Manager accessory and click on the "Outline Font Setup". From there, click on "Set Font Cache." The top two values, labeled "Character" and "Miscellaneous", are used by FSMGDOS for keeping track of outline font information. With FontGDOS, set both of these to zero. The last cache is the "Bitmap Font" cache used for bitmap fonts. To set the size for this cache, find out which bitmap fonts you use and what their file sizes are. To set the very minimal cache size, just set the cache to slightly bigger than the biggest bitmap font file. From there, if you want to improve speed and reduce disk accesses, you can increase the size of the cache as memory permits. Note: The accessory asks you to set the size of the cache in Kbytes. One Kbyte is equal to 1024 bytes, or characters, of memory. If your biggest font has a file size of 124,867, then you need a minimum cache size of approximately 125 Kbytes to accommodate it. After setting the desired cache size, select the "OK" button to return to the OUTLINE FONT SETUP menu. The Bitmap cache is the only setting in the FSM Font Manager accessory which is important to FontGDOS, so you don't need to change anything else. Select "OK" again. Now you should be back at the main menu of the accessory. Select "Save" to write the changed cache size back to the EXTEND.SYS file. FOR EXPERTS ONLY: The size of the cache used for bitmapped fonts is controlled by the: BITCACHE=?????? line in your EXTEND.SYS file. (Where ?????? means how many bytes of memory you want FontGDOS to use for the cache.) Using the Printer Selector Accessory ------------------------------------ For best results, step through these instructions while viewing the accessory on your computer. The main function of the Printer Selector is to allow you to choose which printer you wish to use with GDOS. This is particularly useful when you physically want to change printers (e.g. You switch from a dot-matrix printer for printing labels to a laser printer for word processing.). You can also select final or draft mode from this accessory. Selecting draft mode reduces the quality of output while speeding up printing time (Note that some printers do not support draft mode.). In addition, the Printer Selector is an accessory that manipulates the configuration file called the ASSIGN.SYS. This file contains the information on where FontGDOS locates its drivers and bitmap fonts and which of those GDOS should use. The installation program should have set up your ASSIGN.SYS file so that you don't really need to change anything. The accessory will be most useful to you when you need to change printers or add new bitmap fonts. Novice users should limit the changes made with this accessory although users familiar with the ASSIGN.SYS format will find it easy to configure their systems. When you run the accessory, it should come up displaying the current printer. If you wish to use a different printer, just click on the printer name, and select from the list that pops down. Notice the two buttons labeled "Quality:" which allow you to choose final or draft mode. To make other changes, such as changing other drivers, or the active bitmap fonts, or the pathname of the directory where the fonts and drivers are located, click on the "Options" button to enter a box labeled "MAIN MENU" which contains three buttons. Clicking on "Set Font/Driver Path" will come up a box showing the current path where FontGDOS expects to find bitmap fonts, printer drivers, and other device drivers. If you want to change this path, clicking on the pathname shown will bring up the standard file selector and allow you to select the drive and directory where the fonts and drivers are found. If you click on "Driver Installation", the top half should display the active devices (i.e. the drivers that applications can use). Use the up and down arrows to look at the different device numbers and their corresponding drivers. Note that you cannot delete devices 1 to 10 (they should always use "SCREEN.SYS" unless you have an add-on video card that uses a different screen device driver), but you can change the other entries. Device 21 corresponds to the "Current Printer" of the previous menu. You can change the printer driver from either menu, but the current menu allows you to change other devices as well. The list below shows the numbers for the basic device driver installation: Common Device Driver Numbers ---------------------------- 1 = Default Screen Device (Devices 1-10 are normally 2 = ST Low Resolution set to use SCREEN.SYS unless 3 = ST Medium Resolution an add-on video card is used.) 4 = ST High Resolution 5 = reserved 6 = TT Medium Resolution 7 = reserved 8 = TT High Resolution 9 = TT Low Resolution 10 = reserved 21 = Main Printer driver 31 = GEM Metafile driver (META.SYS) The bottom half of this menu is used to add more devices to the active list. Novice users should not worry about this section. To add devices, simply use the arrows to move to the device number you wish to add. The title above the arrows will change to indicate the type of driver that is expected (devices 1-10 are for the screen; 11-20 are for plotters; 21-30 are for printers; etc.) Once you have found the device number you want to add, then click on the box that says "None". A pop-up menu will appear and allow you to select the name of the device from the available drivers. (If the device driver you want is not shown, then it is not present in the font/driver directory recognized by FontGDOS. You must copy the driver to this folder before it can be installed.) To delete a device, use the arrows under "Active Devices" to find the device, then click the "Delete" button at the bottom of the menu box. To return to the previous menu, click on the "Menu" button. If you click on the "Font Installation" button, you can add or delete GEM bitmap fonts for different devices. As you step through the different devices (by clicking the arrows), notice how each device has a set of fonts listed. These are the available bitmap fonts an application will see if it uses that device. (Some devices may not have any fonts installed.) Devices 1 through 10 represent the different screen modes. Device 21 is the main printer device, the one that your applications are most likely to use. If you wish to add fonts for a particular application, add them to the devices that will be used by that application. (Typically, this will mean the screen devices and printer device #21). To actually add fonts, move to the desired device number, then click on the drop-down menu called "Active Fonts" and click on "Show Inactive Fonts". Now click on the fonts that you want (hold the shift key to select multiple fonts) and click on "Append". You can return to the list of active fonts by clicking on the drop-down menu called "Inactive Fonts" and selecting "Show Active Fonts". To remove fonts from a device, move to the desired device number. Now click on the fonts that you want (hold the shift key to select multiple fonts) and click on "Remove". Note: To install a font, it must be located in the directory specified earlier in the Font/Driver path setting. Also, the different screen modes can share the same fonts to a certain degree. Most modes use square pixels. These modes can use the same bitmap fonts. But ST Medium Resolution and TT Low Resolution have rectangular pixels, and cannot use the same fonts as the other screen modes (or the same as each other). When you are done changing the font installation, select "Menu" to return to the MAIN MENU box. Return to the top menu of the accessory by clicking on the "TOP MENU" button. If you have made changes and want to save them so that they will become active, select the "Save" button. An alert will ask if you want to save the ASSIGN.SYS file. Select "OK" to save your changes, or "Cancel" if you change your mind. To exit the accessory, select the "Exit" button. If you have made changes and haven't saved them, then you will see an alert telling you that the options have changed, and asking if you want to save the ASSIGN.SYS file. Select "OK" to save your changes, or "Cancel" if you want to exit without saving them. Any changes made will be used the next time a device is opened by an application. If a device is already in use, then you will not see your changes happen until the device is closed and reopened. Using the Printer Config Accessory ---------------------------------- For best results, step through these instructions while viewing the accessory on your computer. The Printer Config accessory is used to change settings in the drivers for items such as the page size, print quality, or number of colors. Configuring drivers should be done before running an application. If a driver is already in use, you will not see the changes happen until the next time the driver is opened. If you click on "Select Drivers", a standard file selector will appear showing you the available device drivers. (All device drivers will be shown, not just printer drivers. Also, drivers will be shown even if they are not currently active.) Select the printer whose driver you wish to change. You should now see a display of the driver specifications. If a box is shadowed, you may change the value by clicking on it. If the particular printer driver you have chosen supports a particular feature (e.g. different page sizes or color palettes), use the pop-up menu to look at the available selections. All you need to do is click on the appropriate selection. Note that some drivers do not have any configurable features, and that the accessory will modify the actual driver file on your floppy or hard disk when a modification is made. Do not modify your only copy of a driver file. Using the FSM Font Manager Accessory ------------------------------------ For FontGDOS, the only portion of the FSM Font Manager Accessory that is important is the part that lets you set the cache size for bitmap fonts. See the section above labeled "Setting Your Cache Size" for information on using this part of the accessory. QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE --------------------- To Set Cache Sizes: ------------------- 1) Run the FSM Font Manager accessory. 2) Use Options Menu to select "Outline Font Setup" and select "Set Font Cache". 3) Set "Character" and "Miscellaneous" to 0 if using FontGDOS. Set "Bitmap Font" to the amount of memory (in Kbytes) that you want to use for the cache. (This should be at least as large as your biggest font.) 4) Select "OK". Select "OK" again. Select "Save" to save your changes. You must reboot for the new cache size to be used. To Change Printer Drivers: -------------------------- 1) Run the Printer Selector accessory. 2) Click on pop-up below "Current Printer". It will currently show the active printer. 3) Select the name of the desired new printer driver. 4) Select "Save". Your new printer driver will be used the next time an application opens the printer device. To Change Bitmap Fonts: ----------------------- 1) Run Printer Selector accessory. 2) Click on "Options" then on "Font Installation". 3) Select the desired device number with up/down arrows. 4) To add fonts, click on "Active Fonts" menu, and choose the "Show Inactive Fonts" option. Click on the desired fonts and use "Append" button to activate. 5) To remove fonts, With "Active Fonts" menu shown, click on the desired desired font names and use the "Remove" button to deactivate. (If the "Inactive Fonts" menu is shown, then click on it and choose the "Show Active Fonts" option to change the menu.)