January 30, 1993 (Originally December 14, 1992 for Mac Demo) B o r d e r F o n t s D e m o P S T Y P E 1 F O R W I N D O W S © 1992, Tom Davis Quick Communications (aka General Glyphics) 3322 Shorecrest, #100 Dallas, Texas 75235 Phone (214) 350-0952 CompuServe # 71041,100 This is copyrighted software. You may use this software without payment to me, it is intended as a demonstration of the larger -- unfinished -- product it was taken from. You may distribute this software in its original archive only. You may not distribute it for a profit. This package may not be included in software collections without written consent from the copyright owner. Now that the legal stuff is done. Hello, This is a preliminary version of a commercial product in development. The product is a PostScript Type 1 font that when typed according to the enclosed instructions, easily forms a continuous box border. (I have been calling them BorderFonts during development.) The idea of borders in font format is not new, but I believe these are the easiest and most reliable to use. I have worked on this concept for about a year and half. This involved working out the keyboard layout, developing the font building technique and testing the various designs on all sorts of computers and printers. Everything from imagesetters to dot matrix printers. I have had great success in making this concept work -- reliably and easily. The first package should be available in January 1993. (That would be mid 1993 in software years.) [They should be released mid to late February.] Each fonts contains the required elements to create a complete border. Each fonts also includes end-caps for the ends of the border elements in order to make finished rules. These are two such fonts are from the first package of twenty. These are fully functional. Certain aspects of the final product may change. (Also, the name BorderFonts and the company name General Glyphics Corporation are also preliminary and are yet to be finalized.) HOW TO USE THIS PACKAGE. BorderFonts are quite easy to use. Many testers have proven this. But it is clear that those who did not read the instructions had the hardest time using the borders. While BorderFonts are easy to use, they are not instinctive. It is important to read the instructions to get the borders to work. Once you get a feel for how they work, they become very easy to adapt to all sorts of uses. It is not a bad idea to reread the instructions after you have used the borders a few times. I could not include the documentation I made for the test package, it was done with PageMaker, FreeHand, Illustrator, Photoshop and lots of fonts. The folder for the Users Guide weighs in at 1.3 megabytes. But I feel it is important for you to SEE the best instructions I can give you. I have taken screen images of enlarged areas of the Users Guide saved as TIFF files and included them in this archive. Simply place the TIFFs into a page layout program and print them at 100%. DO NOT RESIZE THE TIFFS. Install these fonts like any other font. You must be using Adobe Type Manager. For a quick overview of the concept: Concept.tiff (this is a gray scale tiff) For Step-By-Step instructions: Step 1.tiff through Step 6.tiff To see other designs that have been finished: Design Sample.tiff If you are interested in more BorderFonts when they commercial version is released, feel free to call me a drop me a note on CompuServe. Tom Davis CompuServe # 71041, 100 214/3500952 Notes for BorderFonts On Windows These instructions are based on the Macintosh. (If Microsoft can do this, so can I.) Here are the few differences: 1) Installing BorderFonts You install BorderFonts as you would any other PostScript font -- in the Adobe Type Manager (ATM) Control Panel. The BorderFonts disk has all the fonts in a directory called PSFONTS. There is a sample Pagemaker file for you to examine, it includes several tips in using BorderFonts. 2) Names of BorderFonts The font names appearing in the Macintosh instructions show all the BorderFonts beginning with either ÒGGBordersÓ or ÒGGSuperBordersÓ. Due to some limitations of Microsoft Windows the Windows version of these fonts begin with either Borders or Superborders. 3) Dos and Donts The information in the Dos and Donts sidebar are accurate for the Windows versions of the programs mentioned, I have no practical BorderFont experience using other Windows programs such as Ventura Publisher or CorelDRAW! A Warning About Using a Service Bureau Since many service bureaus use Macintoshs to print even Windows documents, BorderFonts can be a problem. If your service bureau uses a PC to print your documents, you are OK, just be sure to send a copy of the BorderFonts with your document. If your service bureau uses Macs you cannot just take your fonts along, your PC fonts will not work properly, even if the service bureau converts them through the exact same program that made them. If you need high resolution mechanicals or color comps with BorderFonts using Windows, and you cannot get it done on a PC, you have two choices: 1) learn how to send the fonts inside a file prepared by printing to disk or 2) send them to me. The final version of the package will have fixed most of this problem. If you have any other problems or find inconsistencies, please call. I am perticularly interested in hearing ideas that increase the usefulness of BorderFonts in the Windows environment. Tom Davis T H I N G S T O K N O W BorderFonts will not work in a Word Processor -- they require their own text block like the kind you get in a layout program like PageMaker or Quark, or an illustration program like FreeHand or Illustrator. I do not advise converting these to TrueType because of calcuation errors that WILL occur during the conversion. These errors may cause the border elements to misalign. If I produce TrueType versions, they will need to be tweaked and checked individually. What you see on screen is very close to what you get on paper, but keep in mind that Adobe Type Manager is working with a low resolution device (the computer monitor) and is likely to generate some slight misalignments when drawing BorderFonts on your screen. When in doubt, print it out. It cannot be over emphasized that you must select the entire contents of the BorderFonts text block. After inserting the I-beam tool into the text type COMMAND-A [or theWindows equivalent] to Select All. This insures that every character in the block is selected even hidden control characters. Always give BorderFonts a wider text block than they need. This will allow them to align properly without being pressed together. Above all, experiment with BorderFonts, it is the best way to learn how to apply them to your design projects. When trying to match an exact dimension, it is best to: 1) determine the approximate size you want the border element to be; 2) type out the border and get as close to the width and depth as possible; 3) use the point size of the border to match the exact depth; 4) add or delete characters to match the width as close as possible; 5) extend or condense the characters to get an exact width match. Don't forget use tenths (even hundredths) of a point or percent when trying to get an EXACT match. IN ALDUS PAGEMAKER Make sure that tracking is set to NO TRACKING. An easy way to set the leading solid is to use autoleading and set the autoleading for the text block at 100%. This way the leading will change to match the size of the border automatically. To change the value of autoleading go to the Paragraph dialog box and press the Spacing button. Set the value of Autoleading to 100%. Consider creating a default style that contains your basic BorderFont settings: normal set width, no tracking, normal case, autoleading, 100% autoleading, no indents, no space before or after, left aligned. IN QUARKXPRESS An easy way to set leading to solid is to use the value +0. This adjusts the leading with the point size. Consider creating a default style that contains your basic BorderFont settings: 100% horizontal scaling, no tracking, lower case, +0 leading, no indents, no space before or after, left aligned. When you are finished with the border, send it to the back and lock it. IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR Use point text rather than a text block. It is easier to adjust and less cluttered. After setting the type size in Illustrator click on the word Leading this will set it equal to the type size. When you are finished with the border lock it to avoid accidently selecting it. IN ALDUS FREEHAND Although there is a setting for solid leading, it will not work properly with BorderFonts. You will need to enter the same number in the leading box as you have in the type size box. Use FreeHands outstanding layer control and put your border on its own layer. D O N T S Never apply styles like Bold or Italic to BorderFonts. These typographic effects will not print properly, regardless of what you see on the screen. Never justify the BorderFonts text block. Alignment of border elements will suffer greatly. Never, never use BorderFonts in a tasteless manner.