gfontview - README

This is an ALPHA preliminar release.

gfontview is a Font Viewer for outline fonts (PostScript Type 1 and TrueType). 
It will display all fonts present in the chosen directory in a list,
with a preview of the font also present in the main window.
You can get the latest version from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Foothills/1458

It uses the GTK+ library (V1.2) for X11 windowing, t1lib (V0.8) as a PostScript 
renderer and the freetype library (V1.2) for TrueType rendering.
You can get read about and get GTK+ at 'www.gtk.org'
You can read about and get t1lib at 'www.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ini/PEOPLE/rmz/t1lib/t1lib.html'
You can read about and get freetype at 'www.freetype.org'

It also allows you to display a particular character or string of a font in an 
own window, thus allowing a comparison between several fonts with a particular 
string sample.
This character or string can be antialiased (smoothed). The string can also consider
the kerning pairs if available in the AFM or TTF file.

AFM files will be read (and generated if not present) by the t1lib.
Their expected location is either the same directory as the PostScript fonts or a 
subdirectory inside it called 'afm'.

A table with all glyphs in the font (for PostScript fonts, in several encodings) 
can also be created.
Clicking on each glyph of the table will open a popup window magnifying the glyph. 
The magnifying factor depends on the mouse button clicked. These glyphs are 
always without antialiasing.

Asynchronous error messages (like the ones generated when reading a font directory)
are collected sorted by font file name in an auxiliar window.

You can also print a sample of a font. The program generates PostScript code with 
sample strings in several sizes, which you can download to any PostScript printer 
or to ghostscript.
In the case of TT fonts, the font is downloaded as Type42, which means that if you use 
a Postscript printer, it must be at least a Level 2 printer and also have Type42 
support. ghostscript understands the format beginning with version 5.10.
It can also print a longer text in the selected font, thus allowing you to get an impresion
of how a text page looks like in the selected font.

Roberto Alameda
<alameda@ibm.net>
