bdf2amiga(1) bdf2amiga(1) NNAAMMEE bdf2amiga - converts BDF fonts to Amiga assembly format SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS bbddff22aammiiggaa [-d OutputDirectory] [-f FamilyName] [-h] [-i] [-v] BDFfile DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN This program converts X11 fonts in BDF format to Amiga assembly, which can then be assembled and linked on an Amiga to generate Amiga bitmapped fonts. The generated assembly is saved in a file whose name is formed by con- catenating the family name of the font (e.g., Times), its point size, and, if the font is bold or italic, the let- ters _i and/or _b, as appropriate, and with extension _._a_. E.g., for a Times font with size 12, the generated assem- bly file will be called _T_i_m_e_s_1_2_._a. OOPPTTIIOONNSS --dd OOuuttppuuttDDiirreeccttoorryy This option specifies the directory where the gen- erated assembly file will be created. The default is the current directory. --ff FFaammiillyyNNaammee Overrides the font family name contained in the BDF file with _F_a_m_i_l_y_N_a_m_e. As the font family name is used to form the name of the output file, this option is useful for fonts that do not contain their family name in the BDF file. _-_h Displays a short help message. _-_i Instructs _b_d_f_2_a_m_i_g_a not to generate references to Amiga header files, generating EQU directives for the symbols required by the generated code. This is not safe, as the information in these header files may change in the future. Thus, you should only use this option if you do not have access to the header files. _-_v Displays the program version. RREEQQUUIIRREEMMEENNTTSS +o X11 fonts in BDF format. An excellent source for such fonts, and the reason that this program was written, is the FreeType package (http://www.physiol.med.tu-muenchen.de/~robert/freetype.html), a TrueType engine which comes with a font previewer for the Amiga and a TrueType to BDF conversion utility. (The latter is contained in the ``full'' distribution package.) +o An assembler. I have used a68k successfully. Kriton Kyrimis 13 May 1998 1 bdf2amiga(1) bdf2amiga(1) +o A linker. I have used slink, but blink should work just as well. EEXXAAMMPPLLEE Let us say that you want to convert a font called Fancy- Font12.bdf to Amiga format. This can be done with the following steps: 1. Convert the font into Amiga assembly, by using _b_d_f_2_a_m_i_g_a: bdf2amiga FancyFont12.bdf This will create a file called something like Fancy- Font15.a (see the bugs section). 2. Assemble the font: a68k -iinclude: FancyFont15.a This will generate FancyFont15.o. 3. Link the font: blink from FancyFont15.o to 15 or slink from FancyFont15.o to 15 noicons depending on which linker you use. This will generate file 15, which is the font in Amiga format. 4. Create a directory named FancyFont in the FONTS: direc- tory, and put file 15 there. Run fixfonts to generate FONTS:FancyFont.font and to make the font available to your Amiga. (If you are converting many fonts, you need only run fixfonts once, after all the fonts have been converted.) AAUUTTHHOORR Kriton Kyrimis BBUUGGSS On the Amiga, the size of a font is its vertical size in pixels, and not its point size, which is a rough measure of the width of the font's characters. As X11 font size is point size, this has the result that the size of the generated font is different from the original. This program has been tested mainly with fonts generated by the _t_t_f_2_b_d_f program that comes with the FreeType pack- age, and only briefly tested with other fonts. If you add to this that since I didn't have any documentation on the BDF format I had to guess its structure by staring at sam- ple fonts, finding a font that breaks _b_d_f_2_a_m_i_g_a would not be very difficult. Let me know, and I'll see if I can provide a fix. Kriton Kyrimis 13 May 1998 2