## Generate a Graphic Text Message

This demonstrates the use of the GIF_TEXT graphics text message generator.

> Would you like to see samples of the alphabytes and backgrounds?
> Would you like to run a special button generator
> Would you like to read a short description of the options

Enter the message:
Hints: Use `$t` to generate the time, `$d` to generate the date, or `$B` for a filled rectangle

Select an alphabyte font | optional.. a background | optional.. a color slide | optional.. width & height scale factors
|  | Or you can specify your own color slide (see below) |

Message width: and height:
A value of 0 for either width or height means:Use as many pixels as needed

The following options are less important (if you don't fill them in, default values will be used):

Vertical Alignment: Top || Middle || Bottom
Color slide horizontal fit: Tile || Stretch
Color slide vertical fit: Same slide for all rows || Tile || Stretch
Color slide measured from (blank=left edge, or a space delimited pair of 0 to 1 fractions):
Color slide threshold: Non 0 pixels || Any color > 40 Fade avg color, 1 to 200

Color slide probability: Always use || Increasing probability || Decreasing probability

Number of colors in user-defined color slide (0=do not define) | Color slide RGB intensity parameters (`0.0=0`, `1.0=255`) (space delimited) Red: Green: Blue:

Background color (6-hex-digits):, and Text-color (6-hex-digits):
Examples: 000000=black, ffffff=white, FF0000=red, 00EF9d=Cyan

Transparent color index (0 to 255, -1 for no transparent index):
Scale background (default is to tile)

Time Format | Date Format

Note: if you installed the smaller version of GIF_TEXT, only a limited subset of the above alphabytes and backgrounds will be available.

### Samples of the Alphabytes

Some short samples of a few of the alphabytes you can choose from...

Alphabyte name | Sample | Creator
Enviro |  | E-Mom's Rainbow Graphic Designs and Rozie's Alphabytes
Revue |  | Rozie's Alphabytes
Hobo |  | Rozie's Alphabytes
Mandarin |  | Rozie's Alphabytes
Stitches |  | Rozie's Alphabytes
Logger |  | E-Mom's Rainbow Graphic Designs
Andy#1 (drippy) |  | Andy's Art Attack
Andy#2 (typewritter) |  | Andy's Art Attack
Andy#4 (austere) |  | Andy's Art Attack

A sample of the backgrounds:

Return to entry form...

### Acknowledgements

This utilty would not have been possible without RXGD100.DLL ".GIF" library; a port of the GD library by Andy Wysocki.

...and, it would have been useless without the various and sundry alphabyte fonts and backgrounds, which were obtained from:

Rosie's Alphabytes
  http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/3055/alphabet.html (logo)
E-Mom's Rainbow Graphic Designs:
  http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/6404/rainbow.html (logo)
Andy's Art Attack:
  http://www.andyart.com (logo)
You might also want to check out ...
  - over 100 fonts/alphabytes at Daniel Guildkrans site
  - links to many alphabytes at http://www.ist.net/clipart/uwa/iconsfnt.html and at http://www.mangus.com/alphabet.html
  - the "food font" at http://www.planettell.com/planett/FF/,
  - some 3D alphabets at http://www.dewa.com/spell/,
  - a zillion "digit collections" (useful if you are interested in using GIF_TEXT as a clock) at http://www.digitmania.holowww.com
Some sources for buttons include:
  http://www.andyart.com, http://www.interwebb.com/users/cloe/, and http://hp5.econ.cbs.dk/~gemal/psychedupgraphics/index.html

### Description of options

The following briefly decribes the options mentioned in the form above. For a more complete description of the available options, see the GIF_TEXT documentation.

Option | Description
The message | The message. Note that for many FONTs, upper case will be used instead of lower case. Also, odd characters (such as [}*%) may be displayed using a simpler font. Lastly, the $ character has a special meaning: with $T, $D, and $B signfying the time, date, or a filled box.
FONT | The message is written with this font
Background | A background image to use
Color slide | A foreground image to use. Colors in this image are used instead of the colors that the FONTS are drawn with.
Width and scale factors | Transform the height and width of each character in the message, on a character by character basis (thus, some characters will be taller and wider then others).
Width and Height | You can specify the width and height of the entire image. If empty (or set to 0), GIF_TEXT will determine the width and/or height (as a function of the length of the message, the FONT selected, and the character specific width & height scaling). If not empty, GIF_TEXT will rescale the image to fit into this height and/or width (note that this rescaling occurs after character specific scaling).
Vertical alignment | Align each character at the top, the bottom, or the middle of the image
Color slide horizontal fit | When the color slide is not the same width as the image, you can stretch the slide to fit, or you can repeat the slide.
Color slide vertical fit | Similar to horizontal fit, but only used when the color slide is more then one row high. Note that using a same slide for all rows option will convert (for this image only) a multi-row color slide into a single row color slide.
Color slide measured from | Use this to create a color wash starting from anywhere in the image; with 0 0 defined as the top left corner, and 1 1 as the bottom right. The distance from this point to a pixel in the message image is used to determine which color slide pixel to use. In contrast, leaving this empty will cause a columnwise match to be used (after stretching/tiling).
Color slide threshold | Use this to determine how to decide which message image pixels to convert to color slide colors. You can use the pixel number, or the maximum or the average brightness (of the RBG colors). You can also have this threshold vary over the image.
Color slide probability | A fade-into effect: determines the probability of using a color slide color (given the threshold has been met). High probabilities (near 1.0) mean use the color slide color, low probabilities (near 0.0) mean to use the alphabyte's color.
Number of colors in user defined color slide | Instead of using a color slide file (a .GIF file), you can specify your own. The size (which should be less then 255) determines the length & number of colors in this color slide
Red, Green, Blue intensity parameters | Each of these should be a space delimited list of values between 0 and 1. Each of these are used to create graphs (with segment endpoint defined at each of these values). The user defined color slide is determined by the looking up (an R,B, and B value) on these graphs.
Background and Text colors | The background and text (foreground) color. Used when background images and color slides are not used.
Transparent color index | Used to allow background to show through -- a value of 0 (the default) is almost always used.
Scale background | Stretch or tile the background image (to the size determined by height & width).
Time and Date format | Select one of several time and date formats. Note that the time is written when a $T is included in the message, and the date when $D is included.

Back to entry form