How to Use
CMF Font Editor
Version 1.0
CMF Font
Editor
allows you create and edit CMF format font
files. CMF fonts are used with AppForge's
MobileVB® product (a Palm O/S development platform). While MobileVB
does come with the MobileVB Font Converter® that allows you to convert True Type fonts
to CMF format, it sometimes maligns characters during the conversion,
especially curvy or italic fonts, and often cuts off the right
edges. Its not too uncommon to have a "B" turn out looking
like an "E". Their product does not allow you to edit end
results. Using CMF Font
Editor, you can edit Version 3 CMF fonts.
You also have the ability to create an entirely new font from scratch and
draw the characters yourself.
OPENING
AND VIEWING A CMF FONT
To open and view a CMF font, open CMF Font
Editor
and choose File | Open File from
the menu. Next, browse to the file and click on Open.
The main screen displays information regarding the font, a display of all
the characters within the font, and a blowup section where you can edit individual
characters.
The following fields are displayed for each font, some which can be edited and some which cannot. Those in a white box can be changed:
| Field | Description |
| File Name | This is the full path and file name of the CMF font file that is open. Please note that you generally have to place fonts within the C:\Program Files\AppForge\fonts folder for them to be accessible from within MobileVB. |
| Font Name | This is the internal name that describes the font. This is displayed in the font properties dialog, along with all other available fonts, from within MobileVB. |
| Font Style | What you choose here determines which Font Style category the font falls under from within the font properties dialog. Valid styles are Regular (none checked), or any combination of Bold, Italic, Underline or Strikethrough. Note however that while Underline and Strikethrough are supported in the CMF Version 3 format, they are not actually available from within MovileVB. |
| Size | This determines the height of each character in the font. You can change this while a font is loaded, and the display will resize. Valid sizes are between 4 and 72, although realistically, Palm fonts are somewhere between 11 and 17. If you resize a font downwards, you will not lose the pixels on the bottom that are cut off until you save, so you can resize back upwards and the pixels will appear again. |
| Line Spacing | This is the number of pixels to interject between successive lines when the font is displayed within a Palm application. You cannot actually see this in the CMF Font Editor display, but will have to test it on a Palm to see how it looks. Valid entries are between 0 and the font size (would look like double-spacing). |
| First Character Index | CMF fonts allow for partial character sets. This is the ASCII code of the first character to be used, usually 0 or 30. |
| # of Characters | This is the total number of characters in the CMF font. |
| Version | CMF Font Editor supports Version 3 CMF font files. |
| Please Note: You will not be able to open one of the default fonts that are installed with AppForge MobileVB because these are Version 2.0 formatted files, and CMF Font Editor only supports Version 3.0 formats. See this FAQ question for more information. |
EDITING A CMF FONT
When you open a CMF font, all available characters are displayed in the
Character Set Display in the lower left corner. You can click on any
character within this set to display it on the Character Editing Display to the
right. To change any pixel, left-click on it. This will toggle it on
or off. You may only "turn on" pixels to the left of the red
line, which displays this character's width. You can click on pixels to
the right to turn them off. When you select a character, its ASCII code,
as well as the typical representation of the character, are displayed in the
status bar.
You can adjust any individual character's width by using the arrow
buttons. When you do, the red line will move. Each character within
the font set can have its own width. This allows for a compact font
display, as opposed to fixed-width displays. Note that when your font is
displayed, there are no spaces interjected between characters, so you should
allow for at least one blank vertical line (usually the left-most column) if you
do not want you characters to butt up against each other. This may,
however, be desired for cursive-type fonts that appear to flow from character to
character.
Each time you click on a different character from the Character Set Display, a
copy of it is buffered. This allows you to undo any changes made to it
since you chose it. To do so, select Edit | Undo Changes
from the menu. However, if you make changes and then move to another
character, those changes cannot be undone.
CREATING A NEW CMF FONT
CMF Font
Editor allows you to create a new
font from scratch. Each character will be blank, and you can