Window Commands - Scrolling and Zooming

The Visible Rectangle

Characters may be larger than the Character Window at the present zoom factor. In this case, only some rectangular part of a character is displayed. We call the presently displayed part the visible rectangle of the character.

The Focus

One point of particular interest in the current character may be declared to be the focus. This focus has a special meaning for a variety of operations. For instance, when zooming into a character with the Window->Zoom command, the focus will define the center around which to magnify the character. The focus is relevant for a number of additional commands. Note that the visible rectangle origin (VX, VY) in the Character Properties Window will change when the character is zoomed into, as the focus staying in place will cause the upper left corner to change.

Window->Scroll

If the current character is too big to be shown in the character window at the present zoom factor, the character can be scrolled on the window with the Scroll command. The character is grabbed by depressing the left mouse button, and a new tentative position is determined by releasing the left mouse button. The mouse movement can be restricted horizontally (SHIFT down) or vertically (CONTROL down). The arrows scroll by one-pixel (SHIFT+arrow: 10, CONTROL+arrow: 50, CONTROL+SHIFT+ARROW: 250 pixel) increments. Clicking the left mouse button when both SHIFT and CONTROL are down will reset the visible rectangle into the character at (VX=0,VY=0); i.e. the origin is again in the upper left corner of the screen. Scrolling is terminated clicking the middle mouse button; the tentative position becomes final. Note that (VX,VY) in the Character Properties Window reflect the change to the visible rectangle of the character. Note that the focus may also move outside the visible rectangle.

The right mouse button aborts the scroll operation and resets the previous visible rectangle.

Window->Scroll Both

Both the foreground and the background characters are scrolled together with the Scroll Both command.

Window->Align with Back

The Align with Back command scrolls the current character with respect to the background character. Five possibilities are displayed in the input window. The user chooses the desired selection:
Bases
The foreground character is scrolled such that its base point will coincide with the background character base point.
Widths
The foreground character is scrolled with respect to the background character such that their (base point+width), i.e., the right ends of their character boxes, coincide.
At left
The foreground character is scrolled to the left of the background character (such that the foreground base point+width and the background base point coincide).
At right
The foreground character is scrolled to the right of the background character (such that the foreground base point and the background base point+width coincide).
At left (kerned)
The foreground character is scrolled to the left of the background character (like At left), adjusted by the kerning pair for the (current character, background character).
At right (kerned)
The foreground character is scrolled to the right of the background character (like At right), adjusted by the kerning pair for the (background character, current character), as specified in the current font.

Window->Focus

The focus for the current character is determined via positioning; its initial position is in the upper left corner of the character.

Window->Focus Both

The Focus Both command determines the focus for both the foreground character and the background character, via positioning.

Both the focus of the foreground and the background character will be set according to the position determined by the user. Note that, in case either the foreground or the background character is a raster character with a zoom factor exceeding 1, the focus is always rounded to the closest pixel corner.

Window->Zoom

We distinguish here between raster and curve characters.

Raster characters are, by default, displayed with a horizontal and vertical zoom factor of 8; each character pixel is displayed as an 8 by 8 dot square. The zoom factors can be stepped up to 64 and down to 1/64, by powers of 2. The user issues the Zoom command. For raster characters, the user is presented with a menu in the input pop-up window from which to choose the zoom factor. Factors can be chosen which are powers of two, in the range [1/64, 64].

For curve characters, zooming in/out will display larger or smaller outlines, leaving the pixel size unchanged (always one). There is only one zoom factor for both the horizontal and the vertical, which is determined with the Zoom command. The user is presented with a slider in the input pop-up window. This slider initially shows the range [0.01,5], on which the zoom factor can be chosen, with an increment of 0.01. By choosing fine from the menu to the left of the slider, an increment of 0.0001 is made to apply. Note that the R11 key will reset the slider value to 1.

Window->Zoom Both

Both the foreground and the background characters can be zoomed simultaneously with the Zoom Both command.

For each curve character, the user is shown a slider in the input pop-up pop-up, and for each raster characters, the user is shown a menu with zoom factors in the range [1/64, 64].

Window->Previous Zoom

The command Previous Zoom reinstates the zoom factor in effect before the last Window->Zoom / Window->Previous Zoom command, or Magnification / Reduction tools.

Window->Paint->Show Paint

For curve characters only, the command Show Paint shows, for all those contours in the symbol for which the paint mode was defined, how that particular contour is to be painted (see the section on Painting Curve Characters.

Window->Paint->Hide Paint

For curve characters only, the command Hide Paint cancels the effect of the Window->Paint->Show Paint command, i.e., the paint modes are not shown any more.

Window->Corners->Show Corners

For curve characters only, the command Show Corners highlights all those curve end points at which two curves meet non-smoothly (at an angle other than 0 or 180 degrees), i.e. where a corner is formed.

Window->Corners->Hide Corners

For curve characters only, the command Hide Corners cancels the effect of the Window->Corners->Show Corners command, i.e., those curve end points at which two curves meet non-smoothly are not highlighted any more.

Window->Inflections->Show Inflections

For curve characters only, the inflection points of curves are shown, highlighted with big marks. (At inflection points, the curve changes the direction of its curvature, like in the middle of an S: the rotation direction changes from clockwise to counterclockwise or vice versa.)

Window->Inflections->Hide Inflections

For curve characters only, the command Hide Inflections cancels the effect of the Window->Inflections->Show Inflections command, i.e., inflection points are not highlighted any more.

Window->Colors

If the user prefers a different color assignment than that provided by default, that assignment can be changed with the Color command. The command presents the user with a pop-up window containing menus with the color for each kind of graphic display. Different colors can be chosen from those menus. The effect of the choice can be previewed with the Apply button. The choice will, however, only come into effect for later use when leaving the window with the OK button. Leaving with Cancel will keep the color settings in effect prior to entering the Color command.

Note that the Color command cannot be executed if less than 64 colors are available.