FontFX6 Disc
------------
 Data Store Software 1997

Thank you for purchasing FontFX6. This text gives
some general information about the disc, including
details of how to find the FontFX on-line manual.
           
Acknowledgements and Copyright Messages
---------------------------------------
Software issued by   Data Store Software
                     6 Chatterton Road
                     Bromley
                     Kent BR2 9QN    
          Tel: 0181-460 8991
          Fax: 0181-313 0400
        Email: dss@datstore.demon.co.uk
          Web: http://www.datstore.demon.co.uk/

FontFX was conceived and written by David Coronel,
based on certain ideas and coding examples from
Acorn Computers' 'RISC OS Programmer's Reference
Manual' and Computer Concepts' 'FontDraw'
application supplied with their 'Impression'
Document Processor.

Thanks also to the following persons whose help
and suggestions during development of this program
have been invaluable: the late and much-missed
John Durrant, who did more to turn me from being a
classics scholar into a computer programmer than
anyone else, Steve Sims, Tony Seddon, Oliver
Gunasekara, Edward Detyna, Gordon Taylor, Carl
Cepurneek, Matthew Neal, Toby Mackenzie, a fine
team of beta-testers, and last but not least,
Tristan (decd.) and Jethro, who by forcing me to
take them out for walks, helped me to cool down my
overheated brain!

Updates
-------
All Data Store software is unfinished, that is to
say, we are always looking to improve it! This
means that from time to time we will change the
release versions of the application on this disc.
If you have any problems running our software, or
indeed if you have any suggestions for its
improvement, do not hesitate to write to us. We
guarantee to reply, and we may be able to supply
updated versions of the software to cure your
problems straight away. If you are the first to
report a problem, there may be some delay whilst
we deal with it, so be patient. 

Manuals for the Programs
------------------------
FontFX has its own full on-line manual like this
one. You can read it in two different ways, via
the filer, or via the application itself. 

Filer help is obtained by selecting FontFX in its
directory viewer, then clicking the MENU button on
the mouse. Slide across the second option ('App
!FontFX ') and then select 'Help' from the
submenu.

To get the on-line manual whilst FontFX is
running, bring up its icon bar menu and slide
across the first option ('Info ') - an 'Info box'
will appear, giving the name and purpose of the
application, a copyright message and the date and
version number. In the top right hand corner is an
icon that looks like the letter 'i': if you click
on this icon, the on-line manual will appear. For
more details about the facilities within the
on-line manual program, read its own on-line
manual - you can do that right now if you wish!
Just click MENU on top of this text, and slide
across 'Info ', then click on the 'On-line
manual' icon at the bottom of the info box.

What's New in FontFX 6
----------------------

For those who may have owned earlier versions of
the program, here is a succinct list of the new
features in version 6.

          New effects:

Border effect - gives characters a separated
outline (as opposed to the integral outline
defined by outline colour and width)

Rainbow effect - fills each character in turn with
a different colour. The sequence can be from 2 to
16 colours long.

3D shadow effect - gives characters a 3D look.

Grow/Shrink effect - makes the characters bigger
or smaller within the string.

          Enhanced effects:

Colours - can now be chosen from a colour picker
box giving 16 million possibilities instead of 16.

Shadows - can now have their length and direction
freely defined. Also, the effect of shadow + arc
or circle has been improved.

          Improved operation:

A toolbox makes creation, saving and resetting
easier to achieve.

Compass controls make angle and direction settings
simpler to change.      

Example window helps visualise rotate/slope/lean
settings.

Swap case, create/save and save settings keyboard
shortcuts are available.

Many 'under-the-skin' improvements to make the
program slicker, smoother and more compatible with
other products.

Now supplied in a box with a printed manual.

History of FontFX6 Versions
---------------------------
v.6.00

First release

v.6.01 

Corrected small problem with colour picker
windows. If you selected an outline colour, but
no fill colour, then switched on rainbow effect
(i.e. selecting valid fill colours), and then
tried to switch off the outline colour, it wouldn't
(because the last fill colour was 'none').
Now you *can* select no outline colour if rainbow
is on and the last fill was 'none'. If you do this,
and then switch off rainbow, fill colour will revert
to the last valid fill colour *before* 'none' was
selected.

Fixed bug in colour picker windows. If you tried to
change the R, G or B values by typing in a value,
the computer would hang. Should have read PRM
page 5-243 more carefully...!

Fixed bug when using Bi-directional Circle with
leading or trailing (multiple) spaces.

New in V.6.02

Bug fixes:
If a colour in the rainbow sequence was white,
and you switched on the border effect with no
separate outline colour, those letters which
were white would be invisible. The 'gap colour'
should be black in those cases: this is now so,
except that because of (ii) below, it might not
actually be black!

If you saved a default choices file that
switched on rotate, slope or lean,
FontFX would crash, because it would try
to display the example for these facilities
before the main window was open. The opening of
the example pane is now only actioned if the
main window is already open. 

New features/cosmetic changes:

(i)    Border effect now obeys the outline width
       setting, to get thicker borders. Outline
       width and its arrow icons are therefore
       ungreyed when Border effect is selected,
       even if outline colour is none.

(ii)   The colour of the gap between the border
       and the character can now be specified by
       the user, using the normal colour-picker
       window method. If the same colour is selected
       for the gap as the fill colour of the
       characters, FontFX will automatically choose
       an alternative gap colour (the normal gap
       colour EORed), which is shown as a small
       triangular flash across the icon showing the
       selected gap colour. The BE script command
       now takes the gap colour as a suffix,
       e.g. \BE &FFFFFF00.

(iii)  The amount by which the text grows and 
       shrinks can now be specified as a percentage
       for the Grow/Shrink facilities. The script
       language stores the value as part of the
       command, e.g. \GR 45

(iv)   Arc/Circle direction and internal shape
       settings are now displayed as textual
       descriptions, and are altered using the menu
       button method, as with stencil size. As a
       result, the sprites for these settings have
       been removed from the Sprites and Sprites22
       files.

(v)    Rotate/Slope/Lean have now moved above
       Arc/Circle (with which they were mutually
       incompatible in any case). The
       Rotate/Slope/Lean example window still 
       appears over the Arc/Circle settings as
       before.

(vi)   The text start point for the Circle effect
       can now be set using the angle compass. The
       old \CI <direction> script command is
       therefore replaced by new commands \CA, \CB
       and \CC + <angle>, akin to the \AA and \AC
       commands. Script files containing \CI
       commands will still be understood.

(vii)  Because of the increased use of the angle
       compass, FontFX now remembers separate angle
       values for each of Rotate/Slope/Lean,
       Clockwise Arc, Anticlockwise Arc, Clockwise
       Circle, Anticlockwise Circle and
       Bi-directional Circle. When you switch effect,
       the last angle setting for that particular
       effect is restored.
