Category : DeskTop Publishing in the 1990's
Archive   : HPL2VEN.ZIP
Filename : HPL2VEN.TXT

HPL2VEN
A Font Conversion Utility

If you use Ventura Publisher you probably love everything about
it. But, almost everyone I know wishes that they could add a few
fonts to the list. If your in that group you'll be happy to know
that most (but not all) fonts that are available for the HP
Laserjet can be converted for use with Ventura. All the tools
needed for the conversion are found on the utilities disk. The
only problem is that the process of conversion is tedious and not
very well documented. I played around with the conversion
programs until I got reasonably adept at getting what I wanted.
But converting more then a couple of fonts at a time was just not
something to look forward to. Their had to be a better way.
HPL2VEN is, at least for me, less frustrating and a lot faster.
A few words of caution before you begin. I wrote this little
program for myself and can not guarantee that you will get
acceptable results. I will accept no responsibility for any
problems that you encounter. All I can say is that it works very
well for me and I use it all the time.
Because I wrote the program initially only for myself I decided
to include very little error checking. If I were to get some
favorable response I might be persuaded to polish things up a
bit. but for now you will have to be very careful that what you
type in at the prompts is what you meant. You will just have to
break out of the program, delete the files that the program
created and start over. If you make a mistake but don't notice it
the bat files that are created will run but may produce files
that don't do what you had hoped for.
The program makes use of color to keep the different prompts
separated so that you can keep track of where you are in the
program. If you don't have color this program may not work.
The program works by taking your input and creating a .BAT file
and a .LST file that utilize the programs from the utilities disk
to convert the HP font files, create the font metric files for
use in creating the width table and finally to create the width
table.
Step by step:
1. Create a directory to work from.
2. Copy three files from the Ventura utilities disk.
a) HPLTOFNT.EXE
b) HPLTOVFM.EXE
c) VFMTOWID.EXE
3. Copy the fonts that you wish to convert to the new directory.
4. Copy HPL2VEN.COM to the new directory.
5. Type HPL2VEN and follow the prompts.
6. Run the batch file that HPL2VEN created.
Depending on how many and how large the files are that you are
converting, the batch file may take quite a while to complete. If
all goes well you should end up with one new width file and new
font and font metric files for each of the fonts that you
converted.
You then copy the width table and the font files to the VENTURA
directory. The font metric files (VFM) are not needed but you may
wish to keep them with your back-ups.
The next step is to test the font by outputing something to see
if the new fonts work. Be sure to change the width table in the
SET PRINTER INFO dialogue box. If everything looks right on the
screen and prints out right, then you can merge the new width
table with the default table.
Sometimes, and I don't know why, a new font will look very
strange on the screen but print out fine. If this happens make a
back-up of your default OUTPUT.WID table and try merging the new
one anyway. Sometimes this solves the screen problem. When the
program asks for font type you may have to go to the Ventura
manual (k. 15) to look up the code. This seems to have something
to do with which screen face is used.
Expect to do some experimentation before you get things right.
Try converting just one font first. When you are sure that one
works the rest will probably go much easier.
My personal set up includes the Tall Tree Jlaser Plus board and a
Canon LBP-2A laser printer. I don't have access to other printers
so I can only assume that this procedure will work with other
printers.
Remember, always work with back-ups. Keep all your conversion
files in a directory to themselves and proceed with caution.
Since this is the very first version of this program, I am not
going to beg for the usual donations but I would appreciate any
comments. If I can be of assistance please call at the number
below.

Vince Campbell
P.O.Box 8313
Atlanta, Georgia 30306
(404) 872-0334