Symbian
Symbian Developer Library

SYMBIAN OS V9.4

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Bitmap distribution format files

fnttran supports BDF V2.2. Note however the following limitations:

See http://partners.adobe.com/ for further details of the bdf format.

Properties section

The Properties section starts with the keyword STARTPROPERTIES, followed by a number that matches the number of lines between it and the ENDPROPERTIES keyword (not including either). This section of a BDF file is designed to allow software vendors to store additional information: any line that is not recognized when reading it is ignored.

You may well find that a BDF file contains several lines of information stored in this area that are not part of the list that Symbian OS understands: these are often from the font foundry that produced the font. In general, it is a good idea to leave them in there, as:

There are a number of keywords that you should ensure are present in this area if Symbian OS is to understand it:

Uid uid

A UID for the font, expressed in decimal. This enables the font bitmap to be requested by UID (although selection by name and font specification is preferred).

MaxNormalCharWidth width

The maximum normal width of characters in pixels. Unless the font contains some unusually wide character that you will not normally use for text entry, this value can often be set to the same number as the first of the four parameters following the FONTBOUNDINGBOX near the start of the BDF.

MaxConsecutiveFillChars max

This keyword is optional. It controls whether breaks are made between code sections when there are breaks between continuous runs of characters in the input BDF file. It is used purely for optimisation and can usually be safely set to 5.

Bold [1/0]

If this font is bold, then this keyword should appear followed by 1. If it is not bold, then either follow it with 0 or don't use it at all.

Italic [1/0]

If this font is italic, then this keyword should appear followed by 1. If it is not italic, then either follow it with 0 or don't use it at all.

FONTASCENT ascent

This keyword is optional. If you know the ascent for this font (perhaps from the font foundry information also in this section), then use this keyword to specify the ascent value. This keyword will be ignored by versions of fnttran prior to 40.

FONTDESCENT descent

This keyword is optional. If you know the descent for this font (perhaps from the font foundry information also in this section), then use this keyword to specify the descent value. This keyword will be ignored by versions of fnttran prior to 40.