markdownify readmes

[vor.git] / README_font.md

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+# How the font is generated, and how to edit it.
+
+The font used in VoR is generated from the pixel layout in
+`font_template.txt.gz`. You can edit this file easily with vim. Don't unzip it,
+vim handles this for you. Just open it up and do `:set nowrap`. You should now
+see the font and be able to edit it nicely with replace mode (hit capital `R`).
+
+The font is generated from this template by creating a huge blob object in
+povray. A small diffuse sphere is created at the location of each `#` in the
+template file, and the result is rendered where the density of all those
+combined spheres is high enough.
+
+If you create a font that has considerably different dimensions you will have
+to fiddle with a few numbers in the sources:
+
+  * update the `TEMPLATE_WIDTH` and `TEMPLATE_HEIGHT` constants in `font_guts.c`
+
+  * If you've changed the aspect ratio considerably: update the "up" and
+    "right" vectors in `font.pov` These determine the aspect ratio, and what area
+    of the coordinate space is rendered. Be sure to leave enough space around
+    the edges so the font doesn't get clipped. Don't worry about excess black
+    around the edges, it will be cropped automatically after rendering. The
+    constant `OUTPUT_WIDTH` in `font_guts.c` is in povray units.
+
+
+The font template was created from the 10x20 font from the misc-fixed pack. It
+was tweaked slightly in particular so the dots on the `j`, `i` and `!`
+characters don't touch the rest of the character.