
WAVEFRONT FONTS

This directory contains the necessary software which can be used to convert
Type 1 font outlines into Wavefront .obj files which in turn can be used
with Wavefront's Advanced Visualizer.


BACKGROUND

Adobe Illustrator (on the Macintosh) has the unique ability to be able to
create text outlines from Type 1 fonts.  If one creates a document containing
each character in a font, this program can be used to turn those characters
into polygonal outlines.  This data may then be saved in postscript format.
The files in this directory (ending in .ps) are examples of these files.

The program called "pstoobj" converts these postscript font files into obj
files.  For each font, two files are created by this program:

	- a font file (.obj)
	- a bounding box file (.dsc).

The obj file contains definitions for each character in the font.  The dsc
file, which contains bounding box information for each character, is used
to properly space the characters in any resulting text.  Because the font
names are trademarked, I have renamed the fonts.  Names I have chosen are:

	- news (Times)
	- compact (Helvetica)
	- mono (Courier)
	- greek (Symbol)

Once these Wavefront compatible font files are generated and loaded into
the proper directory, the program "texttoobj" may be used to create an obj
file containing any string of characters.  In short, this is a three step
procedure:

	- create postscript files containing the font outlines (done once)
	- convert these files to obj format (done once)
	- use the "texttoobj" program to create an obj file of text (done
	  whenever you need to create a text object)


This archive contains the following files:

README		#this file
Makefile	#used to build and install the fonts
install_fonts	#sample script to build and install font files
pstoobj.c	#code that converts postscript into obj format
FontOutlines	#directory containing postscript files
OBJECTS		#this is where pstoobj temporarily puts the obj files
texttoobj.c	#C code that pulls individual chars out of obj font files
texttoobj.1	#man page for texttoobj
ascii.c		#C program that generates an ASCII list of characters
ascii_set	#the ASCII character set


To install these fonts, follow these steps:

	- edit the Makefile changing the destination of the fonts
	- type "make install"

NOTE:  You will get some errors about "Bad outer element ordering".
These messages can be ignored.

Please direct any comments, bugs, or suggestions to Wes Barris (wes@msc.edu).
