C H I W R I T E R Horstmann Software Design P.O. Box 4544 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 ============================================================================== Contents: --------- 1. General Information 2. The Editor 3. The Print Server 4. The Font Designer 1. General Information ---------------------- Available Fonts: Greek Script Gothic ("Old English") Small Letters (for small capitals, super/subscripts) Math I (mathematical symbols) Math II (large operators, brackets) Supported printers: Epson MX/FX 80 C. Itoh 8520 Prowriter Okidata ML 92/93 Toshiba 1340/1351 Price List: CHIWRITER System: ............................................. $ 69.95 Includes: Regular version of the editor All of the above fonts and drivers, except for the Toshiba driver User manual Toshiba Support: .............................................. $ 19.95 Includes: Toshiba driver Very high resolution fonts for the Toshiba 2. The Editor ------------- To start the editor, type EDIT The default filename extension is .CHI. You should go through the lesson on TUTORIAL.CHI to become acquainted with the editing commands. Only the commands essential to get you started are introduced there. Some commands work under more general circumstances than described in the tutorial. You can activate the Help feature by hitting the [Alt-H]. Also, [Fn] [Alt-H] shows a keyboard chart of font n. The SYMBOL font contains line elements to construct tables. Look at DEMO.CHI for an example. Consult the User Manual for the logic behind the key assignments in this font. The DEMO font is a collection of characters from other fonts that are included in the full CHIWRITER package. All Chiwriter programs work with Prokey and compatible keyboard enhancers. All Chiwriter programs run under DOS 1.1 and higher. Under DOS 2.1 and higher, path names are fully supported. Since .CHI files are ASCII files (with the convention that 2 letter sequences starting with a \ have special meanings), the Chiwriter editor can read plain ASCII files, and spelling checkers can read .CHI files. We recommend the MicroSpell spelling checker from Trigram Systems 3 Bayard Rd. #66 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 It accepts CHIWRITER (as well as WordStar etc.) files without problems. It is very pleasant to use and very fast. Note: When using Microspell, change the character used to flag words that change in size to an accent grave (`). 3. The Print Server ------------------- To print a file, type PRINT or PRINT -DRAFT or PRINT -UNMIXED from DOS. The first mixes the enhanced or correspondence quality characters built into your printer with the draft fonts, the second uses the fastest fonts available on your printer instead. The third does not mix fonts with the built-in printer characters but instead prints high-resolution fonts. It is very slow. (The -DRAFT etc. tells the print server to read its startup parameters from DRAFT.PAR etc. instead of the default AUTOPRNT.PAR) For speed reasons, we use the BIOS print routine rather than the much slower DOS routine. That makes it somewhat harder to stop printing once it is in progress. If you need to, turn the printer off-line, but do not turn it off. After about 15 sec. the BIOS time-out routine reacts, and you can abort the program. You can change the header and footer options, either by editing the parameter file, or by calling the print server with PRINT only, changing parameters and saving the changes in a new parameter file. (The menu brought up by PRINT when called without parameters is hopefully reasonably self-explanatory). Special commands can be embedded into the header and footer strings. \P Print the page number \T Tab. Print 10 spaces \R Return. Advance by one row \1...\0 Font change to font 1 ... font 10 Once in a while, the printer produces garbage. This usually means a graphics control symbol got lost in the transmission line. Turn the printer off and on again to completely reset it, and restart PRINT. Some printers (e.g. the C.Itoh 8520 BPI) approximate the 1/216" carriage movement of the Epson by 1/144" movements. They do not produce good results with the standard Epson driver. The full CHIWRITER system contains a modified driver solving this problem. 4. The Font Designer -------------------- To design or change a printer font, type DESIGN For a screen font, type DESIGN -SCREEN For a draft font, type DESIGN -DRAFT In the first case, the startup parameters are read from the default AUTODSGN.PAR, otherwise from SCREEN.PAR or DRAFT.PAR. Screen fonts are 8 * 10 pixels, print fonts are 20 * 12 pixels and the draft fonts 10 * 12 pixels. (The Toshiba fonts are 18 * 24 pixels!). Once you are in the font designer, all characters in the font together with their associated keyboard character are displayed. From here, you can do one of the following: - Hit any keyboard character to edit the letter associated with it. - Hit [Alt-Q] to save the changes and quit. - Hit [Esc] to get to the command menu ([Esc] Q Y is the panic exit, just as in the editor) - Hit [PgUp], [PgDn] to scroll the display When you are editing one character, you can do one of the following: - Move the cursor with one of the 8 cursor keys ([Home] moves northwest, [PgUp] northeast etc...). - The [Space] bar toggles the pixel under the cursor. - To scroll the character, use [Ctrl-Left], [Ctrl-Right], [Ctrl-PgUp] and [Ctrl-PgDn]. (Thank the IBM engineers for blocking out [Ctrl-Up] and [Ctrl-Down] in the keyboard routine!) - To copy a character from the same font to the currently edited character, hit G ("Get") immediately followed by the key corresponding to the desired character. - To copy a character from a different font, hit R ("Read"). You will be prompted for the character and the font file. - To quit editing a character without changing it, hit [Esc]. - To quit and save the changes, hit Q. Either way, you are returned to the display of all characters in the font. There are more commands. Typing H brings up a little help menu. Chiwriter can read Fontrix fonts, but they tend to be rather big. Those fonts were designed for proportional spacing, and you would have to redesign the thin letters like i,l... But it can save a lot of time to start out with a Fontrix font rather than from scratch. See the manual on how to get Fontrix to read Chiwriter fonts.