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Don
Lancaster's Guru's Lair Font & Bitmap Manipulation Library |
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Did you know the word 
can be shown legibly as a 2x3 dot matrix?
This library page holds a collection of fonts, utilities, tutorials, and
demos of some exceptionally legible low resolution font and bitmap
manipulation techniques.
I needed methods to let Acrobat ~directly~ generate .BMP bitmaps,
to be able to retouch panel lettering on test equipment images, to
improve .GIF banners, to "alpha" mix topos and aerial images, and
to continue my ongoing interests in alpha transparency and ultra small
font displays as used for screens and ebooks.
I also need methods to resample images. To increase their size, do
dodging & burning, or attempt perspective correction.
In general, this stuff is hand crafted and does strange things in odd
ways. Some docs may be skimpy. Others are partial or incomplete.
But these do what I want them to.
Our actual precision bitmap fonts have been split out into a separate
BMFONT01.ASP library page. You'll find fonts, font generators, and
demo plots here. Plus a new tutorial and a new bitmap typewriter.
Often, a routine will be based on my PostScript Gonzo Utilities. You
bring it up in an editor or word processor, send it to Acrobat Distiller,
and then use the resultant log file, PDF file, or (yes!) .BMP file for
your final app.
Consulting help is available per our InfoPack services. Related info can
be found on our PostScript, Acrobat, and Webmastering library pages.
| Antialiased Fonts: | . |
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The usual anti-aliasing gets done after the fact and is simply a
Gaussian low pass filter. A much better true integer anti-aliasing
can be done that adds up to thirty times the info. And thus greatly
improves the legibility of small fonts.
You can click here for an anti-aliasing tutorial.
Such fonts are intended for one pixel size only and consist of an
array or list of individual pixel grayscale values with 0=black and
1=white. Each pixel's gray value equals the integrated average value
of the white and black areas of the true font character going through
that pixel. These values can then be used with suitable positioning apps
to dramatically improve limited resolution legibility.
These fonts have been newly added to a Font Repository library page.
Full color, transparency, and true alpha overlays are easily done.
These techniques are exceptionally useful to improve the panel lettering
on images of eBay test equipment for sale.
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PS Antialaised font creator ANTIFONT.PSL PostScript creates true integral antialiased fonts starting with ordinary PostScript fonts. Makes size specific grayscale arrays. Read in editor, modify, send to Distiller, copy log file. |
Click here for the PDF repositioning aide demo.
Click here for the antialiased font result.
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Antialiased font library BMFONT01.ASP Partially populated collection of true integer antialiased grayscale fonts in smaller pixel sizes. Each character is an array of grayscale values of black=0 and white=1.Includes generators and demos. |
Click here for Live Auction bargains.
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PDF to Bitmap Generator PDF2BMP.PSL PostScript code to directly generate a .BMP file using Acrobat Has bitmapped and true antialiased fonts, transparency overlays, graphics, and full alpha proportional overlays. |
Click here for the grayscale font & bitmap demo.
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PS BMP Image word retoucher IMGWORDS.PSL A modification of PDF2BMP.PSL whose demo is optimized for creating lettering to optimize test equipment panel callouts. Includes partial data for Tek TG501. |
Click here to reach the Bitmap Font Repository.
Click here for the text transfer file result.
Click here for the 2:1 blended artwork original.
Click here for the final 1:1 eBay Image.
Click here for a newer bitmap typewriter.
Click here for a newer intermediate transfer demo.
Click here for a newer eBay image.
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Blatant Opportunist #67 STEPPREP.PDF Secrets of Step-by-step Image Prep. Postprocessing. Scanner vs camera. knockout knockouts. Pixel locking. Adding detail. Improving lettering. The small stuff. For more help. |
Click here for a companion bitmap.
Click here for STEPPREP.PSL sourcecode
| Bitmapped Fonts: | . |
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Handcrafted pixel font bitmaps are usually much more legible than
small fonts generated by fancier font machinery. But not even remotely
as good as a true integral anti-aliased font.
This is a collection of handcrafted bitmapped fonts that got me
started on these techniques. They are in a PostScript string
format with (x) = paint and (.)=nopaint. You can easily convert them
into images or glyphs as needed.
They are directly usable by and included in PDF2BMP.PSL.
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Exploring the .BMP data format EXPBMP.PDF #14 The .BMP data format is essential any time you are post-processing any image. Here is a tutorial review and a bunch of utilities that let you dramatically improve your images. |
Click here for the EXPBMP.PSL sourcecode.
Click here for the Gonzo utilities.
Click here for a Sample Demo.
Click here for more BMP Manipulation help.
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Hand bitmapped font collection BITMFONT.TXT A collection of earlier hand crafted small bitmap fonts in PostScript string format. (x) = paint (.) = no paint. While a lot better than auto font machinery, true integer antialiased fonts are even more legible. |
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A "GIF-Friendly" font GIFFONT1.BMP A 5x7 bitblock space font that is halfway between a bitmap and a true anti-aliasing. Only two colors needed and super clean for .GIF banners and such. |
Visit our Precision Fonts repository.
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False Color & Rainbow Mods FALSECLR.PDF #82 Tutorial and sourcecode shows how to improve false color and rainbow effects by equalizing saturation and modifying hues. Includes table lookups exportable to most any language. |
Click here for the PostScript library.
Click here for the GuruGram 82 source code.
Click here to Contact the Author directly.
| Blended .BMP Images: | . |
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All sorts of neat tricks can be done by reading a .BMP file and
modifying the individual pixels, and then recombining the results
with one or more additional bitmaps.
Naturally, there are bunches of exotic imaging processing software
packages out there. But it is more fun and more challenging to do the
same tasks using PostScript. Especially for "what if" experiments.
One thing I am particularly interested in is adding topo map detail to
aerial photos. Or seamlessly alpha blending the two.
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PS Bitmap Image Blender BLENDER.PSL PostScript code to read a .BMP pixel by pixel, modify those pixels and rewrite to a same or different .BMP file. Example adds topo map features to an aerial photograph. View in editor and then distill. |
Click here for the JPEG Blended Bitmap.
Click here for the original .JPEG Aerial Photo.
Click here for the original JPEG Topo Map.
Click here for the .BMP Blended Bitmap.
Click here for the original .BMP Aerial Photo.
Click here for the original .BMP Topo Map.
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.BMP white "punchthru" avoider NOWHIT01.PSL A PS language .BMP file modifier that changes any true white pixels to slightly less than white. Stops overlay glitches View in wp or editor, change filenames & params, resave, send to Distiller. |
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.BMP properties reporter BMPRPT01.PSL A PS language .BMP file inspector that reports header attributes. Determine size, compression, format, etc... View in wp or editor, change filenames , resave, send to Distiller. |
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Magic Knockout Backgrounds KNOCKOUT.BMP These are some of the knockout backgrounds I use for my eBay photos. Besides their subtle texture, they greatly minimize JPEG edge artifacts. View with any viewer. Cut and paste using Paint. |
Click here for the Auction Help library.
Click here for our eBay examples.
| Image Resampling: | . |
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Image resampling is the key to changing the size of an image,
or doing dodging & burning, or geometric correction. I'll try
to develop some examples and new apps here.
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Swings & Tilts for your Digital Camera! SWINGT01.PSL A PS language .BMP file modifier that adds view camera effects to your digital camera! Uses true Bicubic Interpolation. View in wp or editor, change filenames & params, resave, send to Distiller. |
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Bicubic Interpolation tutorial from Michael Aramini A tutorial on the "best" nonadaptive and fairly computationally efficient means of resampling picture bitmaps. |
Click here for our Consulting Services.
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Using Cubic Splines for Image Iterpolation BASIS.PDF Cubic spline Basis Functions are a powerful but little understood method of curve control. Tutorial includes fundamentals along with application of hires cubic splines to image interpolationn . |
Click here for the BASIS.PSL sourcecode.
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Image Interp Table Lookup Generator IMTABLE.PSL Complex cubic functions can be replaced by simple table lookups when using Basis Functions. This example shows how to create the PostScript needed tables for hires cubic spline image interpolation. |
Click here for the IMTABLE.PDF checkplot .
| Tutorials: | . |
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Tech Musings #141 MUSE141.PDF (october 1999) Secrets of sub-pixel resolution improvement. Diode rf switches and attenuators. Anti-aliasing and grayscaling. Possible hydrogen storage breakthrough. Some ultrasonic book resources. |
Click here for more Tech Musings tutorials.
| For more help: | . |
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Please click here to...
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