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<TITLE>The Metrics View</TITLE>
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<H1 ALIGN=Center>
The Metrics View
</H1>
<P>
<IMG SRC="MetricsView.png" WIDTH="428" HEIGHT="323">
<P>
The metrics view allows you to examine how characters look together and to
alter the spacing between them.
<P>
If the metrics view is created from the font view then any selected characters
(up to about 15) will be displayed in the view. If it is created from an
outline or bitmap character view then only that character is displayed. If
it is created from a bitmap character view (or from the font view when that
view is displaying a bitmap font) then the metrics view will display bitmaps,
but will not allow you to edit the bitmaps metrics (you must do you editing
in one displaying outlines).
<P>
Underneath the menu bar is a text field which allows you to enter additional
unicode characters to be displayed.
<P>
The mid portion of the view is taken up with the displayed characters. For
outline characters these are sized so that the em-height of the font just
fits in this region. There are grey lines between the characters marking
the origin of the character on the right and the width of the character on
the left. The baseline is also drawn in grey.
<P>
One of the characters is active. That character has a green line on its left
(at its origin) and a blue line on its right (its width). You may change
the width by dragging this line. You may change the left side bearing (lbearing)
of the character by clicking on the character and dragging it left or right.
You may change the kerning between this character and the one to its left
by dragging the green line around.
<P>
The active character may be changed by clicking on any of the characters.
<P>
Underneath the display area are a set of text fields. You may type in new
numbers for any of these fields to change the corresponding metrics of the
character.
<P>
If the first character to be displayed is in Hebrew or Arabic (or any other
right to left language) then the entire display area will be shown right
to left
<P>
<STRONG>Note</STRONG> there is a very complicated algorithm given in the
Unicode spec for displaying mixed right to left and left to right passages.
This is not followed here. The direction determination is done by the first
character alone.
<P>
<STRONG>Note also </STRONG>that neither Arabic ligature nor form (initial,
terminal, medial, isolated) determination will be done in the display area
(though they will be done in the text field above). If you want to correct
form you must enter the unicode character for that form (as opposed to the
character for the letter).
<P>
<IMG SRC="HebrewMetrics.png" WIDTH="511" HEIGHT="323">
<H2>
<A NAME="Entering">Entering non-ASCII characters</A>
</H2>
<P>
Most of us are stuck with keyboards that only have ASCII characters on them.
Or at best some sub-set of ISO 8859-1 characters. How can the full range
of unicode characters be entered?
<P>
Many versions of X supply a "Compose Character" key, or something equivalent.
The X software will map a sequence of keystrokes to one character in whatever
the native encoding may be.
<P>
My keyboard doesn't have such a key, and my X doesn't do this. But I have
implemented something along those lines for those of us with less expensive
keyboards. If you are in a mode where text entry is possible then press the
F12 key and follow it by a series of keystrokes. Accented characters may
be built using the following:
<TABLE CELLPADDING="2">
<TR>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>`</TD>
<TD>grave accent</TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>0</TD>
<TD>ring</TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>"</TD>
<TD>double grave (or tonos)</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>'</TD>
<TD>acute accent</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>/</TD>
<TD>slash</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>.</TD>
<TD>dot above</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>:</TD>
<TD>diaeresis (umlaut)</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>7</TD>
<TD>breve</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>,</TD>
<TD>dot below</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>^</TD>
<TD>circumflex</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>6</TD>
<TD>caron</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>5</TD>
<TD>cedilla</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>~</TD>
<TD>tilde</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>_</TD>
<TD>macron</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>4</TD>
<TD>ogonec</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
So  may be built by <KBD>[F12] ^ A</KBD>, and A with diaeresis and
macron may be built with <KBD>[F12] : _ A</KBD>.
<P>
Greek letters may also be created. If you start with <KBD>[F12] @</KBD> and
follow with:
<TABLE CELLPADDING="2">
<TR>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>A</TD>
<TD>Alpha</TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>B</TD>
<TD>Beta</TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>C</TD>
<TD>Chi</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>D</TD>
<TD>Delta</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>E</TD>
<TD>Epsilon</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>F</TD>
<TD>Phi</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>G</TD>
<TD>Gamma</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>H</TD>
<TD>Eta</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>I</TD>
<TD>Iota</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>J</TD>
<TD>(technical) Theta</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>K</TD>
<TD>Kappa</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>L</TD>
<TD>Lamda</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>M</TD>
<TD>Mu</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>N</TD>
<TD>Nu</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>O</TD>
<TD>Omicron</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>P</TD>
<TD>Pi</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>Q</TD>
<TD>Theta</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>R</TD>
<TD>Rho</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>S</TD>
<TD>Sigma</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>T</TD>
<TD>Tau</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>U</TD>
<TD>Upsilon</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>V</TD>
<TD>final sigma</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>W</TD>
<TD>Omega</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>X</TD>
<TD>Xi</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>Y</TD>
<TD>Psi</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>Z</TD>
<TD>Zeta</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
This is the mapping used by the Symbol font. (Lower case letters are created
similarly so <KBD>[F12] @ a</KBD> yields a lower case alpha). Accented greek
letters may also be built up, <KBD>[F12] @ " A</KBD> yields Alpha tonos.
<P>
Finally the following special characters may be built:
<TABLE CELLPADDING="2">
<TR>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>[F12] <space></TD>
<TD><no break space></TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>[F12] *</TD>
<TD>°</TD>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>[F12] @ *</TD>
<TD><bullet></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ <space></TD>
<TD><em space></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] #</TD>
<TD>£</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ #</TD>
<TD>¥</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] $</TD>
<TD><euro></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ $</TD>
<TD>¢</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] !</TD>
<TD>¡</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] +</TD>
<TD>±</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] -</TD>
<TD><soft-hyphen></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ -</TD>
<TD><en dash></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ .</TD>
<TD>·</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] 7 2</TD>
<TD>½</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] ;</TD>
<TD>. . .</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] <</TD>
<TD><less or equal></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] ></TD>
<TD><greater or equal></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ ></TD>
<TD><triangle bullet></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] =</TD>
<TD><quote dash></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] ?</TD>
<TD>¿</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] A</TD>
<TD>Å</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] C</TD>
<TD>Ç</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] H</TD>
<TD><right index></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] O</TD>
<TD><OE lig></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] P</TD>
<TD>§</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] [</TD>
<TD><single right quote></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] ]</TD>
<TD><single right quote></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] \</TD>
<TD>«</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ \</TD>
<TD><single guillemot></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] a</TD>
<TD>å</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] c</TD>
<TD>ç</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] f</TD>
<TD><female sign></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] g</TD>
<TD>©</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] h</TD>
<TD><left index></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] m</TD>
<TD><male sign></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] o</TD>
<TD><oe lig></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] p</TD>
<TD>¶</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] r</TD>
<TD>®</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] s</TD>
<TD>ß</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] t</TD>
<TD>TM</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] z</TD>
<TD><long s></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] {</TD>
<TD><left dbl quote></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] }</TD>
<TD><right dbl quote></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] |</TD>
<TD>»</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD>[F12] @ |</TD>
<TD><right single guillemot></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
This still misses most unicode characters. But pressing [F12] twice will
bring up a dialog which will allow you to select any character in unicode.
<P>
If you type [F12] by mistake then and Escape will get you out of accent mode.
<P>
<P ALIGN=Center>
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