Basic tools

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Superpixel tools

Background tools

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The background tools include functions for work with backgrounds. These functions will help you with tracing a hand drawn or a print screen (read more in Tutorial 4 - Creating super pixel fonts), or with extending an existing font with special characters (read more in Tutorial 3 - Tracing a hand drawn or a print screen).

Name: Load background
Menu: Background | Import
Shortcut: none

Use Load background to import a background for your SimpleFont project. A background can be:

• an image of format BMP or JPEG;
• a font file of format TTF (TrueType) or BDF (bitmap distribution format).

If you have imported a font as background, the imported font properties dialog lets you setup the font as background:

• Alignment: The Alignment combo lets you specify the background alignment mode. The grid point setting means that each background pixel will be zoomed to the size of a background unit. The pixel setting means that the background is in its normal size. Changing this setting does not change the numbers in the position and sizes part. It only changes the measure unit.
• Position: The Position part lets you specify the background position by hand (by numbers).
• Size: The Size part of the dialog box lets you specify the size of the font in points.
• Advance: The advance width lets you set the kerning in horizontal grid units.

If you have imported an image as background, the Background properties dialog lets you setup the image as background:

• Alignment: The Alignment part lets you specify the alignment mode. The grid point setting means that each background pixel will be zoomed to the size of a background unit. The pixel setting means that the background is in its normal size. Changing this setting does not change the numbers in the position and sizes part. It only changes the measure unit.
• Position: The Position part lets you specify the background position by hand (by numbers).
• Size: The Size part of the dialog box lets you specify the background size.

If the imported background contains dark pixels, it is useful to select a different pattern color in View | Change Pattern color to clearly see the character drawn.

Name: Background On/Off
Menu: Background | On/Off
Shortcut: none

Use Background | On/Off function to make the imported background visible / invisible.

Name: Change background properties
Menu: Background | Change properties
Shortcut: none

The background | Change properties displays:

• Background properties window if you are using an image as background.
• Imported font properties window if you are using a font as background.

Name: Update background
Menu: Background | Refresh
Shortcut: none

This function is useful if you are editing the background image in an external program while working in SimpleFont. Use refresh to update the background found in an external file.

Name: Scale Background
Menu: Background | Scale
Shortcut: none

Use Scale background to free transform the background image. After selecting this menu item, a dashed line will be displayed around the background. The background image can be resized by moving the mouse over the dashed line and dragging it to the appropriate size.

Name: Move Background
Menu: Background | Move
Shortcut: none

Use Move background to move the background. This tool moves the background as you drag the mouse over it. When the background is joined with the character points, this tool works like the pan tool. When the background is not joined with the character points, this tool only moves the background.

Name: Paint bucket
Menu: N/A
shortcut: B

The Paint bucket is an interactive tracing tool. Click on the background image on the color you want to trace, and the paint bucket tool will flood fill the same colored area. The color threshold can be modified on the Tracing properties dialog.

Name: Select Background
Menu: Background | Select
Shortcut: none

Use the Select background tool to select a specific area of the background to apply the Trace tool to. This tool is useful if you have imported a large background image that contains a lot of characters, and you only want to trace one of them at a time.

Name: Trace
Menu: Background | Trace
Shortcut: none

Use Trace to trace background for the current character. To use the Trace tool you may set up the trace color first by using the Color picker tool. The tracing method and the color threshold can be setup on the Tracing properties window.

Name: Trace all
Menu: Background | Trace all
Shortcut: none

Use Trace all to trace background for all characters. This function can be used with TTF backgrounds. The progress of tracing will be displayed on the status bar. The tracing of a whole font project may take several minutes. To stop it, press the Esc key. Use the Color picker tool to set the tracing color. The tracing method and the color threshold can be modified on the Tracing properties window.

Name: Color picker
Menu: N/A
Shortcut: none

Use color picker to select the trace color. The trace color specifies the color you want to trace. You can set the trace color threshold in the Tracing properties window.