DTL FontMaster Manual1.1 PDF

appendix iii: character layout files
Appendix iii: Character Layout Files
This document describes the format of the Character Layout Files used in
dtl FontMaster for conversion of the be and ik databases into the
PostScript Type 1, TrueType and OpenType formats and vice versa. The
basic function of these layout files is to renumber the characters from one
layout to another one.
1. General structure
–The Character Layout File is an editable ascii file.
–All Character Layout Files have the extension ‘.cha’ appended to the file
name.
–Each line in this file can have a length of up to 255 characters.
–Lines starting with a lowercase ‘c’ or capital ‘C’ are ignored by the dtl
FontMaster modules and can be used for comments.
–A special line with the keyword ‘Version’ is used to denote the version of
the format specification (this is not a version number for the file itself). This
format specification defines Version 002.000.
–Keywords are case insensitive and can consist out of maximal 16
characters concisting the lowercase letters a–z, the capitals A–Z and the
digits 0–9.
–Empty lines in the file are allowed.
–Tabs and Spaces are allowed in all lines and are ignored.
–The conversion information from one numbering system to another one is
contained in several columns. The content of each column is characterized
by a keyword.
–The entries for the diuerent columns are separated by ‘;’.
–The character information is included in two lines with the keywords
‘Starttable’ and ‘Endtable’.
–The keywords for the content of the column have to follow the line with
the keyword ‘Starttable’.
2. Proprietary Character Layout Files
Characters are stored by number in a be and ik database. The database
number corresponds with a PostScript name and a Unicode number via the
Character Layout Files. By default four .cha files come with dtl
FontMaster: beeditor.cha, ttbas.cha, urwotf.cha, winuni.cha.
It is of course possible that fm users create proprietary encoding
systems. If necessary they can use PostScript names that are located in the
‘private area’ in combination with Private Use Area Unicode codepoints.
Normally these characters will be placed at positions in the database that
are undefined. This automatically means that also a proprietary Character
Layout File has to be created because the default .cha files will not
‘recognize’ the database numbers and therefore the characters will not be
exported when a font is created.
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note: The version number
of the format specicification
must be 002.000 in all cases,
otherwise the Character Layout
File will be not accepted by the fm
modules. When the user wants to
attach a version number to a
proprietary .cha file, this
information should be preceded
by a ‘C’ (comment).