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Topic: Font substitution and editing (Read 5490 times) previous topic - next topic

Font substitution and editing

'scuse my total ignorance on this subject, but I guess this is a friendly-enough place to expose it.

I'm trying to create a 'medieval'-looking score with crotchets, eg, displayed with a diamond shape. I've taken a wander around the Scriptorium etc., but I can't find any inspiration how to do it.

Now the stupid questions:

1) Is there a font out there somewhere that I can substitute for NWC15 to get the desired effect?

2) If not, can I edit NWC15 somehow to achieve what I want? I guess this is both a legal and a technical question. I'd rather not pay mega$'s for a font editor, since I'll probably only use it once.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #1 –
I can't authoritatively answer the legal question. Copyright law still differs from place to place. In the United States, a font and its derivatives are protected as a "computer program." But a font face, that is the appearance of a font when printed, is (I believe) not usually protected, unless its symbols (such as the Apple trademark, which appears in many Mac fonts) are unique.

Technically, anyone with a suitable font editor can make a NWCV15-alternative font. NWCV15 has been hacked before. My own effort (no longer available) was 100% original as software; I merely placed the necessary characters in the necessary code locations. On the Scriptorium, the xfont and jazzfont are alternatives to NWCV15.

Understand that NWC creates notation from a combination of font objects and drawing objects. For a musical note, the note-head and (if present) flag are font objects. But stems and beams are drawing objects. You can use a substitute font to change the appearance of font objects, but not drawing objects.

If you use a substitute font, your change will be global. That is, if you alter the appearance of the solid round note-head used for 1/4 notes, the change will necessarily be applied to 1/8 and 1/16 notes, because they use the same font object for the note head. This may not be the effect you want to achieve.

Font editors are not cheap, as you noted (even shareware costs money). Making one or two modifications to a font is not hard. I would offer to do it BUT I only work on fonts during visits to relatives. They watch Judge Judy, I do something else). That won't happen for awhile. Maybe someone else on the forum can help you.

If you want to be able to make non-global changes (that is, have the 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 noteheads look different, or have the staves look different), then you can export placeable WMFs from print previews, and open the in free "Open Office" software for graphical editing. This technique is described elsewhere (use the forum search). For this technique, you can use any font (nbot necessarily a NWCV15 equivalent) that has the necessary symbols.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #2 –
Thanks Robert for a very helpful tutorial.
I'm off to try the OpenOffice method; I'll report back if I learn anything that could be of interest to others.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #3 –
Robert's explanation is worth putting in the user tips area as very useful information, very well presented.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #4 –
Actually, David, I DID put remarks regarding "Open Office" editing of WMFs in the User tips, a few weeks ago! By now, it has percolated down the list.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #5 –
Don't forget, and I say this because I've done it, to save the original font somewhere safe. You can't have two fonts with the same name in the same folder.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #6 –
Good advice, John. What I do is make a backup copy, then zip it. Since it's zipped, I can't accidentally edit it.

Tech note: Windows determines a font name by looking inside the font file. That is, the FILE name (whatfnr.ttf) is NOT the FONT name (WhatFont Roman).

If you double-click on a font file that is not installed, then the viewer will show you that particular file.

But if you double-click on a font file, wherever it may be in your folders, and a font of that font name is installed (regardless of its file name), then the viewer will show you the installed font.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #7 –
Interim report:
(+) : the procedure works exactly as Robert described.
(-) : it seems that OpenOffice can only move objects with "millimetre accuracy" (not sure quite what this means on a screen), which is too crude to place noteheads on the stave accurately (and unambiguously). What's needed is a 'nudge' function with pixel accuracy.
I'm heading over to the OpenOffice NG(s) to pursue this, unless anyone here can help...

PS I briefly looked at IrfanView and GIMP as possible alternatives to OpenOffice, but their treatment of .wmf's made them both non-starters.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #8 –
Hmm, I didn't realize that Open Office only resoved to the millimetre. If you are merely substituting one symbol for another, and if the symbols have the same bounding box sizes (which they will, if they are intended as substitutes), then there's no problem.

Adobe Illustrator can edit WMFs with precision. Probably so can other drawing programs, such as Corel Draw. WMFs can contain vector graphics (such as NWC info, and fonts), and bitmaps. When you open a WMF in Irfan View, it converts all vector info to a bitmap, with greater or less success.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #9 –
Seems I was a bit hasty...

Although there isn't a keyboard combination for nudging objects in OO, it IS possible to get to 0.1mm accuracy by right-clicking and faffing-around with the settings in a dialog box.

Not ideal, but it works.

Re: Font substitution and editing

Reply #10 –
For our metric-less friends: 0.1 mm accuracy corresponds to 1/254 of an inch. That's less than 1/3 of a "point," and is comparable to the resolution of a fair printer.