     ___________________________________________________________________
    |                                                                   |
    |            FFE, A Free Bitmap Font Editor for Freemacs MULE       |
    |                             version 1.0                           |
    |                Copyright (C) 2006 by Francesco Zamblera           |
    |                           under the GNU GPL                       |
    |                                                                   |
    |                          vilnergoy@yahoo.it                       |
    |                                                                   |
    |___________________________________________________________________|



    This simple bitmap font editor makes 8x16 bitmaps to be used with
Freemacs MULE, or to be loaded with the FreeDOS utility GNUCHCP for
other uses.


    Usage:

                      ffe

without arguments: starts the editor.

                     ffe filename

starts the editor wih <filename> loaded (if no extension is provided,
.dat is assumed).

    The editing of bitmaps with FFE is very simple. You can move the
cursor on the grid with the arrow keys. When the editor is started,
it works in SKIP mode. That means you can move the cursor on the grid
without leaving any traces (you won't change any pixel). To change
into WRITE mode, press "w". When in WRITE mode, he cursor will turn
on pixels as it moves; if the pixels are already on, they will be
left unchanged. There is also an ERASE mode; to turn into it, press
"e". When the editor is in ERASE mode, the cursor will turn off
pixels as it moves on them (pixels already OFF will be left
unchanged). To change back to "SKIP" mode, press "s".

    FFE edits the upper character set (ASCII 128 to 255) of an 8-bit
font file, with each glyph having a resolution of 8x16 pixels. Those
are the font files used by Freemacs MULE.


    Here is the full list of the hot keys:

L: ImportFile. When you press "L", you will be prompted for a
filename to enter. The correspondent file will be loaded. If you were
already working on some file, you will be first prompted for whether
you want to save it, and then for the new filename. When you enter a
filename to load, and provide no extension, .dat will be assumed. The
newly loaded file will become the current workking file.

W: WriteFile. Writes the current working file, making changes
permanent. No backup is made, so you had better copy your files
before editing them!

A (upper case): Save as. Writes the current working file to a new
file. You will be prompted for the filename.

S (upper case): StoreGlyph. Once you have painted the shape of a
glyph, and want to store it, press "S". You'll then be able to turn
to the next character to edit. Note: the new glyph will be stored in
memory, at the character's position in the font, not yet on the file.
To save changes on the file, see above ("w" key). When you press "S",
the changes you've made to the glyph become effective, and the
previous shape (if there was one) is lost (however, the new shape is
stored into memory only, so, if you don't save the file, it will still
contain the old shape).

g: GoToChar. You will be prompted for a character code; you can enter
a number in the range 128 to 255. You will then be moved to the
corresponding glyph in the font. If you are editing an existing file,
the grid will show the shape of that glyph. If you are drawing a new
font, the grid will be empty.

p: PreviousChar. Moves to the previous glyph in the font. If you have
made some changes to the current glyph, you will be prompted for
whether you want to store the changes you made to the glyph, or not.

n: NextChar. Moves to the next char in the glyph. Like above for "p",
you will be asked whether you want to save the changes you made to
the current character, before moving to the previous one.

w: Changes to WRITE mode.

e: Changes to ERASE mode.

s (lower case): Changes to SKIP mode.

ArrowUp: moves the cursor up.

ArrowDown: moves the cursor down.

ArrowLeft: moves the cursor left.

ArrowRight: moves the cursor right.

Alt-l: ShiftLeft. Shifts a character's shape left one column on the
grid. Pixels in the leftmost column will be lost. This function (as
well as ShiftDown, ShiftRight and ShiftUp) is very useful if you want
to  "move" a shape without having to redraw it from scratch.

Alt-r: ShiftRight. Shifts a glyph right one column on the grid.

Alt-u: ShiftUp. Shifts a glyph up one row.

Alt-d: ShiftDown. Shifts a character down one row.

Alt-i: ImportGlyphNumber. You will be prompted for a character code
(range 128 to 255). The correspondiong glyph will be loaded into the
code you are editing. For example, if the editor shows the current
character code as being 155, and you press Alt-i, then, say, 200, the
glyph in positions 200 will be copied onto position 155.


Enjoy FFE!
