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Apple /// FNT $07 File Format?

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  Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? Michael Pohoreski <michael.pohoreski@gmail.com> - 2019-05-29 12:01 -0700
    Re: Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com> - 2019-05-29 15:39 -0400
      Re: Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com> - 2019-05-29 17:06 -0400
        Re: Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? Michael Pohoreski <michael.pohoreski@gmail.com> - 2019-05-30 08:49 -0700
      Re: Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? Michael Pohoreski <michael.pohoreski@gmail.com> - 2019-05-30 09:12 -0700
        Re: Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? David Schmidt <schmidtd@my-deja.com> - 2019-05-30 12:41 -0400
      Re: Apple /// FNT $07 File Format? Andy McFadden <thefadden@gmail.com> - 2019-12-11 08:09 -0800

#5118 — Apple /// FNT $07 File Format?

Does anyone have any details on this file format?

$07 FNT Apple III Font

Is it 768 bytes? 1,024 bytes? 7-bit? 8-bit? monochrome?

TIA,
Michael

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#5120

On 5/29/19 3:01 PM, Michael Pohoreski wrote:
> Does anyone have any details on this file format?
> 
> $07 FNT Apple III Font
> 
> Is it 768 bytes? 1,024 bytes? 7-bit? 8-bit? monochrome?

It's 1,024 bytes.  Some discussion in the past:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.apple2/muPgbiFAyZU/I08ImikVDQAJ

Some resources from WAP:
http://apple3.org/Software/wap/html/a3fonts.html

But I don't have a concise answer for the font file format.

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#5121

On 5/29/19 3:39 PM, David Schmidt wrote:
> On 5/29/19 3:01 PM, Michael Pohoreski wrote:
>> Does anyone have any details on this file format?
>>
>> $07 FNT Apple III Font
>>
>> Is it 768 bytes? 1,024 bytes? 7-bit? 8-bit? monochrome?
> 
> It's 1,024 bytes.  Some discussion in the past:
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.apple2/muPgbiFAyZU/I08ImikVDQAJ
> 
> Some resources from WAP:
> http://apple3.org/Software/wap/html/a3fonts.html
> 
> But I don't have a concise answer for the font file format.

Oooh, now I do - courtesy of APPLE-3-WAP-fnt-02b.dsk:

<quote>
Appendix D: Technical Reference

How Character Sets are Stored

Each character is stored as a 7-by-8 bit array.  Bits corresponding to 
pixels which are "ON" are set with a value of one;  background bits are 
set to zero.  The 7-by-8 bit array is stored as eight consecutive bytes 
- one byte for each row starting with the top row.  Within each of the 
eight bytes, bit 0 corresponds to the left-most pixel.

Bit 7 determines how each row of the character is displayed in inverse
mode. If bit 7 is set to zero, the foreground and background will be 
exchanged when inverse mode is on.  If all high bits are set to one, the 
character will flash when inverse mode is on.  For more information on 
making characters flash, see Chapter 8.

Every character set fontfile is stored as a three block data file (two 
blocks for data and a third block for system information). The character 
set used as the "system character set" is defined in the file 
"SOS.DRIVER" on any boot disk.  The system character set can be changed 
using the Apple /// System Utilities as detailed in Chapter 9 of this 
manual.
</quote>

Given that all font files in the wild are really two blocks long (2 x 
512 bytes) this third block they speak of might be the CustomFONT 
program's own metadata; I'm not sure about that.

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#5123

Awesome! Thanks for the details and links. Much appreciated.

Interesting that they used the Slot 5 $C0DA / $C0DB soft-switches to load the custom font.

Guess it's off to browse Asimov to see what Apple /// (font) stuff is uploaded there. ;-)

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#5125

Oooh, that WAP catalog is a gold mine!

VERY nice!

Lots of great stuff to play with.  Thanks!

Michael

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#5126

On 5/30/19 12:12 PM, Michael Pohoreski wrote:
> Oooh, that WAP catalog is a gold mine!
> 
> VERY nice!
> 
> Lots of great stuff to play with.  Thanks!

Yes indeed, thanks to Dave Ottalini's tireless efforts, we do have a 
very fine library of /// stuff in the WAP archive.

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#5307

On Wednesday, May 29, 2019 at 12:39:03 PM UTC-7, schmidtd wrote:
> On 5/29/19 3:01 PM, Michael Pohoreski wrote:
> > Does anyone have any details on this file format?
> > 
> > $07 FNT Apple III Font

> It's 1,024 bytes.  Some discussion in the past:
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.apple2/muPgbiFAyZU/I08ImikVDQAJ
> 
> Some resources from WAP:
> http://apple3.org/Software/wap/html/a3fonts.html


I downloaded APPLE-3-WAP-fnt-01a.dsk, extracted the "STANDARD" font file, opened a new project in SourceGen (1.5.0-dev2), and created an Apple II Hi-Res Bitmap Font visualizer at offset +000000.  Setting the parameters to width=1, height=8, and number of items=128, I see the full font.

The control characters all have symbols (two small letters for most, a bell symbol for Ctrl+G), and #127 is an open apple glyph.

I also tried SHADOW.CHR from APPLE-3-WAP-fnt-06a.dsk.  It has blank entries for lower-case letters and about half of the control characters, with some math and playing card symbols thrown in.

Most Apple II HRCGs use an identical font format, or a 96-character (768-byte) variant that omits the control chars.  It should be possible to use Apple /// fonts on the Apple II and vice-versa with a little effort (you'd need to fiddle with the high bits).  I'm guessing this is by design.

> this third block they speak of might be the CustomFONT program's own metadata

Or it's just the SOS overhead.

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