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From: mouse@lightning.mcrcim.mcgill.EDU (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re:  rotated text
Message-ID: <9103220518.AA05516@lightning.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 22 Mar 91 05:18:22 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45

> We are looking for pointers, hints or code that will allow us to put
> up text in a window that isn't horizontal.

[It's the text that's to be non-horizontal, not the window.]

From the FAQ:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 110)  How do I render rotated text?
	
	Xlib intentionally does not provide such sophisticated graphics 
capabilities, leaving them up to server-extensions or clients-side graphics
libraries.
	Your only choice, if you want to stay within the core X protocol, is to
render the text into a pixmap, read it back via XGetImage(), rotate it "by hand"
with whatever matrices you want, and put it back to the server via XPutImage();
more specifically:
	1) create a bitmap B and write your text to it.
	2) create an XYBitmap image I from B (via XGetImage).
	3) create an XYBitmap Image I2 big enough to handle the transformation.
	4) for each x,y in I2, I2(x,y) = I(a,b) where 
		a = x * cos(theta) - y * sin(theta)
		b = x * sin(theta) + y * cos(theta)
	5) render I2
	Note that you should be careful how you implement this not to lose
bits; an algorithm based on shear transformations may in fact be better.
	The high-level server-extensions and graphics packages available for X 
also permit rendering of rotated text: Display PostScript, PEX, PHIGS, and GKS,
although most are not capable of arbitrary rotation and probably do not use the
same fonts that would be found on a printer.
	In addition, if you have enough access to the server to install a font
on it, you can create a font which consists of letters rotated at some
predefined angle. Your application can then itself figure out placement of each
glyph.

[courtesy der Mouse (mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu), Eric Taylor 
(etaylor@wilkins.bmc.tmc.edu), and Ken Lee (klee@wsl.dec.com), 11/90;
Liam Quin (lee@sq.com), 12/90]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

					der Mouse

			old: mcgill-vision!mouse
			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu