Xref: utzoo comp.sys.next:1226 comp.sys.amiga:27690
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu-cs!mirror!frog!cpoint!alien
From: alien@cpoint.UUCP (Alien Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Multi-color fonts
Message-ID: <1959@cpoint.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 89 21:19:00 GMT
Reply-To: alien@cpoint.UUCP (Alien Wells)
Organization: Clearpoint Research Corp., Hopkinton Mass.
Lines: 32

I just created a multi-color font.  I am posting this to comp.sys.amiga
because it was done on the Amiga.  I am posting this to comp.sys.next 
because I remember a previous discussion about multi-color fonts in this 
group, and since the reason for the font is different than those discussed.

I am working on an application where I have made extremely heavy use
of shading in all of the graphics - control buttons, icons, etc.  This 
gives a consistent 3-D effect with the lighting appearing to come from the
upper right.  I have 5 grays, 3 greens, 3 browns, etc - in fact, I found 
the number of colors available on the Amiga to be a significant restriction.

When we were basically done with the product, we had a little time left over
to play around.  (Yes - a unique situation!)  I decided that the 'dullest'
part of the user interface was now the font!  The single color font looked
incredibly 'flat' with all of the '3-D' graphics surrounding it.

In order to make the text look like it fit, I created a 4-color font which
has shading consistent with the rest of our graphics.  (Yes, the Amiga does
not support multi-color fonts, I actually made 3 fonts and overlaid them,
each in a different color.)  A sample example of an 'a' might look like:

		 ********
		%:::::::%*
		       :%*
		 ******%%*
		%%%:::::%*
		:%*    :%*
		:%*****%%*
		 ::::::::*

where : is the darkest color, % is the medium color, and * is the bright
color.