Hi, toto. Thanks for your reply.

I remember I tried so, but I cannot tell you for sure if I did it right back then, I just could not get the effect I needed. But then again, chances are I was doing something wrong. All I had was the CorelDRAW! 3.0 manual (1998) when I created the original, raw fonts and I do not remember reading about kernning there. Later, in 2004, I could use FontCreator 4 and remodeled some of them. No one with knowledge enough to discuss about that, no specific forums, internet were I live was not exactly widely spread as it is today... I was kinda `Johny Castaway of the TTF creation` around here.

I remember trying kernning but the dots and commas with zero-width (thanks for pointing the correct term...) seemed OK for me, although it is somehow hard to manage characters `that small`... The very first problem I faced was to handle them under Linux text processors, mainly LibreOffice presentations, but this is another issue...

Thanks again.
Luiz

Hi, all.

When I created my very first fonts back in the end of the 90's, I was willing to mimic actual LCD displays used in calculators but the main problem was to insert commas and/or zeroes between characters and keep their distances (mono spaced font) as it happens in most actual LCD/LED displays. When testing possible solutions, I ended up defining these characters with length/size = 0, so when they were typed in, the cursor remained in the same place and they were 'drawn' at the left side of it. I used this 'trick' in some other circumstances, like defining two color in the same character by using a 'zero length/size' mask that was drawn in the back of any character when typed in right after it. I'll post my fonts here this weekend (most of them were actually updated in 2004, but I still have some scratch files dated 1998 and above) and you'll see what I am talking about.

The fact is that the PDF files generated from documents using this characters keep their look, but I tried some things with Linux applications (OpenOffice under Ubuntu 11 to 14) after installing the same TTF and the resulting effects were not the same.

Has anyone dealt with characters this way? I'd like to read more about this subject.

Thanks.
Luiz

Yep, that's it! I deal with electronics, both digital and analog, and when it comes to the moment you need to design the front panel and you want to 'see' it prior to build it, using programs like CorelDRAW! or AutoCad or any other vector-based application will be handy. But when it comes to test the display fitting in terms of contents, I mean, how will characters appear in a 7- or 14-segment LED-based or LCD display, having a monospaced TTF with the original, look-like set of characters would lead to a better approach in final layout and data aspect.

When I decided to create these fonts back in the very first years of this century, most of them were related to HP calculators LCD and keyboard faceplates at first in order to help people willing to create calculator-related documentation. The dot-matrix family and 14-segment where the first ones.

I am just waiting for this weekend in order to post the fonts. I have some ideas for the examples. I also mentioned I have some doubts on zero-size characters but I am not sure about where to search for information here @ DaFont or somewhere else.

And Koeiekat, thank you for your suggestions, they are very good ones. I had once used one of the glyph with my initials as you suggest, but because I was dealing with a symbol font I filled all possible characters in the 0 to 255 code range (the SW I used was somehow old and could not generate more than 256 characters for one font). IIRC it was FontCreator for W95, and I used it with WME (yes, I had one computer running WME smoothly with no problems at all... It is disassembled but still runs fine).

Thank you all again, guys.

Luiz

Hi, Damien.

Once gain, thank you.

I surely followed your thoughts, good thinking. I'll do that ASAP, with all fonts and some 'printscreen'-captured image files of the pages mentioning them.

Also I'll be posting the fonts here this weekend. I just need to create the brief references showing them and how to use them. I also have a technical question about zero-size characters in TTF files, but I'll look for a possible answer somewhere in the forum prior to post a message about it.

Thanks again for your invaluable help. I really do appreciate that.

Luiz

(P.S. - I'm a native Portuguese speaker, English is actually the second idiom for me. Please, guys, have you found some weirdness in my words that might lead to misunderstandings, just let me know. I thank you for that mostly because, as a teacher, I like to improve my own knowledge base as well)

Hi, Damien.

First of all, thank you for your answer. Enlightening, in the aspect it took.

But let me add another one of the worries of mine: is it possible that someone else claims the font is his/hers and try to commercialize it? My fonts were also mentioned at Luc Devroye's Font Scene: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-43721.html . Maybe this is some excessive caution of mine, I do not know what do these fonts represent as writing or artistic tools. I recently created some other fonts, drawn from scratch, mostly as for 7- and 14-segment display mimics, and I would really like anyone who wants to use them to do so without worrying about having to pay someone for it.

Would it be OK to post them here? I am confident about DaFont, this is not the case, I'm just worried about the chance of having people that might try to register the fonts and cause problems to the ones that would like to use them. I also know that DaFont is actually helping anyone to have access to these fonts with no charge, and I like very much this concept, thanks DaFont! This is the main reason I would like to post the fonts here so they could be freely downloaded. I guess that after revealing two links pointing to the fonts and the mentioning of their 'birth' date - 2004, most o'them - I believe I should not be worried about that, right? If other sites actually post the fonts for free downloading, that would be fine for me, too.

Cheers and thanks again. And forgive me for posting that much words...
Luiz.

Hi, folks.

My first post here, have just registered, forgive me if the subject has already been discussed before (I tried some search with some keywords but found no specific topic about this).

Is there any procedure that should be followed in order to keep my fonts free of charge and free for use anywhere, no matter what? I mean, how to get rid of any possible stealing after making them public? I have already submitted most of them to the HPCC site (UK - http://www.hpcc.org/datafile/V23N5/luizfonts.zip) about a decade ago, but this site is mainly dedicated to Hewlett-Packard handheld personal & pocket computers and calculators' users. I would very much like to make my fonts available in a kinda more open-wide site, and I think DaFont could be this one. My doubt still prevails: is there a way to make sure my fonts will be kept free for use? Would allowing them to be downloaded from here grant this status?

Thank you for any guidance.

Luiz C. (Brazil)