[Bf-committers] Slightly improved text objects,
potential inclusion in BF
Ton Roosendaal
ton at blender.org
Fri Jun 17 16:08:46 CEST 2005
Hi Alexander,
Sounds all incredible cool & useful (ok, with exception of the latin
font!). I'm not sure at what level you like to integrate this yourself
or do you want a code buddy to help integrating & maintaining it in
future?
I can help reviewing low level (dna/kernel), but what's I've seen sofar
on IRC it doesn't look bad. :)
-Ton-
On 17 Jun, 2005, at 2:32, Alexander Ewering wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> during the development of DTPBlender (a fork of instinctive-blender
> intended for DTP - 2D layouts, design, etc.), I heavily modified the
> Blender 3d text object, and added quite a few features which are
> otherwise only found in top-notch DTP applications.
>
> Best of all: It should still be pretty compatible with BF, and porting
> it should be possible with a couple of hours of time, which I hope to
> find one of these days, if there is enough interest in the features.
>
> I know not many people use Blender for 2D work (poor souls! :), but
> also for other tasks, like titles, etc., it should be a nice
> addition.
>
> Here's the docs with screenshots, any comments welcome. I'll try
> to port it to BF soon.
>
>
> ----------------
>
>
> New Features / Changes shortlist
> ================================
>
> * Support for Plain/Bold/Italic/Bold-Italic typefaces, switchable per
> character. For each combination, a seperate font file can be loaded.
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/bi.png
>
> * Support for material indices per character
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/matind.png
>
> * Manual kerning per character
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/kern.png
>
> * Adjustable word spacing
>
> * Arbitrary number of freely positionable and resizable text frames
> per text object, with continuous text flow between them
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/tb.png
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/tb8.png
> (All text on the page is a single text object)
>
>
> * Automatic wordwrap at the border of a text frame
>
> * "Flush" (Justify) text can have a hard line break anywhere (lines
> only flush if they end because of word wrapping, and break hard
> when you press Enter)
>
> * Selection (shift-move) and cut/copy/paste of textblocks
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/sel.png
>
> * Overlapping characters have no filling errors
>
> => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/olap.png
>
> * "Lorem" button for inserting a random paragraph of Lorem Ipsum at
> the text cursor
>
> * "Insert text" button for directly loading a text file at the
> cursor's
> position
>
> * Increased maximum text size from 1000 to 50000 characters
>
> * Increased curve filling speed by a factor of about 10 for smaller
> texts, and 100 and beyond for larger texts, thus:
>
> * Due to the faster filling, Text objects are now always filled inside
> editmode, except if turned off with "Fast Edit".
>
> * CTRL-Left/Right goes to next/previous word
>
> * More standard HOME/END keys for going to beginning/end of current
> line (used to be shift-left/right)
>
> * Support for PageUp/PageDown for going back/forward 10 lines at a
> time
>
> * More complex font files supported, which formerly used to crash
> Blender
>
>
> Bold/Italic/Plain text
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> The "B" and "i" togglebuttons toggle bold and italic. For specifying
> what
> fonts to use for each combination, just set the desired combination,
> and
> then load the appropriate font file. Keep switching until all 4
> possible
> font files are specified.
>
> Inside editmode, use the "B" and "i" buttons to switch 1) either the
> selected block of text or, if nothing is selected, 2) the mode for new
> characters entered.
>
> Shortcuts: CTRL-B / CTRL-I
>
>
> Material indices
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> Just switch to the desired material index in the usual editbuttons, and
> start typing using that Material index. For switching an entire block,
> select a block, then switch to the desired material index.
>
> The "Select", "Deselect", and "Assign" buttons have no effect.
>
>
> Manual kerning
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> Between any pair of characters, press ALT-Left / ALT-Right to decrease/
> increase kerning by steps of 0.1 (IIRC).
>
>
> Adjustable word spacing
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> New button "Word spacing" specifies a factor by which whitespace gets
> scaled in width.
>
>
> Text frames
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> A new text object always has one initial text frame, with offset and
> width/height set to 0.
>
> Frames with width set to 0 are ignored completely (no wordwrap
> happens),
> frames with height set to 0 flow forever (no switch to the next
> textframe).
>
> Creating/Deleting/Choosing textframes works exactly like material
> indices.
>
> To create a new textframe, press the "Insert" button, which will insert
> a new textframe after the current one, with the same coordinates and
> dimensions. You will need to move it (X:/Y: buttons) to see it.
>
> The active textframe (choosable with the "1 TextFrame: 1" button) is
> drawn in the active theme colour.
>
> Text flows continuously from the lowest-numbered into the
> highest-numbered
> frame.
>
> "Delete" deletes the current text frame (but obviously, not the text
> itself) and removes it from the flow.
>
>
> Selection of text blocks
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> Selection works like in any usual word processor.
>
> Pressing SHIFT while moving (Left/Right/Up/Down/PageUp/PageDown/
> CTRL-Left/Right) selects text (this should be mousified some day).
>
> Moving the cursor without SHIFT will clear the selection. Entering
> characters or performing other actions with selected text will erase
> it.
>
> CTRL-C copies the text into a buffer, CTRL-V pastes the buffer
> (including
> all formatting information) at current cursor position. CTRL-X cuts
> and copies into the buffer.
>
> Selections are remembered over exiting editmode.
>
>
> Insert Text at cursor
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> After the many unsuccessful attempts to provide a sane way to load
> bigger
> blocks of text into a text object, I've created a simple "Insert Text"
> button which pops up a fileselector and inserts the chosen file's
> contents
> at the cursor position. Can't get much simpler.
>
>
> "Lorem" button
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> As its name implies, this button will insert a random paragraph (a few
> sentences) of "Lorem Ipsum" at the cursor position. Rinse and repeat
> up to the desired text length.
>
>
> Filled curves and "Fast Edit"
> =======================================================================
> =
>
> Due to the vast speedup of font filling, it can now always be filled
> inside editmode, giving a better preview. If you have a really large
> text object and want to stay unfilled during editing, just activate
> "Fast Edit" (which only can be toggled OUTSIDE editmode).
>
>
>
>
> | alexander ewering instinctive mediaworks
> | ae[@]instinctive[.]de http://www[.]instinctive[.]de
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-committers mailing list
> Bf-committers at projects.blender.org
> http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation ton at blender.org
http://www.blender.org
More information about the Bf-committers
mailing list