Typeliner
The DeskTop Publisher
For 48k, 128k, +2
and
Spectrum +3 Computers
P.C.G. Computer Software
CONTENTS
Introduction
2
Special Versions
2
+3 Version
2
Typeliner: Step-by-Step
3
Starting Up
3
Selecting the Text File
3
The Typeliner Layout Screen
4
Moving the Text Block
4
Line/Box Mode
5
Line/Box Style
5
Creating New Blocks
5
Deleting a Block
5
The Fonts Listing
6
The Page Preview
6
Printing the Page
6
Listing the Files
7
Graphic Mode
7
Shading
8
Editing the Text
8
Storing the Page
9
Quitting Typeliner
9
The save! Extension Program 10
Using the Fonts 10
Renumbering Blocks 12
Triple-pass Printing 13
The Page Preview 13
The Measuring Grid 13
Line Spacing 14
Half-Line Feed 15
Forcing the End of a Block 15
Large Text 16
The Font Editor 16
The Font Editor Screen 16
Altering the Grid 17
Selecting a Character 17
Storing a Character 17
Setting the Spacings 18
Making a Test-print 18
Font Design 18
The Q+Convert Program 19
Function & Key Summary 19
Main Input 19
Typeliner Commands 19
Key Functions: All modes 19
Text mode 20
Line/Box Mode 20
Graphic Mode 20
Page Preview 20
Renumber 20
1
Introduction
Until now, the minimum requirement for desktop publishing has been a computer with huge
amounts of RAM, disk-drives and a high-res graphics display. With Typeliner we have tried to
give Spectrum users with only 48k RAM and a cassette recorder the same powerful desk-top
publishing features that have previously been beyond their reach.
No matter how hard you try though, a Spectrum is still a Spectrum. This means that a
considerable amount of planning and forethought are required to produce professional looking
layouts.
To save on memory, space-consuming menus have been avoided. Typeliner's functions are
nearly all accessed by single keypresses, some of which have different functions in the different
modes employed. These are summarised at the back of this manual.
Producing complex layouts also requires being able to interpret the Typeliner page preview in
relation to the printer output. The sections on line-spacing and triple-pass printing should be read
here.
I hope you find Typeliner useful and productive, and that all our programs give good service
long into the future.
Special Versions
The standard version of Typeliner used in the tutorial demonstration can only be used on a fully
EPSON compatible printer which has a 120 dots per inch graphic mode.
Users of HR-5 printers should look on the cassette or disk for a file called HR-5/TYPE!
Users of MT80, CP80 and other IBM compatible printers should look for a file called
IBM/TYPE!
+3 Version
Internally, WordMaster follows its own filename conventions, so fonts are shown as >Fnt files,
extension programs are shown as >F-EXE etc. Unfortunately this system is not compatible with
the modified filename system used on the +3, so a compromise has been reached.
When you save a file to disk you can give it any name you like, as long as this conforms to the
+3 syntax requirements. When you load the file back in, you will find that it has retained the
original filename and type used within WordMaster.
As an example, one of the Typeliner fonts is saved to disk as R_LITE.FN3. When you load
this, you should find that a new file appears in the listing as >Fnt3 .R-Light.
2
Typeliner: Step-by-Step
This tutorial is intended to take you through Typeliner's features in the simplest way possible.
You should very quickly be able to produce simple multi-column layouts with the program, and
eventually produce layouts of great complexity.
Almost all the keys on the keyboard perform functions within Typeliner. To avoid confusion,
you should be very careful to only press the specified keys as you follow the steps here.
Users of special versions of Typeliner should follow through the tutorial but not attempt to print
at this stage. Once you have learned the basics of using the program, load up the special version
of Typeliner for your particular printer and use this for printing.
Starting Up
First of all, you will need to load WordMaster from disk/microdrive/cassette, depending on the
version you have. Now you should Set "Drive 0" on the File Handling menu and press [L] to
load Typeliner from the supplied cassette. At the input, just [ENTER] a blank string (without
typing anything) and the message "Start Tape" will appear.
Now insert the Typeliner cassette into the tape recorder and start it. Once the loading has
finished, press [Q] to list the files. You will see that several files have loaded. The display should
look something like this:
 >F-XE .typeliner!
 >Fnt3 .R-Light
 >Fpge .page 2
 >FILE .graffix
 >FILE .text demo
The purpose of the >Fpge file will be described later. The >Fnt3 file is one of the special
Typeliner fonts. If you also have the Headliner extension program, you should note that these are
different to the Headliner fonts, which are listed as >Fnt6 files.
The >F-XE file called "typeliner!" is the Typeliner extension program. To run this, press [G] for
get file and at the input type "t" and [ENTER].
Selecting the Text File
After a second or two, while the Spectrum rearranges the filespace, an input will appear with the
prompt "Typeliner (c) 1987 Cardex". Before you can go any further, you should type the name of
a text file in memory which Typeliner will use for the page layout. The only text file here is
called "text demo", so type this in and [ENTER].
3
The Typeliner Layout Screen
The screen clears and is replaced with Typeliner's main screen. All the work of designing a page
layout is done from this screen, and from now on you should be careful which keys you press, as
some may have untoward effects on the layout.
The right of the display is taken up with a large blank space with two boxes drawn on it, one
dotted and the other solid. This space is the page layout you work on, and represents an area 8
inches by 10.6 inches, slightly smaller than A4 size paper. You will find that if you don't leave a
margin at the top or bottom of the display page, your printouts will fill an A4 page quite
adequately.
At the top left of the display is the heading "Text" followed by the name of the text file you are
currently using. Below this is written "Block:01". Press the [ENTER] key, and watch the dotted
box as it flashes. This is a text block, and when you are ready to print a layout, a column of text
will be 'poured' into this.
Below this line is written "Font:" and below this seven numbered lines. These are the Typeliner
fonts to be used on the page. We will come to these later.
What you see in the display at this time is the basic minimum page-layout that can be produced
with Typeliner; one text block surrounded by a box or line. We will be looking at lines & boxes
later.
Moving the Text-Block Around
If you now press the [P] key, you will see that the dotted box moves to the right. Moving a box
or block around works in a similar way to the SCREEN$ option on the WordMaster main menu.
The [Q], [A], [O] & [P] keys move the block without changing it's size, and the [CURSOR] keys
alter the width and height. Experiment with these until you are used to them.
The block moves in increments of one screen pixel in all directions, which can be a little slow.
Try pressing [SYMBOL SHIFT] at the same time as you are movmg the block. Notice how the
movement is much faster.
Line/box Mode
So far we have only moved the text block; the other solid box on the page has not been altered.
Press [B], and you will see that the top left heading alters to say "Line/Box", and below the block
number, "Style:03". You are now in line/box mode. Press [T] and you will return to text mode;
now press [B] again.
Press [ENTER], and notice that now the solid box flashes. You can move this box around in the
same way as the text block before. The box represented here will, when printed, produce a box
on the printed page. This could be used to outline an area of text, or put a border round the page.
4
Line/Box Style
Now press [S], and watch the "Style" setting. It increments through 03 to 06, then goes back to
01. At "Style:01" the shape of the displayed box changes into a vertical line. This represents a
line that will be printed. Press [S] again, and the line changes to a horizontal line.
In total there are six styles of line or box available:
01: vertical line
02: horizontal line
03: thin-line box
04: shadowed box
05: outline box
06: thick-line box
The difference between styles 3 to 6 cannot be shown in the display, but is apparent when
printing in draft mode. For now, press [S] again until the style setting is back to 3, then enlarge
and move the box back to somewhere near its original pesition. Now press [T] to return to text
mode.
Creating New Text Blocks
Move the text block back to its original position, then press [C] to create a block. A new block
appears, and the block number changes to "Block:02". Press [C] again, and a third block is
created. You can have up to 24 text blocks and 24 lines or boxes on a page, but for now we'll
stop at three.
You will probably find that the original text block does not quite match the position of the other
two. Press [N], and the first block will flash, ready to be moved into alignment. The [N] & [M]
keys are used to step through the blocks on the page, [N] moving to the next block in the
sequence, [M] to the previous.
The second and third blocks should be exactly the same size. Move the first block over the
second and alter its width until the sides disappears (because the blocks are drawn in OVER
mode, two drawn on top of each other become invisible). Now move the block left until it is
equally spaced with the other two blocks. You now have a very simple three column page layout.
If the box surrounding the three columns is out of position, press [B] to go into box mode, make
the correction and press [T] to get back into text mode.
Deleting a Block
Press [C] again and a new block, number 4, is created. We don't really want this, so press
[DELETE] and it will be deleted.
The same procedure applies to creating and deleting lines or boxes. It is possible to delete all the
blocks except the first text block and the first line or box.
5
The Fonts Listing
Now that you have designed a simple layout, you will probably want to have a preview of what it
will look like when printed.
You can get a print preview at any time by pressing [V], but if you press [V] now, nothing will
happen. This is because you have not specified a font for Typeliner to produce the text with. This
is the purpose of the "Fonts:" listing.
Press the [F] key, and notice that the coloured bar in the fonts listing moves down one line. Press
[F] repeatedly until this menu bar reaches "7: ", then once more and it will return to "1:". Now
press the [EDIT] key. An input appears in the bottom left of the screen. Into this input you
should type the name of a Typeliner font currently in memory. At the moment, only the R-Light
font has been loaded, so type "R-Light" and [ENTER].
You will now see that "R-Light" has been entered into the fonts listing as "1:R-Light". There
should always be a font in location 1 on the font listing. Printing of text will start in this font.
The Page Preview
Now that you have specified a default font, you can get a page preview by pressing [V]. The text
blocks are filled in ascending numerical order with horizontal lines representing the final print.
As you can see, the text shown in the preview is completely unreadable, but in the left display is
shown the block number and the start of the text within that block.
With the [N] & [M] keys, you can step through the text block-by-block, so although you cannot
make out the details of the text within a block, you can at least find out where each block starts
and ends.
If you do not want to print the layout at this stage, pressing [SPACE] returns you to text mode.
Printing the Page
To print the layout, after the page preview press either [D] for a draft copy, or [P] for a NLQ
print. With either option, the screen clears and the lines of text are displayed as they are sent to
the printer. If you pressed [SPACE] to return to text mode, then the [D] and [P] options cannot
be used and you will have to press [V] to renew the preview before you can use these options.
When printing, if your printer is off-line the program will 'freeze', with probably only part of a
line shown in the display. To continue, you can either switch on the printer or press [BREAK] to
abort the printing.
If you press [BREAK] while the printer is working, you should make sure you reset the printer
(by switching off then on again) before attempting any more printing.
6
With the draft print, the ESC "K" graphics mode is used, producing 60 dots per inch printing in a
single pass across the page. This is very useful for checking the fine detail of a layout which the
screen cannot show.
The NLQ mode uses the ESC "L" graphics mode producing 120 dpi. Three passes are made for
each line of text, producing a much higher resolution (and denser) print than the draft copy. It
also takes about six times as long, and wears out your printer ribbons pretty fast too.
Listing the Files
After printing or viewing the print preview, you can clear the page by pressing [K], which lists
all the files in memory. You will see the same listing as you get from the File Handling menu.
Press any key and the main screen will be redrawn.
You can view the listing at any time while in text or line/box mode by pressing the [K] key.
Graphic Mode
Press the [GRAPH] key, and notice that the left display again changes. There is a new heading
"Graphics", with a large empty space below it and a coloured menu bar.
Try the [Q], [A], [O] or [P] keys, and you will find that they no longer have any effect. However,
the [N] & [M] keys will move the menu bar in the left display. The reason the movement keys
aren't doing anything is because there isn't anything to move. You are now in graphic mode, and
before you can move a graphic around, you have to enter its name in the left hand listing.
Press [EDIT] and an input appears in the lower left-screen. You should now type the name of a
graphic file currently in memory. Type "graffix" and [ENTER]. The filename "graffix" now
appears under the menu bar in the left listing, and a new block appears in the display and flashes.
The box on the screen represents the graphic to be positioned on the page. Try moving it around
(in the same way as the text block). If you use the [CURSOR] keys, you will find that these
rescale the graphic. UP/DOWN switches between *1 and *2 high, and LEFT/RIGHT alters the
width from *1 to a maximum of *4. For now, rescale the graphic until it is as small as it will go,
then move it over the first text block, slightly above it.
Now press [L] and the graphic will be drawn on screen. If you want to view the actual graphic,
press [V] and it will be displayed until you press another key. This means that to get a page
preview, you will have to return to text mode and press [V] there.
Experiment with this for a while, moving the graphic into different positions and altering its
scaling, then pressing [L] to redraw it in the new position. As you can see, the graphic shown on
the page is considerably squashed but still recognisable.
7
Now press [N], and the menu bar moves down off the "graffix" filename. Notice there is no
longer a box around the graphic on the page. Press [M], and the menu bar moves back over
"graffix". The box reappears, and you can alter the graphic's position once more (put it back
where it was, over the first text block).
Press [N] again, then [EDIT] and again type "graffix" and [ENTER]. Now "graffix" should occur
twice in the listing, and another box appears in the display. Move this box until it is alongside the
original graphic, then press [L]. You now have two identical graphics, positioned side by side on
the page.
There is space in the listing for 12 graphics to be on the screen at the same time. These could all
be the same, or all different. For now, we only want one graphic shown, so we want to remove
the second. This is done by pressing [EDIT], and deleting the filename. When you [ENTER] this,
the screen will be redrawn with the graphic deleted.
Shading
Now move the menu bar back over the first graphic by pressing [M]. If you now press [S], you
will see that the letters "sh" appear after the filename. This means that when the graphic is
printed, the screen colours will be represented as shaded patterns in the printout. If you press [S]
again, this shading function will be switched off.
Shading is represented in the display, but because the graphic is shown in a greatly reduced size
this can produce some odd looking results. With graphics that are black ink on white paper
shading makes no difference to the printout. Some of the demo's on the cassette show the effects
that can be produced with the shading function.
Editing the Text & Inserting Commands
Pressing [T] exits graphic mode and returns you to text mode, with the first text block ready to be
moved. Now press the [V] key to see a print preview.
You should now have three columns of text surrounded by a box, with a graphic above the first
text column. The text shown in the columns has a neat left margin and a ragged right margin, in
other words it is "left" justified. Suppose you wanted the text to be "fill" justified?
To produce text in "fill" justification, a command should be inserted into the text. This is the way
justification is usually set with WordMaster, and the procedure for inserting commands is as
described in the WordMaster manual.
To edit the text file from within Typeliner, the [E] key is used from either text or line/box mode.
Press [N] or [M] until the left display shows the text starting at Block:0l. Now press the [E] key.
The Typeliner screen is replaced be the usual WordMaster text-editing display, with four menu
8
lines at the bottom of the screen and 20 lines of text. The cursor is positioned at the start of the
text file, which is where the first block of text is taken from.
You can now edit the text as usual with WordMaster. All the usual functions, search & replace
and blocks are all avallable.
For now, press [EXTEND MODE] to set the INSERT MODE on, then move the cursor (with the
CURSOR keys!) to the start of the file. Now type [TRUE VIDEO], "fill" and [ENTER] to restart
the text on a new line. No commands to set margin or column width are necessary.
Now we want to return to the Typeliner layout screen. Press [INVERSE VIDEO], and instead of
returning to the OPTIONS menu you will find yourself back in Typeliner. You can now press
[V] to see the print preview. If you typed in the command correctly, the text should now be
shown "filled" so that both margins of the column are even.
There are several commands available, though since Typeliner does not use printer typestyles
like condensed or elite, some of the commands used in WordMaster will have no effect. The
commands to set justification are identical with WordMaster's, and the >large command will
now produce double-height characters rather than double width. There are also commands to
alter the line spacing and to force the end of a text block.
Storing the Page
Now that you have created a layout, store it as a file by pressing [?] (Symbol Shift & C). The file
listing is displayed and an input appears with the prompt "Store Page".
Type "page 1" and [ENTER]. You will now find yourself back at the original Typeliner input
where you entered the program. Notice that a new >Fpge file has been created call "page 1".
This is your stored layout.
Now type "page 2" and [ENTER]. A new prompt appears, asking "Get Page" and "Y/N?". Press
[Y] for yes and the layout screen reappears, with a new layout. Your old layout has been
overwritten by this new one, which is why we stored it first. For now, do not alter this layout.
Quitting Typeliner: the Main Input
Press [INVERSE VIDEO], and we are back to the original listing and input. To quit back to File
Handling, just [ENTER] without typing anything.
Pressing [INVERSE VIDEO] in any mode within Typeliner will return you to the original
prompt. Here you can quit, or select a new text file or a new page layout (as described above).
You can also jump directly to another extension program by typing in its name.
By now you should be back at the File Handling menu. This short tutorial should have
9
familiarised you with most of Typeliner's features. If you find you are still confused, try going
back through the procedure (if necessary, reloading the original files from the cassette).
Many of Typeliner's features are described in greater detail later in this manual, and the key
functions are summarised at the end. For now, press [L] for load and type "save!" to load the
save! extension program, described in the next section.
The save! Extension Program
Usually with WordMaster you can only save text & graphic files individually or save all the files
in memory as a group from the File Handling menu. The save! extension can be very useful in
that it lets you select a number of files then saves them together.
Load save! from the cassette after loading Typeliner and the files loaded with it. Now set the
drive number to the microdrive or disk you want to save Typeliner onto, then access save! with
the 'get' option.
An input appears on the listing with the prompt "Save Select:". Type "typeliner!" and [ENTER].
The typeliner! file is then moved out of the listing and the prompt again asks you to "Save
Select:".
For now, we want to save Typeliner on its own, so just [ENTER] at this prompt.
A new listing is now displayed, with only the typeliner! >F-XE file shown, and a standard
"SAVE" input. If you [ENTER] a blank name the save will be aborted, otherwise a copy of the
typeliner! file will be saved onto the required drive with the name you have given it.
You can use save! to back-up the fonts and font-editor, though note that save! cannot save itself.
To back-up save! you will have to delete all the other files from memory and use the [S] save
files option on the File Handling menu.
Using the Fonts
The Typeliner fonts allow you to produce proportionally spaced text in various styles and sizes.
Due to the triple-pass printing system employed, text can be printed in much higher quality than
normal NLQ. You can use up to seven of the fonts on a page with complete flexibility, though
memory limitations will usually prevent using more than three or four fonts at once.
Let's assume you have some text; a sub-heading followed by a paragraph, and you would like the
sub-heading printed in a bolder type than the main text. For this we can use the original
10
demo files loaded with the Typeliner tutorial. The "R-Light" font is suitable for the main text,
and the "R-Bold" font is a bolder version of this.
First you should load "R-Bold" from the cassette (it's the first font immediately after the save!
extension program). Do this with the [L] option on the File Handling menu.
When you have loaded the new font, you should see two fonts listed along with the other files
loaded previously:
 >Fnt3 .R-Light
 >Fnt3 .R-Bold
Now run Typeliner (with the 'get' option). If you have previotisly followed through the tutorial
you will find that Typeliner has remembered the name of the text file you used last time and
gone straight into the main layout screen in text mode.
The "R-Light" font should be listed as font 1 in the fonts listing. For this demonstration we want
to use the "R- Bold" font as font 2.
Press the [F] key until the coloured menu bar is over the second location in the listing. Now press
[EDIT] and type "R-Bold" at the input. When you [ENTER], the filename will be displayed in
the listing.
We have now specified our default font, in which printing will start, and a second font. To use
the second font in a printout, we have to Insert a control character into the text file selecting the
new font.
By pressing [E] we move into normal WordMaster text editing. If you are using the file "text
demo", you will see that the first line is a heading and following this a paragraph. Were you to
print this now, because a font has not been specified all the text would be printed in the default
font.
 Set the INSERT mode on, and move the cursor to the start of the text in the file, over the first
character in the line. Now press [GRAPH] and when the new lower menu appears press [2]. The
inverted "2" character will appear in the text. Now if you were to print the file with Typeliner, all
the text would be printed in the second font.
Press [GRAPH] again, and this time type [3]. This has put the "3" character after the "2". Now all
the text after this character will be printed in font 3 - but if you remember, we have only
specified fonts one and two. In this case (where a font is set in the text but unspecified in the
fonts listing) the default font is again used, the font in location one.
Delete the "3" character, and move the cursor down until is over the first word of the paragraph
below the heading. Now press [GRAPH] and [1]. Printing now will result in the heading being
printed in font two, and all the text following in font one.
There are seven special characters available from the [GRAPH] menu. Normally these are used
to select the definable characters for WordMaster. The other special characters (used to select
different print styles) will have no effect on Typeliner.
11
To return to the Typeliner layout screen from text-editing, press [INVERSE VIDEO]. You can
now view a preview of the page and print it. As you can see from the preview, there is no
appreciable difference visible between font one and two. This means that before printing you will
have to keep a close check on which fonts you have used and their locations in the file.
The principle explained here applies equally well to using three, four or more fonts. You should
note that as the fonts vary in width, the amount of space the text occupies on the page varies with
the font you are using. Hence a condensed font like "C-Light" will fit more words onto the page
than a wide font like "Title".
All the fonts supplied with Typeliner can be altered with the Font Editor, and so altered to suit
your own requirements.
Renumbering the Blocks
As we have seen, the text flows through the blocks in ascending numerical order. It doesn't
matter if blocks are missing from the sequence, so you could delete the second block in the
sequence 1, 2, 3 and the text would then flow straight from block 1 to block 3.
Now suppose you have a two-column layout and you want to insert a graphic into the middle of
the first column. Effectively, this means splitting the first block into two blocks with a space
between them for the graphic.
You could do this by moving block two down and creating a new block in its old position, but
this method would be impractical for a page with many columns.
The best way to do it is to create a new block three, then renumber the blocks so that two
becomes three, and three becomes two.
The renumber function is accessed by pressing [R] in text mode, and allows you to renumber the
blocks in any order you desire.
When this is accessed, a new heading appears, "Renumber" and the current block number. You
can now step through the blocks with the [N] key and select the number for that block with
[ENTER]. After selecting block one, you will be asked to select block two, and so on until all the
blocks in use have been numbered.
12
Triple Pass Printing
The printer's print-head has a row of vertical pins, usually nine pins on modern printers. Eight of
these are used in the ESC "L" and ESC "K" graphic modes used by Typeliner. The vertical row
of eight pins is a ninth of an inch high, with each pin 1/72nd of an inch apart (the approximate
size of the 'dot").
In single pass printing (draft mode) the head moves once across the paper to print a line, the
paper is fed and the next line printed. In double strike printing the head moves across twice,
printing the same image twice and producing a darker image.
NLQ printing is usually done in the same way as double-strike, only printing part of the
characters on the first pass, then completing the image on the second pass. In the process the
paper is fed a very small amount.
This has the effect of increasing the resolution of the printed image, making characters like "0"
and "q" appear rounder. This is why the printer's draft character set is formed of squarish type
characters and the NLQ set is more natural.
Typeliner extends the process to take three passes. After each pass, the paper is fed 1/216th of an
inch (a third of 1/72nd of an inch), giving a very high resolution.
The Page Preview
A piece of A4 paper is 11 and 5/8ths of an inch long. With a vertical resolution in 216ths of an
inch, this means there are about 2500 possible dot positions along this length. Since the Specrum
screen is only 192 pixels high, this causes quite a problem when trying to display a page.
For the purposes of the page preview, we can ignore the triple-pass printing and assume that each
line of text represents one pass of the printhead. If we then take four of the eight dots produced
by the head to represent one line on the screen, we end up with a vertical scale of one screen line
to every 18th of an inch on the paper. Thus the whole screen can show a maximum paper length
of about 10.6 inches, and each line of text on the paper can be shown as a screen line two pixels
high.
Horizontally, an 80 column printer can produce 120 dots per inch over a platen width of eight
inches; 960 dots across the whole page. Six dots on the printed line are taken to represent one dot
in the display, hence the preview page is 160 pixels wide, and each pixel represents 1/20th of an
inch.
The differences in scaling mean that the preview appears squashed in the vertical dimension,
slightly wider than the printout.
The Measuring Grid
Pressing [X] when in any mode draws a grid on the page, measured in inches. This is useful for
fitting a layout within a specific paper size, such as A5 paper.
13
For really accurate alignment to specific measurements (if, for example, you want to leave a
space for a photograph to be added) it is a good idea to make a test print with the draft option
before the final print.
Pressing [X] again removes the grid.
Line Spacing
Line spacing is alterable in 18ths of an inch, and is set by inserting a command line into the text.
The command sets the amount of paper feed after each line is printed, so a line spacing of
3/18ths will produce a gap between the two lines of 1/18th, since the text itself is 2/18ths high.
The default line spacing is 3/18ths of an inch This can be altered to as much as 4/18ths or as little
as 1/18th. The >sp command does this:
 >sp 4
Note that there should be exactly one space between sp and the numeral following.
As it stands, a spacing of 1/18th of an inch isn't much use, as the text is printed on top of the
previous line.
2/18ths spacing produces poor results with fonts that are the full 2/18ths high, as the descenders
of one line (the tails on y's & g's) touch the ascenders on the line below. However, with fonts that
don't use the full height, such as the City and Mini fonts, a 2/18ths spacing can be used to good
effect.
3/18ths is a suitable spacing for letters and notes, with 4/18ths being an extra wide spacing. On
the whole though, 18ths of an inch are too coarse a measurement, which is why half-spaces are
also allowed.
This command:
 >sp 2/
...sets a 5/36ths of an inch line spacing (alternatively, two and a half eighteenths!). This is an
ideal spacing for magazine style, multi-column text.
Unfortunately though, the screen cannot cope with vertical measurements smaller than 1/18th, so
the display of this has to be approximated to the nearest screen line up. This means that text
produced in half-line spacing will be displayed in a kind of "interference pattern" rather than the
usual regular style.
When using half-spacing, remember that in the preview every other line is approximated, so you
have a line shown in its true position, then the line below it approximated, then true, then
approximated, and so on.
14
The state of the line spacing, either true or approximate, is preserved between blocks. This means
you can have several blocks with text flowing vertically through them in sequence, and still
maintain regular half-line spacing.
The only time the state is reset to true is when you deliberately force the end of a block with the
>F command (described later).
Halt Line Feed
It can be useful on occasion to force the text to move down a specified amount. This command:
 >/
Forces the text down the column by 1/36th of an inch. As the line shown in the preview is
approximated to the nearest 18th, this may not have any visible effect. Using the command in
succession:
 >/
 >/
...will force the text down 1/18th, or whatever multiple of 1/36th you require. You can use this to
wide- space paragraphs, or to put wide space between a heading and the main text.
Forcing the End of a Block
To force the text into a new block, the >F command is used. In WordMaster this is used to end a
page, and the principle is similar.
As an example, suppose you want to write a letter, and have your address in the top right corner
of the page. Type the address at the start of the file and then the >F command. Now type the text
of the letter.
On the Typeliner layout screen, you will need two blocks; the first for the address and the second
for the main text. The text will flow into the first block, stopping at the >F command. It will then
continue with the main text in the second block.
If the block for the address is too small, the text will fill it and then flow into the second block,
then end at the >F command.
This feature is particular useful for complex layouts using various fonts and sizes, or for a
magazine-style production with different "stories" on the same page.
15
Large Text
Typeliner can print lines of text in double height, very useful for sub-headings and titles. Again,
this is produced by a command in the text, in this case:
>large
This is similar to the >large command used by WordMaster, but since most printers cannot
produce double-height printing, it usually sets double-width.
Large text can be seen in the preview as a line twice the normal thickness. To switch the enlarged
text off, this command is used:
>norm
Again, the same as WordMaster.
Note that when using large text, you do not need to alter the line spacing, though adding halfspaces
around a large line can be used to make it stand out. Typeliner maintains the same gap
between lines whatever size you are using.
Some of the fonts supplied are deliberately designed to be used with the large setting. The City
font is one of these. If you print this in normal size, you will find that the characters all appear
short and fat. Printed large, they appear more normal.
The Font Editor
The Typeliner Font Editor allows you to alter the supplied fonts or design your own from
scratch. You can also delete rarely used characters like \ {, }, $, [, ], to save memory.
The Editor is loaded from cassette and is an >F-XE file like other extension programs. You
should have Typeliner and a font in the memory as well when you load it.
After running the Editor from File Handling, an input appears with the prompt "Get Font:". In a
similar way to the Typeliner entry, you should now type the name of the font you wish to edit.
The Font Editor Screen
After selecting the font, the editing screen is displayed showing a "checkerboard" grid. Below
this are displayed five characters from the file.
The grid itself is 24 points by 24, the "checkerboard" shading being there to assist in lining up
character designs to required dimensions. Each point on the grid is 4 pixels by 4, so the grid
represents a one to one scaling that is not true to the printout. The smaller characters shown are
16
more correctly scaled but still slightly wide. The only way to get a genuine look at the font is to
print it.
To quit the Editor, press [INVERSE VIDEO] and you will return to the main input. You can now
select another font or quit to File Handling by pressing [ENTER].
Altering the Grid
The [Q], [A], [O] and [P] keys move the cursor around the grid. Pressing [ENTER] clears a
point, [SYMBOL SHIFT] sets a point.
You can clear the grid by pressing [DELETE] and merge a character with the grid by pressing
[EDIT]. The ability to merge characters is a great time saver; for example, you can usually create
an "h" by merging "l" and "n".
The grid can also be scrolled by using the [CURSOR] keys.
Selecting a Character
The centre character of the five displayed is the current character. You can pick this one up or
store the grid contents in its location. To change the current character, the [R] and [T] keys are
used to step up or down through the file.
Also displayed is the normal Spectrum character set equivalent for the character, though note that
these diverge on two occasions: for the Spectrum hash character, a pound sign should be in the
font; for the pound sign, an inverted comma (´).
Storing a Character
There are two ways to store a character. With the usual method press [S] and the character on the
grid is stored in the current character position. The width of the character is taken literally. This
means that an "1" drawn as a single vertical line hard up against the left of the grid would be
stored with a width of 1, and no gap after it.
When a character is stored no gaps between characters are stored. Instead, a uniform gap is added
at the printing stage. If you want an extra gap before the character this is easily done by having
the design on the grid start a few points left of the edge. This gap will be reproduced when
printing.
Adding a gap after the character requires moving the cursor to the desired width then storing
with [SYMBOL SHIFT] and [S]. All the points between the left margin and the cursor position
will be stored in the font, including any gap after the character.
In practice you only have to use this option on a few characters in Italic style fonts; A's and L's
usually require an extra gap of one or two points after the character. Characters that sometimes
require a gap before them include full-stops and commas, and in Italic fonts, W's and V's.
17
Setting the Spacings
The gaps (in 1/120th's of an inch) between words and letters when printed are displayed in the
lower menu.
Word spacing is altered by pressing [W] then inputting the new spacing in the range 1-32.
Usually a figure of 6-10 will produce the best results.
Since spaces can be filled out with the fill justification option, this figure is taken as a minimum
space size when printing.
Letter spacing can be altered in the range 0-31 by pressing [L]. Typically, an Italic font will
have a spacing of 0, a roman type font like R-Light a spacing of 1, and a regular font like
UnicLight a spacing of l.
Making a Test-print
Both Typeliner and the Editor have the ability to jump to another extension program direct from
the original input. This means that at the "Get Font:" input, you can jump straight to Typeliner by
entering "typeliner".
To test-print a modified font you will need a short text file containing all the characters of the
font and perhaps a test sentence containing all the letters of the alphabet. Select this text file for
use at Typeliner's main input, then enter the name of the modified font in location one on the
fonts listing. Now all you need is a simple one-block layout and you can print the text file in the
modified font.
After printing, if you wish to alter the font again press [INVERSE VIDEO] to return to the main
input and type "editor" to jump to the Editor. The name of the font will have been remembered
and you will automatically go through to the editing screen.
Font Design
Most of the fonts supplied have a gap between the base of the character and the bottom of the
grid of five points. There is a similar gap between the grid top and the tops of the a's and e's of
six points. These are useful dimensions to keep to for regular designs, but you may like to change
them for special effects.
Some of the fonts are slightly 'larger', like the UnicLight and Title fonts, with smaller gaps
between top and base. Some are designed specifically to be reproduced in double-height like the
City font. You should look at these examples if you want to design a font in a particular size.
There are almost infinite possibilities for designing your own fonts. In the future, we may put
together a 'font-pack' of the best fonts available. If you have designed a particularly good font
and would like it included in the font-pack, send us a test print of the font in large and normal
sizes (don't send a copy of the font!).
18
The Q+Convert! Program
This extension program is supplied for people who have the QUALITAS PLUS fonts. It will
convert a Qualitas Plus font into the Typeliner format.
Ideally, you should use the Qualitas font editor and convert the supplied font into EPSON
DOUBLE DENSITY format, then convert this font with Q+Convert!. Converted fonts will
probably benefit from some touching 'up' with the Typeliner font editor.
FUNCTION & KEY SUMMARY
Main Input
Blank input Quit
Text file-name Select text file
Fpge file-name Get page?
F-XE file-name Jump to extension program
Typeliner Commands
>left Left justify
>right Right justify
>fill Fill justify
>centre Centre
>sp x Set line feed to x/l8th's
>sp x/ Immediate feed x/l8th's plus 1/36th"
>/ Immediate feed 1/36th"
>F Force end of block
Key Functions: All Modes
[N] Next
[M] Previous
[Q,A,O,P] Move
[CURSOR KEYS] Resize
[SYMBOL SHIFT] Move/Resize fast
[K] List files in memory
[X] Display/Remove grid
[INVERSE VIDEO] Return to main input
[?] Store page as a file
19
Key Functions: Text Mode
[B] Line/Box mode
[GRAPH] Graphic mode
[EDIT] Alter font listing
[F] Move font selection bar
[E] Edit text
[V] Page preview
[C] Create block
[DEL] Delete block
[R] Renumber blocks
Key Functions: Line/Box Mode
As text mode except:
[S] Increment style
Key Functions: Graphic Mode
Some functions in this mode are disabled until a graphic file is selected.
[T] Text mode
[EDIT] Alter graphic listing
[V] View graphic
[S] Shading on/off
Key Functions: Page Preview
[SPACE] Text mode
[N] Next text block
[M] Previous text block
[E] Edit text
[D] Draft print
[P] NLQ print
Key Functions: Renumber
[N] Cycle through blocks
[ENTER] Set current block number
Typeliner (c) B M Parkinson 1987
Typeliner Fonts (c) B M Parkinson 1987
Typeliner Font Editor (c) Paul Sneesby 1987
All rights reserved. This software and manual may not be reproduced, let for hire or in any way
duplicated without the express consent of the copyright holders.
20