Overview
This is a typesetting tool designed for calligraphy.
Normally, to ensure that your writing on paper meets your expectations in terms of layout and visual effect, you would need to draft your work first. But with this tool, you can see exactly what the final piece will look like without having to write a single draft.
User Guide
- Upload a calligraphy font in "Font Source" with kerning that matches your handwriting habits. Since the focus is on typesetting, even if you can't find a perfectly matching calligraphy font, a font containing just the kerning data will still be useful.
- I have provided a default Roundhand font, though it may not perfectly match your personal handwriting style.
- Enter the text you want to typeset in the "Content & Layout" text box. Use a backslash
\to segment content within a single line, and use\\to output a literal backslash. - Segmenting allows you to customize the size and offset of each segment individually, but width measurements are calculated based on the entire line, not the individual segments.
- Press and hold the middle mouse button to pan/drag the canvas on the right, and use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
- Set the measurement scale in "Calibration". By telling the program the actual physical width of a reference character in your handwriting, the program can calculate the correct measurement values. You can also calibrate based on line height instead of character width. Note that a character's width in a font actually refers to its advance width (how far the cursor moves), not necessarily its visual glyph width. The same applies to line height; the value you need to input might not be the theoretical x-height.
- Adjust any other layout settings you need in the rest of the "Content & Layout" section. Expand a line's settings to adjust its individual segments.
- Toggle the measurement options you need (or don't need) on or off in the "Measurement" section.
- You can enable circular layout, which organizes multiple lines of text into concentric circles. Due to the limitations of JavaScript capabilities in browsers, both rendering modes have their respective drawbacks. In particular, setting both the arc radius and the canvas zoom to excessively large values simultaneously may cause the Canvas to go blank or lag.
About the Author
Silhouette Z