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INTRODUCTION
============

This document specifies the format of font files, and the associated control
files, used by the FIGlet and FIGWin programs (FIGdrivers).  It is written
for designers who wish to build fonts (FIGfonts) usable by either program,
and also serves as a standard for development of future versions or similar
FIGdrivers.  Some features explained here are not supported by both programs.
See separate documentation to learn how to use FIGlet or FIGWin.

NOTE: FIGWin 1.0 is packaged with a program called FIGfont Editor for Windows
1.0, which is just that.  It does not require a complete understanding of
this document to create FIGfonts.  However it is a good idea to become
familiar with the "BASIC DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS" information before using
it.

If you design a FIGfont, please send an e-mail announcement to
<figletfonts@figlet.org>, the FIGlet fonts mailing list, and email a copy
to info@figlet.org for us to put it on the ftp site (ftp://ftp.figlet.org/)

BASIC DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS
===== =========== === ========

"FIGfont"

A FIGfont is a file which represents the graphical arrangement of characters
representing larger characters.  Since a FIGfont file is a text file, it can
be created with any text editing program on any platform.  The filename of a
FIGfont file must end with ".flf", which stands for "<F>IG<L>ettering
<F>ont".


"FIGcharacters" and "Sub-characters"

Because FIGfonts describe large characters which consist of smaller
characters, confusion can result when descussing one or the other.
Therefore, the terms "FIGcharacter" and "sub-character" are used,
respectively.


"FIGdriver"

The term FIGdriver is used in this document to encompass FIGlet, FIGWin, and
any future programs which use FIGfonts.


"FIGure"

A FIGure (thusly capitalized) is an image created by a FIGdriver.


"FIG"

A bit of history:

In Spring 1991, inspired by the Email signature of a friend named Frank, and
goaded on by Ian Chai, Glenn Chappell wrote a nifty little 170-line "C"
program called "newban", which would create large letters out of ordinary
text characters.  At the time, it was only compiled for UNIX.  In hindsight,
we now call it "FIGlet 1.0".  FIGlet stands for <F>rank, <I>an, and <G>lenn's
<let>ters.  In various incarnations, newban circulated around the net for a
couple of years.  It had one font, which included only lowercase letters.

In early 1993, Ian decided newban was due for a few changes, so together Ian
and Glenn added the full ASCII character set, to start with.  First, though,
Ian had to find a copy of the source, since Glenn had tossed it away as not
worth the disk space.  Ian and Glenn discussed what could be done with it,
decided on a general re-write, and, 7 months later, ended up with 888 lines
of code, 13 FIGfonts and documentation.  This was FIGlet 2.0, the first real
release.

To their great surprise, FIGlet took the net by storm.  They received floods
of "FIGlet is great!" messages and a new contributed FIGfont about once a
week.  To handle all the traffic, Ian quickly set up a mailing list, Daniel
Simmons kindly offered space for an FTP site, several people volunteered to
port FIGlet to non-Unix operating systems, ...and bug reports poured in.

Because of these, and the need to make FIGlet more "international", Ian and
Glenn released a new version of FIGlet which could handle non-ASCII character
sets and right-to-left printing.  This was FIGlet 2.1, which, in a couple of
weeks, became figlet 2.1.1.  This weighed in at 1314 lines, and there were
over 60 FIGfonts.

By late 1996, FIGlet had quite a following of fans subscribing to its mailing
list.  It had been ported to MS-DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, Apple II GS, Atari ST,
Acorn and OS/2.  FIGlet had been further updated, and there were nearly 200
FIGfonts.

John Cowan and Paul Burton are two FIGlet fans who decided to create new
versions.  While John wrote FIGlet version 2.2 using C, Paul wrote FIGWin
1.0, the first true GUI (Windows) implementation of FIGlet, using Visual
Basic.  John and Paul worked together to add new features to FIGfont files
which could be read by both programs, and together wrote this document, which
we hope helps to establish consistency in FIGfonts and help with the creation
of future FIGdrivers.  FIGlet 2.2 has about 4800 lines of code, of which
over half is a support library for reading compressed files.

FIGlet 2.2 and FIGWin 1.0 both allow greater flexibility by use of new
information which can be contained in FIGfont files without interfering with
the function of older FIGdrivers.

NOTE: The Macintosh version of FIGlet is still command-line driven as of this
writing, and a GUI version is very much in demand.  The FIGlet C code is
written to be easily plugged in to a GUI shell, so it will be a relatively
easy task for a Macintosh developer.




"Layout Modes"

A FIGdriver may arrange FIGcharacters using one of three "layout modes",
which define the spacing between FIGcharacters.  The layout mode for the
horizontal axis may differ from the layout mode for the vertical axis.  A
default choice is defined for each axis by every FIGfont.

The three layout modes are:

    Full Size (Separately called "Full Width" or "Full Height".)