Figure 1. Screen shot of a converted TRIANGLE file displayed in a common word processor.
This page describes the procedures for converting TRIANGLE's .EXT files to the .RTF format so that they can be displayed in standard Windows word processing programs and printed to graphics capable printers.
RTF is an acronym for Rich Text Format. These files not only include the text of a file, but also information about the font type and size, as well as other formatting issues. Many Windows programs such as Word, WordPerfect, or WordPad can read .RTF formatted files. However, for proper display, all the fonts that the .RTF file references need to be loaded into the programs active font list. This is a list of the fonts that are located in the Windows Fonts folder (C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\) when the program starts.
Almost all of the fonts in this directory have a .TTF extension. TTF stands for True Type Font, and these fonts can be scaled nicely to many different sizes. When TRIANGLE exports a file to the .RTF format, it references three fonts: Courier New, Symbol, and GS. The first two are system fonts an are in all Windows computers. The third, GS, is a special font that the Science Access Project has made to simulate the GS characters seen on the DOS screen.
Once a .RTF file has been loaded into a Windows program, the GS characters can be seen on the Windows screen and printed to any graphics capable printer.
To install the GS TTF so that Windows programs may properly display TRIANGLE's exported .RTF files simply copy the font to the Windows FONTS directory. This can be accomplished (assuming that TRIANGLE is located in the folder C:\TRIANGLE and the windows directory is C:\WINDOWS)with the DOS command:
COPY C:\TRIANGLE\MANUALS\GS.TTF C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\*.*
If you do not have TRIANGLE, and need the GS TTF font on your computer, you can download a self extracting version of it now by cliking on this link. You will need double click on the GS______.exe file to extract the GS______.TTF font.
After the downloading and extracting the GS font file, move it to your C:\WINDOWS\FONTS folder.
While TRIANGLE will not run on a Macintosh computer unless a DOS emulation program such as VirtualPC is used, TRIANGLE files may be exported to the .RTF format and then read with Microsoft Word 6 or later. In order to correctly read the .RTF file, it is necessary to install the Mac GS font. (Macintosh computers use a different type of font than Windows computers.) The Mac font can be downloaded here. If your web browser does not automatically expand the file, and you are using a Mac, double click on the GS.suit.sea.hqx file after downloading it. Move the GS.suit file to your System Folder. The System will then place the font in the correct subfolder.
Note: Four of the GS characters could not be translated between the Windows and Mac font systems. As a result, on the Mac, the Font 1, Array, End-array-element, and End-array-line characters all use the End-array-element character. Also, note that Word 5.1 does not correctly display all the characters in the .RTF files, although (with the excptions noted above) Word 6 does.
The GS font contains the symbols that are not in the standard COURIER NEW or SYMBOL character sets. These GS symbols include symbols that are used in science and math and symbols representing text formatting procedures.
An example of how a TRIANGLE document looks after it has been converted to the .RTF format and then displayed in a common word processing program is displayed in Figure 1. The picture shows a section from the TUTOR4.EXT tutorial on using GS in TRIANGLE.
Figure 2 displays a list of the GS characters and their meaning. This list is better viewed by downloading the GS Info .RTF file (GSINFO.RTF) located here and viewing it in your word processor of choice. To successfully display the file, you must have the GS TTF font installed before starting your word processor program.
Once the GS______.TTF font has been copied to the WINDOWS\FONTS directory, start your favorite word processor that allows importing .RTF files. You can then use the open file option to find, open, and display the TRIANGLE document. When you want to print the file, choose the program's print file option to create a printed (as opposed to a Braille) version of the document.
Still have questions about TRIANGLE? Send e-mail to: triangle@dots.physics.orst.edu