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Author Topic: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.93 - September 10th 2013  (Read 28553 times)

Jibz

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LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.93 - September 10th 2013
« on: September 07, 2013, 05:11 PM »
The latest version is attached here, and should be available (soon) from: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/

If you are using Dina on Windows, please note that it is a good idea to remove any older versions of the font before installing the current version (due to the way Windows decides if two FON files are the same font).

For Linux, there are some hints in this thread on how to install Dina.

Here are the readme and news files from the current release for easy reference:

README


Dina Programming Font
=====================

Copyright (c) 2005-2013 Joergen Ibsen

<https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/>


About
-----

Dina is a monospace bitmap font, primarily aimed at programmers. It is
relatively compact to allow a lot of code on screen, while (hopefully) clear
enough to remain readable even at high resolutions.

I made this font after having tried all the free programming fonts I could
find. Somehow there was some detail in each of them that meant I could not
work with them in the long run.

The closest to perfect I found was the Proggy font, so I started building
Dina using Proggy as the base, and with inspiration from Tobi, Fixedsys and
some old DOS fonts I used to love.

Some of the design goals were:

  - Monospaced
  - Should be easy to distinguish between `j i l 1 I`
  - Should be easy to distinguish between `o O 0`
  - Operators should line up horizontally `- + * =`
  - Brackets should line up horizontally and vertically `< ( { [ ] } ) >`
  - Punctuation should be clear `., :; ' "`
  - Symbols used in programming languages should look right `& @ % $ #`
  - No other characters that look too similar `gqy z2Z s5S 8B CG6 DO uv`
  - Still has to be pleasant to read passages of text

Dina is the result of many hours of tweaking and testing, and I am quite
happy with it now.


Font Format
-----------

Dina is a monospace bitmap font in Windows FON file format (Windows-1252 /
ISO-8859-1 encoding). It is available as:

  - 6pt regular
  - 8pt regular, bold, italic, bold italic
  - 9pt regular, bold, italic, bold italic
  - 10pt regular, bold, italic, bold italic

`DinaR.fon` contains the regular fonts, `DinaB.fon` contains bold,
`DinaI.fon` italic, and `DinaZ.fon` bold italic.

All styles are the same width for proper alignment.

Depending on your monitor size and type, the 8pt or 9pt versions should be
preferable up to at least 1280x1024 resolution. The 10pt version may be an
option at higher resolutions.

The BDF folder contains BDF versions of the fonts for easier conversion to
formats usable on Linux and Mac. The point sizes may be slightly different on
other operating systems. Please check the [forum][] for updates on
conversions.

The OEM folder contains FON files for OEM codepage 437 (US) and 850 (Western
Europe), which can be used in command prompts and text-mode programs that run
in them (like HIEW and FAR). After installing one of them, DinaTerm should
show up under Raster Fonts, in sizes 6x10, 7x13, and 8x16. If not, you can
try [these instructions][term]

[forum]: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=62.0
[term]: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/247815


Installing on Windows
---------------------

If you have a previous version of Dina installed, it is a good idea to remove
that before installing a new version. Close all open programs that use the
Dina font before removing it.

On recent Windows versions, removing a font is usually done by going into
Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Fonts, finding the font in
question, right-clicking it and choosing Delete. On older Windows versions,
go to `C:\Windows\Fonts`, right-click the font and choose Delete.

Installing a font on recent Windows versions, can be done by right-clicking
the `.fon` files and choosing Install. On older versions, go into Control
Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Fonts, and choose Install New Font
from the File menu.

Microsoft has more detailed instructions on installing and removing fonts
for [Windows XP][winxp], [Windows Vista][winvista] and [Windows 7][win7].

There is an issue on some Windows versions, where the 10pt entry disappears
from the font selection dialog. If this is the case, you can enter a size of
10 manually in the editbox.

[winxp]: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314960
[winvista]: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/install-or-uninstall-fonts
[win7]: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/install-or-delete-fonts


Acknowledgements
----------------

A big thanks to Tristan Grimmer for his excellent Proggy fonts.

Thanks to mouser for testing.

Thanks to Jamie Burns and bpcw001 for contributing conversions.


License
-------

Copyright (c) 2005-2013 Joergen Ibsen

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

NEWS


Dina 2.93 (2013.09.10)

  * Added OEM codepage 437 and 850 versions for Windows command prompts

Dina 2.92 (2013.09.07)

  * Moved bold, italic, and bold italic styles to separate files
  * Updated BDF files

Dina 2.91 (2013.08.25)

  * Fixed `&` in Dina 10 regular
  * Updated copyright strings in all fonts

Dina 2.90 (2013.08.23)

  * Added a 6 point version of Dina regular
  * Extended top line in `j` to make it easier to distinguish from `i`
  * Moved top part of `&` right and adjusted height
  * Moved `%` up
  * Changed `ø` and `Ø` to look less like `0`
  * Changed `æ` and `ß` to look more harmonious in text
  * Moved down starting question and exclamation marks
  * Fixed single and double text quotes
  * Fixed positioning of degree, ordinals, and powers
  * Fixed various other symbols
« Last Edit: September 10, 2013, 03:20 AM by Jibz »

Jibz

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2013, 05:11 PM »
Reserved

ewemoa

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2013, 11:51 PM »
I didn't find the version attached to be the same as the one available via the dedicated page.

The following are MD5 checksums I got for each:

           attached: 028424baac750e9fd0f54df03202e5d0
dedicated page: 35d394ad838ca2d862fd0310d6bf3405

Hmm...

Jibz

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2013, 01:25 AM »
I don't have access to the official homepage, so I posted the new version here. I should probably have coordinated this with mouser, but it was late :-[.


Jibz

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2013, 02:20 AM »
A few comments on 2.92:

I think I manged to fix the point size difference with the BDF files. At least on Ubuntu here, Dina comes up with the right font when you choose 6, 8, 9, and 10 points.

I've fought a loosing battle with the Windows FON file handling. On recent Windows versions, I imagine a piece of legacy code is invoked when it sees the FON extension, and it ignores pretty much everything except the resource data of the NE/PE executable.

The first problem was that the 10pt version had disappeared from the font selection dialog on Windows 7. Manually entering a size of 10 in the editbox works and gets you the right font, but it is only showing 6, 8, and 9 in the list. The second problem was that when you go into the Dina font family on Windows 7, all styles are shown as regular in the examples. It looks like this is because Windows uses the first font in the FON file for these examples instead of the first one with the correct style.

The only way to solve the first problem I have found was to separate the font into one file for each point size. To solve the second, you have to separate the font into one file for each style. Since using one file for each point size turned out to have some issues when removing the fonts again, I opted for one file for each style for now.

ewemoa

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2013, 04:38 AM »
* ewemoa  bugs mouser for an updated home page :)

mouser

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2013, 09:50 AM »
Official page updated.  :up:

ewemoa

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.92 - September 7th 2013
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2013, 07:14 PM »
Thanks!

Jibz

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Re: LATEST VERSION - Dina 2.93 - September 10th 2013
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2013, 03:22 AM »
Posted 2.93, the only change being the inclusion of FON files for OEM codepage 437 (US) and 850 (Western Europe), which can be used for Windows command prompts:

dinaterm8.png