Manifold can use point styles from four different sources:
§ Point styles that are built into Manifold.
§ Point styles that are created from True Type fonts installed in Windows.
§ Point styles created from image files.
§ Point styles created from custom scalable styles.
This topic discusses the first three methods of customizing point styles. For use of custom scalable styles see the Custom Scalable Styles for Points, Lines, Areas and Labels topic.
Point styles that are created from True Type fonts or images are loaded into Manifold based upon directions specified within .xml files found in the Config folder. When Manifold launches it reads any .xml files that are placed in the Config folder and then opens True Type fonts or image files they mention to create new point styles. If an .xml file mentions a True Type font or image file that is not available in the Windows system, the point style thus specified will not be available and will be displayed as the default circle point style.
For example, an .xml file adding all characters in the particular font could be provided to customize the Manifold installation. This .xml file tells Manifold to create point styles based on the characters in the given font. If for some reason the specified font is not installed in Windows, the point styles created from this .xml file will not be available.
Point Styles Created from Fonts
Point styles created from True Type fonts may be used just like any point style, except that they are always created using the foreground color only. Users can add their own point styles from True Type fonts by installing a desired True Type font and then creating an .xml file in the following pattern:
<xml>
<style>
<name>Name for this style</name>
<font>Windows font name</font>
<symbol>64</symbol>
<type>point</type>
</style>
</xml>
Rules
· There can be any number of <style> </style> entries within a single XML file between the <xml> tag at the beginning of the file and the </xml> tag at the end of the file.
· The name string supplied in the <name> attribute is mandatory and must be unique. Many users will construct a unique name by appending the symbol number to the name of the font.
· The font name string supplied in the <font> attribute is mandatory and must be one of the font names installed in Windows.
· The number in the <symbol> attribute is mandatory and must be a number that corresponds to a valid character, either in decimal notation or in hexadecimal (hexadecimal numbers must be preceded by a # character).
· The value in the <type> attribute is mandatory and must be "point".
Place the new or modified .xml file containing the point styles into the Config folder for Manifold (normally C:\Program Files\Manifold System Professional\Config) and restart Manifold. When Manifold launches, the system will scan all .xml files in the Config folder. Any <style> </style> entries of <type> "point" found in any of those .xml files that correspond to characters in installed Windows fonts will be loaded into the system as an available point style.
Example
We've installed the Microsoft Webdings font in our Windows system. We then created a file in the Config folder called PointsWebdings.xml that contains:
<xml>
<style>
<name>Webdings #2A</name>
<font>Webdings</font>
<symbol>#2A</symbol>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Webdings #2B</name>
<font>Webdings</font>
<symbol>#2B</symbol>
<type>point</type>
</style>
</xml>
This file uses hexadecimal notation for the character numbers, the same as used in the Windows Character Map utility program. It installs two point styles from the Webdings font.
When Manifold launches it will see the PointsWebdings.xml file in the Config folder and will read it to see what it contains. It will find two point styles in the file and will load them for use. The two styles used may be seen below:
The Webdings font is available for free download from Microsoft's typography page at
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/fonts/webdings/default.htm
This high quality font includes numerous symbols that will be useful as point styles in GIS applications.
Decimal notation
If desired we can write the above example using decimal numbers for the <symbol> values as:
<xml>
<style>
<name>Webdings 042</name>
<font>Webdings</font>
<symbol>42</symbol>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Webdings 043</name>
<font>Webdings</font>
<symbol>43</symbol>
<type>point</type>
</style>
</xml>
This example is equivalent to the hexadecimal form since decimal 42 is the same as hexadecimal 2A and decimal 43 is the same as hexadecimal 2B. Note that the <name> specified for each style is the font followed by the character number in decimal or hexadecimal. We can name the style however we choose; however, most users soon tire of creating inventive names for different point styles and eventually will adopt a standard naming scheme like the one used above.
Using individual characters or entire fonts
Manifold's .xml specification for point styles allows individual characters to be used from installed Windows fonts. It is often the case that only a few symbols in a font are useful to us in GIS, so the ability to specify only selected characters prevents the formatting menus from being overwhelmed by many styles that are not useful.
At times we might wish to simply use an entire font. It would be tedious to specify each of 255 styles by hand. A much faster method is to use the PointsWingdings.xml file provided as an example on the Manifold DVD. Suppose we want to use all of the characters in a font called NatoSymbols that has been installed as a Windows font in our system.
We would proceed as follows:
To exploit PointsWingdings.xml as a template:
1. Copy PointsWingdings.xml and paste it as PointsNatoSymbols.xml
2. Open PointsNatoSymbols.xml with Notepad [Right click on the file and choose Open With Notepad].
3. Replace "Wingdings" with "NatoSymbols" throughout the file.
4. Save the file
Since the original file listed all of the characters using a standard naming scheme, doing a search and replace using the new font name will create a new file for the NatoSymbols font.
Using a previously created .xml file as a template to create a new file for a different font is very fast. Even if we wish to only use a few characters out of a font it is usually faster to first use a template to create an .xml file that includes all of the characters as styles and to then delete those styles that are not wanted. Since few fonts with interesting symbols have all available slots full of characters it usually will be necessary to delete some of the point styles created by simply using a "full" font template like PointsWingdings.xml.
A reminder: point styles cannot be created from a font unless it is installed in the system. Use the Fonts selection in the Windows Control Panel to see fonts that are installed in your system.
Point Styles Created from Images
Point styles created from images may be used just like any point style, except that they are not resizable (and so may result in unexpected scaling effects when size on the monitor or on printed pages is compared) and do not use either foreground or background formatting colors. In addition, point styles created from images will not be shown in selection color when selected.
Users can add their own point styles from images by installing a desired image file (one image per file) and then creating an .xml file in the following pattern:
<xml>
<style>
<name>Name for this style</name>
<file> images\filename.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
</xml>
Rules
· There can be any number of <style> </style> entries within a single XML file between the <xml> tag at the beginning of the file and the </xml> tag at the end of the file.
· The name string supplied in the <name> attribute is mandatory and must be unique.
· The path string in the <file> attribute is mandatory. It specifies the path to the image file from the configuration directory. In the pattern shown above a filename.png image file must be within an images directory that is in the Config directory.
· Image files may be in any of the following formats: BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF, EXIF, WMF and EMF. Each image file contains one image, corresponding to one point style.
· The value in the <type> attribute is mandatory and must be "point".
Place the new or modified .xml file containing the image point style specifictions into the Config folder for Manifold (normally C:\Program Files\Manifold System Professional\Config) and restart Manifold. When Manifold launches, the system will scan all .xml files in the Config folder. Any <style> </style> entries of <type> "point" found in any of those .xml files that correspond to image files will be loaded as a new point style.
Images can contain pixels in transparent color. .png format is a good format to use to save images that contain invisible pixels (transparent color). .png is fast and efficient and a good choice overall for iconic images.
Point styles created from images will be centered in the center of the image. Point styles created from images are not resizable, since they use a fixed pattern of pixels.
Example
Suppose we create an images subdirectory in the Config folder. We place several image files in .png format in that folder. We create a PointImages.xml file in the Config folder that contains:
<xml>
<style>
<name>Manifold Icon</name>
<file>images\mfd_icon.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Blue Pin</name>
<file>images\blue_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Purple Pin</name>
<file>images\purple_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Red Pin</name>
<file>images\Red_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Orange Pin</name>
<file>images\orange_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Yellow Pin</name>
<file>images\yellow_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Green Pin</name>
<file>images\green_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
<style>
<name>Dark Green Pin</name>
<file>images\dkgreen_pin.png</file>
<type>point</type>
</style>
</xml>
The above XML adds point styles consisting of a Manifold logo style and a collection of pushpin images in various colors. The mfd_icon.png image looks like:
The orange_pin.png image looks like:
The illustrations above were created by importing each .png file as an image and then opening the image in an image window with the background layer turned off in the layers pane and the border layer turned on. The border shows the extent of the image, which would otherwise be difficult to see since both images use invisible pixels. Note that the orange_pin.png image consists mostly of invisible pixels. The other color pin images were created from the orange image by using hue / saturation to change the hue and then exporting the altered image to a .png file.
The two point styles above can be used to show how point styles using images are centered at the point location. To illustrate center positioning we've created a map of Europe that has a drawing layer with major cities as points. We have two copies of the cities layer in our map. One layer is formatted to use a small circle for each point. The other layer uses either the Manifold logo point style or the orange pin style.
When we use the Manifold logo point style we can see from the positions of the small white circle (from the other cities layer) that the logo is centered on each city point. We can also see that it is a challenge to design iconic images that work equally well when superimposed on any color background. The Manifold logo, for example, uses a splash of yellow color that disappears in lightly colored backgrounds.
When we use the orange pin point style we see that the image is also centered on each point; however, because the image consists mostly of invisible pixels the center of the image falls visually at the point of the "pin". This provides a nice effect as if the pin is pushed into the map at the point we wish to mark.
Tech Tips
Manifold cannot use any customizations if the .xml files do not contain XML that is exactly correct. A useful test before launching Manifold is to open any newly created or modified .xml file in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer will show a correct .xml file in a simple text format. If Internet Explorer cannot parse the .xml file, Manifold won't be able to either.
To review fonts use the Character Map utility that is available in most Windows systems. From the Start button choose Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Character Map. (Also available from a Windows Command Prompt (DOS) window as charmap.exe). The Character Map utility will show the name of each font installed in your system. Clicking on any character will display it and will show the character code (number) in hexadecimal in status bar in the lower left corner of the Character Map window. A Character Map code of 0x6C is the same as #6C, the "0x" prefix being another way, like the "#" prefix, of indicating the number is given in hexadecimal.
XML files read by Manifold from the Config directory can contain specifications for any mixture of customizable entities. For example, a single file can contain point styles, palettes, a new unit of measure and so on. It is usually easier to keep track of things if customizations are organized into separate files by what is being customized.
Choose image-based point styles with care if maps will be printed, since the literal printing of most point style images at the pixel resolutions typical of many printers will result in very small, almost invisible point symbols. To print more visible point styles, import the image into Manifold and use resize to increase the size of the image, export the image and then use that image in the point style. This may result in very large point styles on screen but will allow printing as desired.
The examples above place images in a subdirectory called images within the Config directory. The images can be wherever desired within the Config directory; however, keeping them neatly organized within subdirectories is a good idea if many images will be used.
The "embossed" look of the countries in Europe was created by first making boundary lines for each area and then copying the boundary lines into a second layer. The boundary lines in the lower layer were formatted with a size of 2 and given a foreground color lighter than the areas. The boundary lines in the upper layer were formatted with a size of 1 and given a foreground color darker than the areas. This layer was then repositioned slightly with CTRL-grabber to the Northwest.
A "raised border" effect can be created by reversing the sizes and colors of the boundary lines in the two layers. If the upper (shifted) layer is the lighter, thicker layer and the lower line layer is the thinner, darker layer the perceptual effect is one of raised borders as seen above.
New releases of Manifold may introduce new formatting styles. The /slist command line option provides a handy way for programmers to get a comprehensive list of all area, label, line and point styles available and their names.