The GFONT Procedure

Concepts

Font Terminology and Characteristics

Some specialized terms are associated with font characteristics:

The capline is the highest point of a normal uppercase letter.
The baseline is the line upon which the characters rest.
The font maximum is the highest vertical coordinate.
The font minimum is the lowest vertical coordinate.

Font Characteristics Terminology

[Font Attributes]

Specialized terms are also associated with font types:

A uniform font is a font in which all of the characters occupy exactly the same amount of space. Each character in a uniform font is placed in the center of its space, and a fixed amount of space is added between characters.
A proportional font is a font in which each character occupies a space that is relative to its width.
A stroked font is drawn with discrete line segments or circular arcs. This is a stroked font with several characters from the Simplex font.

Characters from a Stroked Font
A polygon font is drawn with one or more line segments or circular arcs.
A filled font is a polygon font in which the areas between the lines are solid.
An outline font is a polygon font in which the areas between the lines are empty.

Here are examples of a filled font and an outline font.

Filled and Outline Characters from Polygon Fonts

[Filled and Outline Polygon Fonts]

In the GFONT procedure, the term line segment means a continuous line that can change direction. All font characters are drawn with line segments. The letter C is drawn with one line segment, while the letter A can be drawn with two.

Polygon characters can be drawn with one or more line segments. In a polygon font the following is true:

A character can be made up of a single polygon. The letter C above is a single polygon with one line segment
A character can be made up of multiple polygons. The question mark consists of two polygons, each drawn with a separate line segment
A character can include holes. The letter A is a polygon with a hole in it. It is drawn with one line segment that is broken to form the outer boundary of the figure and the boundary of the hole.

Storing User-Created Fonts: GFONT0 Libref

The GFONT procedure stores user-created SAS/GRAPH fonts in the location that is associated with the libref GFONT0. Before you create or display a user-created SAS/GRAPH font, submit a LIBNAME statement to associate the libref GFONT0 with a location where the font is stored, as follows:

LIBNAME gfont0 "SAS-data-library";

The GFONT0 library is the first place that SAS/GRAPH software searches for fonts. Always assign GFONT0 to the library that contains your personal SAS/GRAPH fonts. If you have personal SAS/GRAPH fonts in more than one SAS library, assign them librefs in the sequence GFONT0, GFONT1, GFONT2, and so on. The search for entries terminates if there is a break in the numbering sequence. If the libref GFONT0 is not defined, by default SAS/GRAPH software begins searching for fonts in SASHELP.FONTS.

To cancel or redefine the libref GFONTn, submit the following statement:

LIBNAME GFONTn;

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