RichReaderAA - A Word, HTML, and PDF Document Reader with Anti-Aliased Fonts

RichReaderAA

A Word, HTML, and PDF Document Reader for the Palm Computing® Platform with
Anti-Aliased Fonts

Michael Arena
support@richreader.biz

Beta version 0.80ß, see Change Log

Download the Windows distribution (RichReaderAA.zip)

Introduction

RichReaderAA is derived from the popular RichReader document reader application. RichReaderAA has most of the same features as the original RichReader application. Please see this page for a full description of RichReader's features. The main difference is the font technologies used by the two applications. RichReader used a combination of the Palm's built-in fonts (Medium, Bold, and Large) and extra bitmap fonts (Small, Small Italic, and several Fixed width fonts totalling about 77KB). RichReaderAA uses only two font files (Normal and Italic, each 11KB) for displaying any size of Normal/Bold and Italic/Bold Italic. The font files contain descriptions of each character in terms of "lines" and "curves" which allows the application to "scale" the fonts to any size.

Q: So what is "Anti-Aliasing"?

A: Here is a brief description. Since display screens are composed a finite number of square pixels, the computer must approximate drawing lines and curves by turning on the pixels whose centers are closest to the line. This is called "aliasing" because it is just an approximation of the line.

"Anti-aliasing" uses shades of gray to draw the pixels on either side of the line.

Computer Graphics enthusiasts could give a much better answer so feel free to correct me.

NOTE: This Beta version is not restricted like the Unregistered Shareware version of RichReader. You can view full documents with all "rich" formatting. When RichReaderAA is officially released, you will need to purchase a license key. Registered users of RichReader can use their existing keys which essentially means you get both RichReader and RichReaderAA for the price of one.

RichReaderAA Fonts and Styles

Four different font styles:

Normal, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic
All styles work with all font sizes

Ten different font sizes from 8 to 60 pixels:

Currently, the Beta version of RichReaderAA only uses 3 sizes (10, 12, and 16 pixels). In a future release, you will be able to select the three font sizes you desire for Small, Medium and Large from any of the sizes between 8 and 60 pixels. This will greatly benefit those devices which have screens with a resolution greater than the standard 160x160 pixels (such as the HandEra and Sony models).
Small (<9 points) (10 pixels high)
Normal, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic
Medium (9-13 points) (12 pixels high)
Normal, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic
Large (14+ points) (16 pixels high)
Normal, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic

See the difference between characters that are anti-aliased and those that are not:

View the character set in all sizes for each style:

Normal
8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All
Bold
8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All
Italic
8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All
Bold Italic
8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All

View the character set in all styles for each size:

8
10
12
16
20
24
30
40
48
60

Differences between RichReaderAA and RichReader are:

No colored text (although RichReaderAA will work on color devices but in greyscale mode).
No screen rotation (yet)
No fixed width font
"Select Font" screen not yet working.

Future Enhancements (not necessarily in the order of implementation):

Color text
Screen rotation
Fixed width font
Improve look of bolded characters. Curves with approximately a 45° tangent do not display the proper line thickness.
Allow the user to select the pixel size for the three font sizes used to display text (Small, Medium, and Large). Currently, Small is 10 pixels, Medium is 12 pixels, and Large is 16 pixels. You could make all three sizes the same or any combination of pixel heights from 8 to 60.
Support higher resolution screens such as 320x320 or 240x320. You can then adjust the size of Small, Medium, and Large fonts to suit your tastes.
Improve the speed of the display.
Superscript and subscript text.


Four different font styles: Normal, Bold, Italic, *Bold Italic* All styles work with all font sizes

	Ten different font sizes from 8 to 60 pixels: Currently, the Beta version of RichReaderAA only uses 3 sizes (10, 12, and 16 pixels). In a future release, you will be able to select the three font sizes you desire for Small, Medium and Large from any of the sizes between 8 and 60 pixels. This will greatly benefit those devices which have screens with a resolution greater than the standard 160x160 pixels (such as the HandEra and Sony models). Small (<9 points) (10 pixels high) Normal, Bold, Italic, *Bold Italic* Medium (9-13 points) (12 pixels high) Normal, Bold, Italic, *Bold Italic* Large (14+ points) (16 pixels high) Normal, Bold, Italic, *Bold Italic*

See the difference between characters that are anti-aliased and those that are not:

View the character set in all sizes for each style: Normal 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All Bold 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All Italic 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All *Bold Italic* 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, All	View the character set in all styles for each size: 8 10 12 16 20 24 30 40 48 60