New Features / Changes shortlist ================================ * Support for Plain/Bold/Italic/Bold-Italic typefaces, switchable per character. For each combination, a seperate font file can be loaded. => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/bi.png * Support for material indices per character => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/matind.png * Manual kerning per character => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/kern.png * Adjustable word spacing * Arbitrary number of freely positionable and resizable text frames per text object, with continuous text flow between them => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/tb.png => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/tb8.png (All text on the page is a single text object) * Automatic wordwrap at the border of a text frame (both on whitespace and hyphens) * "Flush" (Justify) text can have a hard line break anywhere (lines only flush if they end because of word wrapping, and break hard when you press Enter) * New "Justify" mode which expands whitespace instead of per- character spacing to fill lines. Looks much better! * Selection (shift-move) and cut/copy/paste of textblocks => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/sel.png * Overlapping characters have no filling errors => http://blender.instinctive.de/docs/img/olap.png * "Lorem" button for inserting a random paragraph of Lorem Ipsum at the text cursor * "Insert text" button for directly loading a text file at the cursor's position * "Split text object into individual characters" option (WKEY menu in Object mode). Creates one object per character (the old object is kept active and can be deleted by pressing XKEY directly after, if desired) * Increased maximum text size from 1000 to 50000 characters * Increased curve filling speed by a factor of about 10 for smaller texts, and 100 and beyond for larger texts, thus: * Due to the faster filling, Text objects are now always filled inside editmode, except if turned off with "Fast Edit". * CTRL-Left/Right goes to next/previous word * More standard HOME/END keys for going to beginning/end of current line (used to be shift-left/right) * Support for PageUp/PageDown for going back/forward 10 lines at a time * More complex font files supported, which formerly used to crash Blender Bold/Italic/Plain text ======================================================================== The "B" and "i" togglebuttons toggle bold and italic. For specifying what fonts to use for each combination, just set the desired combination, and then load the appropriate font file. Keep switching until all 4 possible font files are specified. Inside editmode, use the "B" and "i" buttons to switch 1) either the selected block of text or, if nothing is selected, 2) the mode for new characters entered. Shortcuts: CTRL-B / CTRL-I Material indices ======================================================================== Just switch to the desired material index in the usual editbuttons, and start typing using that Material index. For switching an entire block, select a block, then switch to the desired material index, then hit "Assign". Manual kerning ======================================================================== Between any pair of characters, press ALT-Left / ALT-Right to decrease/ increase kerning by steps of 0.1 (IIRC). Adjustable word spacing ======================================================================== New button "Word spacing" specifies a factor by which whitespace gets scaled in width. Text frames ======================================================================== A new text object always has one initial text frame, with offset and width/height set to 0. Frames with width set to 0 are ignored completely (no wordwrap happens), frames with height set to 0 flow forever (no switch to the next textframe). Creating/Deleting/Choosing textframes works exactly like material indices. To create a new textframe, press the "Insert" button, which will insert a new textframe after the current one, with the same coordinates and dimensions. You will need to move it (X:/Y: buttons) to see it. The active textframe (choosable with the "1 TextFrame: 1" button) is drawn in the active theme colour. Text flows continuously from the lowest-numbered into the highest-numbered frame. "Delete" deletes the current text frame (but obviously, not the text itself) and removes it from the flow. Selection of text blocks ======================================================================== Selection works like in any usual word processor. Pressing SHIFT while moving (Left/Right/Up/Down/PageUp/PageDown/ CTRL-Left/Right) selects text (this should be mousified some day). Moving the cursor without SHIFT will clear the selection. Entering characters or performing other actions with selected text will erase it. CTRL-C copies the text into a buffer, CTRL-V pastes the buffer (including all formatting information) at current cursor position. CTRL-X cuts and copies into the buffer. Selections are remembered over exiting editmode. Insert Text at cursor ======================================================================== After the many unsuccessful attempts to provide a sane way to load bigger blocks of text into a text object, I've created a simple "Insert Text" button which pops up a fileselector and inserts the chosen file's contents at the cursor position. Can't get much simpler. "Lorem" button ======================================================================== As its name implies, this button will insert a random paragraph (a few sentences) of "Lorem Ipsum" at the cursor position. Rinse and repeat up to the desired text length. Filled curves and "Fast Edit" ======================================================================== Due to the vast speedup of font filling, it can now always be filled inside editmode, giving a better preview. If you have a really large text object and want to stay unfilled during editing, just activate "Fast Edit" (which only can be toggled OUTSIDE editmode).