Ken wrote:

> How about a totaly different approach. On my web page is a ttf file
> available for download that is for creating musical scores. With this
> file and the use of POV-Ray's ability to make 3D extruded text objects
> from ttf's you need only choose the right character for your task.
>
> Simple no ?
>

 Ken,

    Unfortunately no, it is not that simple.

    I have three versions of POV, four if you count my Linux 3.1 version.
They all
display different characteristics when attempting to use TTF fonts. The
official
 release for windows refuses to draw a number of characters from a number of
fonts I have tried to work with. I am using the Mega Version to get the
bounding
data for objects and it declines to draw any glyphs from the musical symbols
font
above 127. I have also noticed that the Mega version is the best of the bunch
when it comes to reproducing glyphs from various interesting freeware fonts I
have tried. This is presumably because they contain insufficient or
inaccurate hinting or other
data.
        The problem with slurs and ties is however different. What I would
like is
, to paraphrase Metafont, "pick up a pen with a rectangular nib and draw a
curve
from here to there rotating the pen by 25 degrees as you go". Scaling images
of curved lines might be OK as my aims are modest but a lot of computation
would
be required as the curves are required sometimes to be small between two
adjacent
notes of the same pitch and in other cases need to be drawn, tastefully,
between notes widely separated vertically. In yet other cases slur marks need
to be drawn across entire phrases or bars as performance marks implying
legato or "play smoothly".
    The tricky bit is to produce something that looks crisp and elegant to
compliment
the text in which the eventual image is to be embedded; for crisp and elegant
read
mathematically derived.
    I shall have a play with Bob Hughes's suggestion but I think what I
really really want is a simple 2D Bezier curve function

    Regards,

    Nigel.

>
> --
> Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
> http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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