Rough Draft

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Program name: Marlett.bat
Concept: Red (aka cuttheredwire)
Coder: Red (aka CutTheRedWire)
Date: March 17th, 2003
Summary: Changes the look of the close/min/max buttons
Site: http://uq.net.au/~zziwilki/marletts.htm
DownLoad: http://uq.net.au/~zziwilki/ChangeMarlett.ZIP

Description:
The caption buttons (close. minimize, & maxinize) are all characters from the same special font: "marlett.ttf". If you replace these fonts with a new one, the look will also change. This also is done using no extra resources. It's something windows does anyway. Problem is that windows is constantly using it, so you have to change it before it loads. In other words, you can change the font from under DOS. This used to mean knowing how to use DOS and several commands. If there were a number of fonts you wanted to try, it could take quite a while. This has now changed.
Now that we have marlett.bat, the proccess is much more user friendly. Marlett.bar is a program written in batch, and comes with four fonts already: Original, Basic, Blank, and shinteresk. This program does all the work, instead of you. You run it in dos mode, then choose which one you want, and exit to windows. That's about it.

Instructions:

1. Unzip all of ChangeMarlett.zip to its own folder (or in C:\)
You should have five files (1 bat, 4 ttf, 1 txt)
Marlett.bat
Marlett0.ttf
Marlett1.ttf
Marlett2.ttf
Marlett3.ttf
ReadMe.txt

2. Boot to DOS Mode
3. Go to that folder with marlett.bat in it.
4. Type in "marlett" and press enter to run the app
5. Make a selection.
q = quit
0 = Revert to original look.
1 = Basic / 1st font
2 = Shinteresk Font
3 = Black Font

6. Exit dos and go back to windows.

Note:
There may be more than the 4 we have now when you download this. Or you may even want to make one. We are always looking for fonts to add, so contact us if you have created one you would like to share with us. I would be glad to add them with this theme. All credit and links would be included, of coarse. Permission must be written in case of screwteny.

Contact info:
marlett site
my site
my mail
grin mail
grind site
Thx to VP.com

Credits:
Grindel Ston: fonts are all his, hosting and mucho info
Red: idea, coding, documentation

History:
Version marlett.bat 0.1 working beta
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I already see spacing problems and it doesn't mention it's for 9x specifically.

Sounds good .

A few spelling/grammar errors...
Line 7 of description: "Marlett.bar"
Line 4 of note: "screwteny"
Line 1 of credits: "Grindel Ston"
Line 4 of note: "coarse"

Also, you might want to say that extracting to c:\ is recommended, so you don't have to explain how to navigate to different folders.

Red!!!!!!!!!! Man, this would go really good at the mod site man. Why don't you, since you seem to enjoy writing, throw together a small tut/article on this and submit it to the site? Would help content wise, and spread the word even more. I've informed some folks of you and Grindlestone's work so far, and gave out the link to Grindlestones site, but an article would be great. Not many people know about this. Think about it and let me know ok?

Undefined: Thx bud. This is rough, so grammar and stuff will need to be gone over. ;

WinT: I'm way a head of you. Already mentioned that in the other thread. I plan on doing one on the manual way, and then go into my batch file. I need to figure out undefined's too. Explain it and all. I may make a readme for it, even. I would go with the old: you can do it the hard way or you can do it the easy way. Your choice. I may mention Universal Start Disk if I can find a volenteer to test it on ntfs for me.

ack.... usd olny reads drive.
This may help us though:
http://www.ebabble.net/html/ntfsdos.html

Red this readme is great. You are going to add it to the zipped batch file aren't you?

I have updated the webpage with all the things everyone has sent me ( Red, Methodik, Undefined) have a visit and see if eveything works as it should.

I think we should make adecision on what to do with all this stuff. WinT seems pretty keen to have it on his site, and is putting energy into promoting this hack. Is eveyone (contributors) ok with handing it over to him? Does WinT really want it? (your queue WinT) If so what parts? The marlets, how to do the change, the batch files, instructions on glyph editing?

With a higher profile we'll probably attract people with font editing know-how. Then we can attain the holy grail - putting any glyph we like on those pesky buttons.

What say you all?

Up Dated Version
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Program name: Marlett.bat
Concept: Red (aka cuttheredwire)
Coder: Red (aka CutTheRedWire)
Date: March 17th, 2003
OS: Windows 9x only
Summary: Changes the look of the close/min/max buttons
Site: http://uq.net.au/~zziwilki/marletts.htm
DownLoad: http://uq.net.au/~zziwilki/ChangeMarlett.ZIP

Description:
The caption buttons (close. minimize, & maxinize) are all characters from the same special font: "marlett.ttf". If you replace these fonts with a new one, the look will also change. This also is done using no extra resources. It's something windows does anyway. Problem is that windows is constantly using it, so you have to change it before it loads. In other words, you can change the font from under DOS. This used to mean knowing how to use DOS and several commands. If there were a number of fonts you wanted to try, it could take quite a while. This has now changed.
Now that we have marlett.bat, the proccess is much more user friendly. Marlett.bat is a program written in batch, and comes with four fonts already: Original, Basic, Blank, and shinteresk. This program does all the work, instead of you. You run it in dos mode, then choose which one you want, and exit to windows. That's about it.

Instructions:

1. Unzip all of ChangeMarlett.zip to C:\
You should have six files (1 bat, 4 ttf, 1 txt)
Marlett.bat
Marlett0.ttf
Marlett1.ttf
Marlett2.ttf
Marlett3.ttf
ReadMe.txt

2. Boot to DOS Mode

3. Type in "marlett" and press enter to run the app

4. Make a selection.
q = quit
0 = Revert to original look.
1 = Basic / 1st font
2 = Shinteresk Font
3 = Black Font

5. Exit dos and go back to windows.

Note:
There may be more than the 4 we have now when you download this. Or you may even want to make one. We are always looking for fonts to add, so contact us if you have created one you would like to share with us. I would be glad to add them with this theme. All credit and links would be included, of course. Permission must be written in case of scrutiny.

Contact info:
Red: cuttheredwire at hotmail dot com
GrindleStone: ddeepr at yahoo dot com dot au
Special Thanks: http://www.virtualplastic.net

Credits:
GrindleStone: Font creator, host, webmaster
Red: coding, concept, documentation

History:
Version 0.1 working beta
___________________________________________________

Note: The ReadMe.txt has tabs and spaces not shown above.

GrindleStone: That's ok with me as long as you are still in the game. You've been a huge help, and taught me a lot. I'll need to know who what's going on and where the page will be and such. That's just so I can refer ppl and up date the ReadMe.txt with the appropriate changes.

I think the ReadMe.txt is now done for now, and I'm going to post a link to it so you can just download it, and the screen shot.
Marlett.zip & ss dl page

Thanks for those Red. They're up and posted.

Re the other, we'll see what happens. We should probably keep collecting info for the moment. I think its also something I'd like to give over too Plastic as well. Should really feature on these pages cos it really is a fundamental hack.

Hopefully toomorrow night I'll get a chance to fiddle a bit more with those fonts.

Next thing I'm going to try it to make my own font. I know I can find a few more things. I've seen them. I think I can get check boxs, radio buttons, and scroll buttons to work. I'ld like to get the "?" button to change too. My goal is to get a big overall change, but with just a simple hack.

Eventually I plan on picking up eppie when I can do these and code better. I'm hoping to add in more things, and make plug-ins for shells. That's a bit far from now, but something I think is possible.

Now we're talking gentlemen. I love the sound of everything, every idea I've heard so far. I'll leave it up to you guys though as to how you want to do it. Sure, Red could do a small write up on the app he made, mentioning of course Grindlestone and his site, BUT, it would be short, and not to informative I wouldn't think.

So, I'de love to see a complete tut on it. Everything from doing it manually, to Red's app, to Glyph editing, the works. Everything you guys have learned so far and up to this point, all in one page, or more then one if you like. You could split the tuts up ya know? Grindlestone could do one on actually hacking the font, replacing the glyphs since he seems to have that completely down pat, then Red could cover actually manually switching out the fonts, installing the new ones, and of course, his app.

I've already had several comments with the question "How did you change your window caption buttons?" and also have recieved several emails asking that same question also. I've sent them to you guys on every occasion. So, to have it at the site would be perfect, and maybe/hopefully Plastic will add a page for it here too at VP. It should be as many places as possible. This is a noticeable, nice, safe, functional mod that makes things look so much better without having to run another app.

I've noticed to from just this short time of having my site up, that there are literally TONS of people out there that have no idea that Virtual Plastic exist, they didn't know anything like any of these mods could be done, I mean from the smallest to the largest of mods, they just had no clue you could customize your OS like we do. It was Windowblinds or die until now, so I see no reason to NOT have this on the site, and here on VP.

So, Grindlestone, Red, just do whatever you wish to do. Submit the tuts anytime, and I'll verify them immediately.

Thanks guys.

I'm wondering what Plastic would like to see.
He usually has very good insite on how to go about things.

winT, i have that tutorial on hacking the font written up, i just want to make a few changes to it and i'll send it over to you.

red, reading your bat file, i'm wondering if you've tested on win me. also, on my system, win me, you have to change the attribute of the font before you can copy over it.

Methodic: Nope. All I have is 98. No ME to test it on. Don't you have to some how enable booting to dos in ME? If all it needs is a changed attribute, that can be done from dos easily with the Atrib command. Thus it is easy to add to my app. If I add ME support, I'm going to have to add to the readme how to boot to dos in it too... or at least a link to how to do it. Tell me more and we'll sort it out.

methodik: Do you know if it was the hidden or system attribute (or both)?

Red: Looks like we'll have to update our scripts pretty quick, before this marlettt thing takes off .

Undefined: Is just me, or is it populare in here?

Red:

Here's the updated script for 2000/XP (just added the one attrib line). Thanks methodik!

great job guys

gonna try this out and let you know or maybe post a screenie

Hey methodik, didn't know you had done one man, but very much so glad that you did. If you will, just submit it to the site, no need to email it to me or anything, just submit it, and I'll verify it. Look forward to it man, and all of you font experts in here put your heads together and produce something now!!! LOL

*WinT cracks the whip

I'm lovin' it
I have a screenshot posted here to show how it looks, and i have an idea:
I dowloaded Softy, and tried to change the glyoph that is on the bottom right of any windows opened, which can resize the window.
Now i tried to do something(check the screenshot), but it didn't came out as i wanted it,i want to have an arrow there isntead of those 3 lines.
if the above didn't make sense ;)

Addy has posted this on another thread. Its more marletts!Things are going ape in here!

It seems to me we have info, batch files, fonts, websites going in all directions.

Undefined: can I post that modified batch on the webpage?

I see WinT's enthusiasm in boiling over (as usual)

grindlestone: Sure, thanks!

spider: I don't think you can make that black just from the marlett, but you can change your "3d object highlight" or "3d object shadow" colors to black (although it's a little extreme to change your color scheme to get a little arrow black )

undefined :i don't want to make black the little arrow, i wanted that glyph to act like the Close/Min/Mix buttons,they change depending on the color scheme, and it should possible for that glyph also to behave like the Min/Max buttons.

grindlestone : fixed the link you posted

Spyder: perhaps I should give up this computing thing? Man I can't even handle links properly. Perhaps I should take up stamp collecting? (...goes off to join local local philatelist society)

You guys should take a look at what addy added here:
Close/Min/Max Font Tweak
Plus his site has some more fonts.

I only made the link clickable...
Hope i didn't do nothing wrong

p.s.
Any help on the screenshot i posted above ^?

okay, to catch up. i notice we now have like 4 seperate threads on this topic..

first of all, winT, i have submitted a tutorial on hacking marlett. i have also added instructions on manually replacing the font on windows ME.

Red, the reason why i asked, is because i don't think your bat file will work on win ME. the only way i can get to true DOS is by booting to a boot disk, doing my file copy, and booting back to windows. and the disk is from win 98 no less. win ME sucks. if any of you feel like taking pity on me and sending me a copy of a newer replacement, i'll be forever grateful.. lol...

undefined, the attribute i had to change was the hidden one. at least, i see i still have it listed as archive, and it still replaces.

spyder, your question is a very good one. basically, there are two glyphs that represent the bottom right corner, and one of them is a shadow.... ack.... i think i just thought of a way to get around it...

i gotta try this. i'll keep you all posted.

I know there is a way to boot to dos mode in ME. I've read about it on... ug it was so long ago... maybe it was on shell city... I'll look for it. See what I can come up with.

Spyder: try to copy, paste, and rotate a triangle from the min button. Use three or try to enlarge it if you need it bigger.

alright...

spyder, the solution is rather easy. don't know why i didn't think of it before. there are two glyphs that display in the corner gripper. one displays solid, the other displays as a shadow.

in the case of the bottom right gripper, 'p' is the shadow, and 'o' is the lines shown. trick is, make 'p' blank. then whatever you use for 'o' will display properly. not much to it, but wow, i'm making some cool grippers.

red, problem with windows ME is that it doesn't run on top of a DOS boot. in fact, it runs kinda without a real DOS boot, unlike win 98 which booted DOS first, and then windows. this was one of the main reasons win ME was so disliked. it removed the possibility of exiting windows completely and still working from a command prompt.

there are ways to get around it, but they are generally more compicated than most people really care to do. ( best one i saw was a hacked system that combined the best (! ack... did i say best?) of both win 98 se and win ME. )

easiest thing for me to do over the past while was either to boot to my slack install, or to boot to a startup disk. but since the major upgrade i just performed ( started out with just a new 40g hd, ended up with a new mb, video card, case, etc.. lol... you know how that works...) i haven't reinstalled linux yet, so it's just the boot disk for now.

spyder, further to what i was rambling about -

screenshot

i have blanked out the glyph responsible for the shadow, and that allows the other glyph to show properly. i used your idea for a corner gripper, just so i could show it running.

in other news, the glyph shown there has been hand made. ( a little rough, but hey, it's late. ) i think i've figured out how to create custom glyphs in font creator and have them display properly. this one definitely worked, anyways, as did the one i made before it.

i'll play more with it tommorow. now i need sleep.

Methodik we wait with bated breath.

Methodik, thanks for the tutorial man, it's very appreciated. It's up at the site now. I've been on a bad sleeping schedule lately, so I just verified it, but it is up.

Now, this stuff has gone ballistic, and we need to sum this up. I'm enjoying for the first time in a long time just sitting back, and watching this happen, and so far, my mouth is dropping.

Now, for ME and the DOS situation, Viro from IRC linked me to just what I think you need methodik. It's a real-mode-DOS patch for Win ME, and supposedly unlocks, and unhides the real mode DOS that IS there, but you can't see it. I think after using this patch, you can boot into DOS like 9x, as it says that it gives you a boot process very similiar to the one found on Win9x. So, here's the link to that:

http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/

What about 2K./XP guys? Can all these mods apply to those OS's?

Grindlestone, would you care to write anything up about all of this? Make a link button for your site and I'll add it to my Links page ok? You are after all the backbone of this you font hacker you!

Red, how about turning that readme into a small tut for your app?

This could go somewhere guys, and needs to be advertised. Let's do something with this. WinT is enthusiastic as Grindlestone pointed out. Let's combine all of this together? something must be done! LOL

*WinT cracks his whip really hard at all of you!

For the moment I'll just keep pouring the stuff into the page as it comes on. Time is tight at my end. I'll make a button so we can swap links. Good enough for a start.

Methodik: Let me know how that link works for you. I knew there was a way to do it. If it works, I'll add it to the readme, and list ME as supported.

WinT: I'll see what I can do, but I have a lot of projects going on atm. Things are still in a deciphering stage. We're all working on gettng this finished. I think we are almost ready. We are still going thru a few options of free font editors. We only recently got internal the details from addy. We still need a few fonts (3 or 4) that have everything modified, look beautiful, and are in the installers. Until then, it would be premature to make this public. We also would need to gather up the info, and write a tutorial that is reviewed by all involved. That insures completeness.

GrindelStone: I think the page could use an intro. Something like this...

You may not know what marlett.ttf is, but chances are you are staringat it right now. It's a font like "arial" or "Times New Roman" but this one is special. It isn't for text, it's for the interface of windows. The minimize, maximize, & close buttons use it for the dash, boxes, and 'X" on each app. It controls several other things like check boxes and radio buttons too. It's used all over the place.

What we want to do it change it. Since it's all over the place, if we make a new, custome marlett.ttf, then we will have a new, custome look for windows. Nothing drastick, but cooler & different. This page has new marlett.ttf fonts, details on how to replace it manually, programs to replace them, and information on how to make your own.

So, what do you think?
Also, you should add a link to the marlett page in your profile. ^.~
(Fix your ss in there too hehehe)

Mmmm... Yummy... Now, just to get that Finnish guy's attention, resolve a few issues with my brother's server (yes, you read that correctly... Hosting issues possibly resolved!) and we Just May Have Marlettopia.

Hehe...

"Marlettopia - Look Closer At The Truth"

yep... that's pretty much the hack i was refering to. it's possible to take a bunch of the old system files and copy them over to obtain a hybred win 98 / win ME system.

however, i'm not sure that it is something i really want to do - for starters it's still easy and works very well for me to just boot to a dos disk and boot back; playing around with IO.sys and friends is never eversomething to be taken lightly. also, it brings back old memories of coding up config.sys files just to grap a few measley kb of ram to play doom with... lol...

i guess what i'm saying is that for the purpose of what we are trying to accomplish here, we can't ask potential tweakers to do a major system hack in order to use a program. especially a major hack that can result in an unuseable system.

red, if you want, in your batch file you can make note of the fact your batch program requires real-mode dos booting which windows ME does not currently have, and that there is a way to provide real-mode dos booting in windows Me, and point them to the above page. that way, if they want to follow those instructions, then they have a way of using your batch file.

winT, thanks for posting that tutorial, and as i mentioned on another thread, i need to update that tutoral somewhat, to cover custom glyph creation. i will do that hopefully today.

i need to go play with marlett some more right now.

methodik : that's great, i knew that it could be possible
and thanks for the info posted above, will try to do something for myslef also, and hope you make progress on that.

Methodic: And I can include a link to Universal startup disk. That should let them do it too.

/me is currently working on a pattern of six dots (like ". :", but more complex) for grippers... Marlett replacement name: "Marksman"

Methodik, hate you didn't care to use the patch man, but I understand your reasons behind it. And no problem on the tut. Update it at will. Email me when you're ready to do that so we can discuss the methods available for updateing.

Red, I agree with your above post man, and as said in the other thread, it's all up to you, and the rest of you. Take your time, do it however you want.

i try to stay off the patch... lol....

i'm working on a pattern myself... and i'm gettin' all excited. coming together sweet. i think the more we play with it, the better we will be able to come up with some instructions.

LOL at the patch comment methodik, was funny man.

Working on 'em sixdots... Seems I was wrong about something... "Gripper shadow" and "Gripper light" were switched around... :`

screenshot

this is so time consuming..... but worth it

i can't understand why i can take the same glyph, flip it upside down, and have it display properly.. sheesh...

I liked that gripper, man.

methodik ,it looks good.
I've tried to do something as well, but the only problem i have is that the gripper doesn't "connect" with the lines that are in the corner...

Red: I've fixed all that stuff up and added in your intro to the page [did do a little editing:)] Also fixed up those things on my profile.

Looks like methodik and Addy are really getting into this font modding. Look forward to more results

Mwa ha ha...

* Addy is going to do some w00ty shtuft wit' da toolz... Gonna carve me a totally new interface, yeah...

Grindle: Sweet. I just felt an intro would help the page stand on it's own. as it were. Editing is fine.

Y'know, the "previews" in marlett.bat aren't all that convincing... Maybe someone needs to crack open a DOS font editor? They're pretty easy to work with. (most of the time)

yeah... i've noticed that the preview doesn't always match the outcome...

especially since different items dispaly at different sizes.

It's as close as I could get with dos text. It needs to use the default text so it can match anyone's system. It doesn't need to be perfect, just get the idea across. Rember that this is only ment for dos mode, so size and text are pretty standard.

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