thinkdesign Text Markup Language (TML)

think3 application Text Markup Language (TML)

TML (the think3 application Text Markup Language) is an XML-like — and XML-compliant — text markup language provided with the program in order to support and create multiline texts (*). The following sections explain how to create multiline texts using TML formatting.

Foreword
TML Tags
Escape Sentences

Foreword

Text will be recognized as formatted multiline text if it starts with the <TEXT version="1.0"> tag, and it ends with the </TEXT> tag. Any text without the starting <TEXT version="1.0"> will be treated as plain unformatted text.

Once you have started your formatted text by typing the <TEXT version="1.0"> tag, you can go on writing it using the available TML tags.

A tag is a code interpreted by the program as a text formatting instruction. All TML tags are enclosed in angular brackets: "<TAG ..>".
Tags can have attributes. An attribute specifies additional information concerning the desired behavior of the chosen tag and is to be specified inside the tag in the form: attribute="value". For example in:

the "face" attribute specifies which type of characters is to be used in the subsequent text.
To properly define the portion of text to be formatted, a closing tag must be inserted just after the text to be formatted in a certain way. For example, if a certain string is to be displayed using the Courier characters, you will have to write:
text to be written in Courier.
The and <SP/> tags (see below) do not need a closing instruction.
Graphically, you can appreciate the difference as tags not needing a corresponding closing tag end with a slash ( , <SP/>), while all opening tags do not have any slash (for example: ) and all closing tags begin with a slash rather than ending with it (for example: ).
Tags can be nested in order to obtain proper formatting. The sequence of opening/closing tags must be XML-compliant. In other words, the last tag opened before the text must be closed for the first. The following sequence is correct:
Correct Text: bold and italic
The following is incorrect:
Correct Text: bold and italic
To avoid confusing tag nesting, the following sequence:
 Let's try again 
Must be rewritten as follows:
 Let's try again

Here is the list of the available TML tags. A description of each is available by following the corresponding links.

B	Displays text in bold.
BR/	Breaks the line.
COLOR	Defines the color of text.
EXTRASPACE	Enlarges the space between subsequent characters.
FONT	Defines the text font.
I	Displays text in italic.
LINE	Underlines text, or creates lines through or over it.
NOWRAP	Prevents text from wrapping.
SIZE	Defines text height.
SIZEX	Applies multiplication factor to the current text height.
SLANT	Defines text slant.
SP/	Defines white space size.
STACK	Creates stacked rows of text.
STRETCH	Rescales text.
STRETCHX	Applies multiplication factor to the current text stretch.
TEXT	Defines text as formatted text.
VALIGN	Defines the vertical alignment of text.
Comment	Enables you to insert comments (not interpreted and not displayed).

A summary of TML tags and attributes is provided in the TML Tags table.

TML Tags

Tag Description and Notes

Bold. The text within the and tags will be displayed in bold.

Example:

Bold Text

will be displayed as:

Bold Text

<BR/>

Line break: everything you write after the tag will be displayed on a new line.

Example:

First Line Second Line

will be displayed as:

First line
Second Line

<COLOR index="n">

Text color. The index attribute enables you to specify a color in think3 application's color table: a number from 0 to 63 (see Color for details on how to get color numbers).

Example:

<COLOR index="3">Green Text</COLOR>

will be displayed as:

Green Text

<EXTRASPACE factor="x">

Enables you to expand the spaces between subsequent letters by multiplying the single space extension by the factor value (a floating number).

Example:

<EXTRASPACE factor="4">Word</EXTRASPACE>

will be displayed as:

W o r d

rather than:

Word




Enables you to specify the font to be used. You can use both True Type fonts and think3 application vectorial fonts by specifying respectively quality="truetype" (default) or quality="stroke". In the latter case, the name to be specified in the face attribute is the number of the vectorial font.

Example:

As True Type fonts are assumed as the default ones, to use a True Type font you only need to specify its name using the face attribute. The following text:
These words are to be displayed in Arial Black

will be displayed as:

These words are to be displayed in Arial Black

To use a vectorial font, you will have to specify the quality="stroke" attribute. This way, the text:
The Auld Inn

will be displayed as:

Italic. The text within the and tags will be displayed in italic.

Example:

Italic Text

will be displayed as:

Italic Text

Enables you to add a line under, over or through the text. The default value of the under attribute is "y" (so that if you specify the tag Line with no attribute the text will be underlined) while it is "n" for each other attribute (no line displayed); the order is free.

Example:

<NOWRAP> Text within the <NOWRAP> and </NOWRAP> tags cannot be wrapped: carriage return is inhibited.

<SIZE height="h">

Text height. Enables you to define the text height by specifying a non-negative floating value.

Example:

<SIZE height="18">E</SIZE>

will be displayed as:

<SIZEX factor="m">

Text with character height. Enables you to apply a multiplication factor to the current size value (where factor is a non-negative floating value.

Example:

<SIZEX factor="2">E</SIZEX>

will be displayed as:

that is the current size is 2.0, a SIZEX factor of "2" will produce text with a character height of "4".

<SLANT angle="a">

Enables you to determine the obliquing angle or slant of text characters, measured clockwise relative to the vertical.

Example:

<SLANT angle="45">E</SLANT>

will be displayed as:

<SP size="n"/>

Blank spaces. Enables you to insert as many blank spaces as specified by size="n", where n is an integer non-null value.

Example:

First<SP size="20"/>Second

will be displayed as:

First Second

rather than:

First Second

About white spaces
TML adopts HTML white space policy:

All TABs and line breaks are ignored.
Continuous blank spaces are shrinked to a single space. The first encountered is kept (spaces with different font format have different width). All blanks and tabs at the beginning of a new line are ignored.

<STACK
separator="none|line|slash"
scale="s">
<SR> ... </SR>

Enables you to create orderly piles of rows, which can also be nested. The <STACK> tag defines a section within which each <SR> tag is a row. Using the separator attribute, you can choose the row separator:

`none`
`line`
`slash`

Height of texts within <SR> tags is by default scaled by a 0.7 factor. You can define the scale of texts in rows by using the attribute scale="n" where n is a non negative floating value. Some important notes:

<STACK> tags can contain only <SR> tags.
<SR> tags cannot contain <NOWRAP> and   tags: line wrapping is disabled in stack rows.
<STACK> tags can be nested.

Example:

The following text:
<TEXT version="1.0"> <VALIGN type="center"> Here is a pile of rows: <STACK separator="line" scale="1"> <SR>Row1</SR> <SR>Row2</SR> <SR>Row3</SR> </STACK> </VALIGN> </TEXT>

will be displayed as:

The following text contains nested stacks:
<TEXT version="1.0"> <VALIGN type="center"> Here is a pile of rows: <STACK separator="line" scale="1"> <SR>Row1</SR> <SR>Row2 <STACK separator="line"> <SR>Sub-Row11</SR> <SR>Sub-Row12</SR> </STACK> </SR> </STACK> </VALIGN> </TEXT>

and will be displayed as:

<STRETCH xscale="s">

Enables you to rescale the text by applying the value of the xscale attribute to the horizontal direction of the text bounding box.

Example:

The following text:
<STRETCH xscale="3">think3</STRETCH>

will be displayed as:

rather than:

<STRETCHX xscale="x">

Enables you to rescale the text by applying the multiplication factor to the current stretch value (where xscale is a non-negative floating value.)

Example:

The following text:
<STRETCHX xscale="2">think3</STRETCHX>

will be displayed as:

that is the current stretch value is 2.0, a STRETCHX factor of "2" further stretch text along the horizontal direction two times.

<TEXT version="1.0"> This is the root tag. Any text without the starting <TEXT version="1.0"> will be treated as plain unformatted text.

<VALIGN type="bottom"|"top"|"center">

Enables you to define the vertical alignment of text with respect to the highest character in the line: top, center or bottom (default).

Example:

The following text is an example of vertically aligned text:
<TEXT version="1.0"> <SIZE height="20"> Big Text</SIZE> <VALIGN type="center"> <SIZE height="8"> Small Text</SIZE> </VALIGN> </TEXT>

will be displayed as:

 Comment tag. Any text beginning with:

will be interpreted as a comment and will not be formatted, nor will it be displayed.

Escape Sentences

Here is the list of the five XML built-in characters, to be used in order to ensure a correct XML syntax.

Character	Meaning
>	>
&	&
'	'
<	<
"	"
ሴ 􏿽	Unicode characters using their hexadecimal codes.

(*) Users familiar with XML may want to click here to take a look at the DTD file used by TML.