QTF - Quixotic Text Format
Table of contents
1. Definition
2. Format overview
2.1 Symbols
2.2 Colors
2.3 Basic QTF codes
2.4 Character and paragraph formatting
2.5 Styles
2.6 Objects
2.7 iml format
2.8 Fields
2.9 Tables
2.10 Global Header and Footer
3. Examples
1. Definition
Quixotic Text Format (QTF) is the native format of U++ rich texts (formatted texts). It is byte oriented format. Bytes with values 2-31 are ignored. Other values are interpreted as characters or formatting commands.
QTF name existed before U++ framework received its final name, so its name does not directly refer to it. For backwards compatibility reasons the community never decided to rename it.
2. Format overview
2.1 Symbols
Letters (a-zA-Z), numbers (0-9), space (32) and characters
. , ; ! ? % ( ) / < > #
and bytes greater than 127 are guaranteed to be never used as command characters (not even in future versions of QTF). Other characters should be prefixed with escape character ` (reverse apostrophe). Group of characters can be escaped using byte 1. Example:
"\1a[x]\1[* bold]"
Byte 0 represents the end of input sequence.
Dimension units of QTF are dots - one dot is defined as 1/600 of inch.
2.2 Colors
Colors are described as either number 0-9, with meaning
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0
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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Black
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LtGray
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White
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Red
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Green
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Blue
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LtRed
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WhiteGray
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LtCyan
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Yellow
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or letters
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b
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c
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g
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k
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l
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m
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o
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r
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y
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Blue
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Cyan
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Green
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Black
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LtGray
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Magenta
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Brown
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Red
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Yellow
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B
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C
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G
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K
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L
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M
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W
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R
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Y
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LtBlue
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LtCyan
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LtGreen
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Gray
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WhiteGray
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LtMagenta
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White
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LtRed
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LtYellow
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or as the RGB value in form
(number.number.number)
where number is 0-255.
Form with single number
(number)
specifies grays.
Letter
N
used in place of color designates transparent color.
2.3 Basic QTF codes
Basic QTF codes are:
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_
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Hard-space - space that cannot be divided at the end of line.
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&
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New paragraph.
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-|
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Tabulator
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@$hex;
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Unicode character as hexadecimal number.
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2.4 Character and paragraph formatting
Character and paragraph formatting starts with
[
character followed by character/paragraph formating sequence ended with single space character and applies to the text until matching
]
is encountered.
Character/paragraph formating sequence
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/
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Italic.
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*
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Bold.
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_
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Underline.
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-
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Strikeout.
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c
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Capitals.
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`
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Superscript.
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,
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Subscript.
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d
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Dashed underline.
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T
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Non anti aliased font.
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^text^
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Hyperlink.
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Itext;
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Index entry.
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+number
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Font height in dots.
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0
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Font height 50 dots (6 points).
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1
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Font height 67 dots (8 points).
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2
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Font height 84 dots (10 points).
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3
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Font height 100 dots (12 points).
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4
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Font height 134 dots (16 points).
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5
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Font height 167 dots (20 points).
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6
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Font height 200 dots (24 points).
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7
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Font height 234 dots (28 points).
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8
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Font height 300 dots (36 points).
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9
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Font height 400 dots (48 points).
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@color
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Text color.
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$color
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Text background color.
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A
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Arial font.
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R
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Times New Roman font.
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C
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Courier font.
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G
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Standard GUI font.
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g
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Standard GUI font with standard height.
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S
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Symbol font.
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.number
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Font with specified font number.
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!text!
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Font with face name equal to text. If such font does not exist on system, Arial is used.
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{charset}
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Character set. It can be defined as either single character
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_
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utf-8
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0
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windows-1250
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1
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windows-1251
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2
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windows-1252
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3
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windows-1253
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4
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windows-1254
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5
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windows-1255
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6
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windows-1256
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7
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windows-1257
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A
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iso-8859-1
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B
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iso-8859-2
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C
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iso-8859-3
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D
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iso-8859-4
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E
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iso-8859-5
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F
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iso-8859-6
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G
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iso-8859-7
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H
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iso-8859-8
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I
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iso-8859-9
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J
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iso-8859-10
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or as the string designating character set (example: "[{_} ...]", "[{windows-1250} ...]").
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%lang
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Language. It is defined in form XX-YY, according to ISO 639 and ISO 3166 standards. (example: "[%EN-US ...]"). "[%00-00 " represents "none" language. As special optimization, %- is equivalent to %00-00 (no language) and
%% is equivalent to %EN-US.
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:text:
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Paragraph label.
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<
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Align paragraph left.
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=
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Center paragraph.
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>
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Align paragraph right.
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#
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Justify paragraph.
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lnumber
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Left margin in dots.
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rnumber
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Right margin in dots.
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inumber
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Indent in dots.
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pn
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Line spacing 1.0 (default).
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pw
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Line spacing 1.15.
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ph
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Line spacing 1.5.
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pd
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Line spacing 2.0.
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Hnumber
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Horizontal ruler height (if zero, there is no ruler).
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hcolor
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Color of horizontal ruler (default is black).
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Lnumber
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Style of horizontal ruler line, 0 - solid color, 1 - dots, 2 - dashes
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bnumber
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Space before paragraph in dots.
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anumber
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Space after paragraph in dots.
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P
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Page break before paragraph.
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F
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Paragraph will always be the first on page, adding page break if necessary.
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k
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Keep paragraph on single page.
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K
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Keep paragraph on same page as next one. Only works well for binding two paragraphs (does not propagate further). If you need to bind more, use organizing table {{*K text}}
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Q
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Orphan control.
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ntext;
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Text to insert before paragraph number.
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mtext;
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Text to insert after paragraph number.
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N
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Numbering. It is followed by up to 8 characters defining numbering style of each level
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-
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Level is not used.
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1
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Numbers, starting with 1.
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0
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Numbers, starting with 0.
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a
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Lowercase letters, starting with a.
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A
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Uppercase letters, starting with A.
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i
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Lowercase roman numbers, starting with i.
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I
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Uppercase roman numbers, starting with I
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If after 8 numbering style characters there is a '!' suffix, the reset is performed for those numbering levels that are used. If all levels are not used, reset is performed for the top-level.
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o
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Bullet style.
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O_
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No bullet.
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O0
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Bullet style.
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O1
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Bullet style.
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O2
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Bullet style.
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O3
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Bullet style.
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O9
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Text bullet style.
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tnumber
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Default tab size.
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~
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Tabulator setting. Can be followed by character designating type of tabulation
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>
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Normal tabulation.
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<
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Left tabulation.
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=
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Centered tabulation.
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(default is normal) and by filler character
and is followed by number specifying tabulator position in dots. The number can be preceded by > - in that case, position is relative to the right side.
When followed by ~ ("~~"), clears all current tab settings (including those inherited from paragraph style).
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;
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NOP separator. In some cases it is needed to separate command code. Example: "[l200;4 "
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snumber
s"text"
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Paragraph style, either defined by style number, or style name.
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tPqtf^^qtf^^
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New text header / footer, qtf is complete embeded QTF representing header/footer. This QTF can contain field {:VALUE:PAGENUMBER:} to represent page number and {:VALUE:PAGECOUNT:} to represent total number of pages.
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2.5 Styles
Paragraph styles are defined using normal character/paragraph formatting sequence with
$$number,nnumber#uuid:name
instead of text, where
number
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Number of style - can be used with s paragraph format command code.
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nnumber
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Number of style of next paragraph - used by RichText editor when inserting paragraphs.
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uuid
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32 digit unique hexadecimal identifier of style.
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name
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Name of style, displayed by editors. Can also be used with s paragraph format command code.
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Style with number = 0 and uuid = 00000000000000000000000000000000 is default style.
Example:
"[*/+117 $$2,0#07143242482611002448121871408047:title]"
2.6 Objects
Object plays the role of the single character and is displayed according to its type. It is started with a header in the form
@@format:cx&cy
or
@@format:cx*cy
where
format
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Format of objects. This format must be recognized by the application. By default, RichText recognizes the PNG format and iml format (see bellow).
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cx
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Width of object in dots.
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cy
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Height of object in dots.
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First form with '&' activates "keep aspect ratio" for the object, second form with '*' leaves this option inactive.
Optionally, there can be 3rd number, separated by '/' character. This number represent vertical placement of object, default value 0 means that bottom border of object is aligned with baseline of text.
If header is followed by '`' character, object data are in text format. In that case, object data are terminated with another '`' character. If there needs to be '`' in the text, '``' can be used as escape sequence.
If header is followed by '(', it countains BASE64 encoded binary data, ending with ')'. This is default format for binary data.
If there is no '`' nor '(', header is in binary 7 bit format. Bit 7 of data bytes is always 1, so that actual data bytes are in range 128-255. First byte in range 32-127 ends data sequence. Data are encoded in 7 byte groups, which corresponds to 8 bytes of encoded format. First byte of this 8 bytes block always contains eight bits of following bytes, LSB (that is bit 0) being the eight bit for first byte in block. This format is deprecated.
2.7 iml format
iml format is text format of rich object where text data reference existing .iml based Image as pair iml_class_name:image_name. Example of full object definition in iml format:
"@@iml:400*400`CtrlImg:exclamation`"
2.8 Fields
Fields are special elements of text that are evaluated by client code into rich text. QTF format for fields is
{:field_type_id:parameter:}
field_type_id
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Type of field. Field types are represented by RichPara::FieldType derived instances and registred using RichPara::Register function.
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parameter
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Additional string parameter that gets passed to FieldType::Evaluate method
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2.9 Tables
Table definition starts with
{{
pair, followed by set of numbers separated with
:
Numbers represent ratios of column widths; count of numbers is equivalent to count of columns. Next there is table/cell formatting sequence ended with single space character. Cells are separated with
::
characters and another table/cell formating sequence (to setup format for each individual cell). Formating of cells is inherited from previous cells. Table ends with
}}
pair.
Table/cell formating sequence
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<number
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Left margin of table in dots.
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>number
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Right margin of table in dots.
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Bnumber
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Space before table in dots.
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Anumber
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Space after table in dots.
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fnumber
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Frame thickness in dots. Frame is outer border of table. Default value is 10.
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Fcolor
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Color of the frame.
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gnumber
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Grid thickness in dots. Grid are lines dividing cells inside table. Default value is 4.
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Gcolor
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Color of the grid.
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k
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Keep the cell on single page.
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K
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Keep the table on single page.
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~
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Sets grid and frame thickness to zero. Useful when using tables to organize text.
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hnumber
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Number of header rows. Header rows are repeated at the beginning of every page.
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^
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Cell aligns to top.
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=
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Cell aligns to center (vertical). Default.
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v
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Cell aligns to bottom.
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lnumber/number
lnumber
l/number
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Sets left cell border (first number) and margin in dots. If any of numbers is missing, sets only the one present. Default is border: 0, margin: 25.
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rnumber/number
rnumber
r/number
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Sets right cell border (first number) and margin in dots. If any of numbers is missing, sets only the one present. Default is border: 0, margin: 25.
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tnumber/number
tnumber
t/number
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Sets top cell border (first number) and margin in dots. If any of numbers is missing, sets only the one present. Default is border: 0, margin: 15.
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bnumber/number
bnumber
b/number
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Sets bottom cell border (first number) and margin in dots. If any of numbers is missing, sets only the one present. Default is border: 0, margin: 15.
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anumber/number
anumber
a/number
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Sets all cell borders (first number) and margins in dots. If any of numbers is missing, sets only the one present.
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*
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Same as f0g0a0/0 - sets everything to zero to use table as organizing element.
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o
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Sets round border.
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@color
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Cell background color. Default is White.
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Rcolor
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Cell border color. Default is Black.
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!
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Resets cell formatting to default values.
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Hnumber
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Sets the minimal height of cell (and therefore also of row) in dots.
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-number
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Horizontal cell span.
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|number
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Vertical cell span.
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;
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NOP separator. In some cases it helps to separate command code.
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P
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Page break before table.
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Tqtf^^qtf^^
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New text header / footer, qtf is complete embeded QTF representing header/footer. This QTF can contain field {:VALUE:PAGENUMBER:} to represent page number and {:VALUE:PAGECOUNT:} to represent total number of pages.
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Note: There is also legacy support for old table format (from previous QTF version) that is based on ++ pair as table start/stop and || -- to divide cells/lines.
2.10 Global Header and Footer
Global text header is defined using ^Hqtf_text^^, footer ^Fqtf_text^^, where qtf_text is complete embeded QTF representing header/footer. This QTF can contain field {:VALUE:PAGENUMBER:} to represent page number and {:VALUE:PAGECOUNT:} to represent total number of pages. Global page header and footer can be changed by paragraph attributes.
3. Examples
"Normal [* bold] [/ italic] [_ underline] [` superscript] [, subscript]"
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Normal bold italic underline superscript subscript
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"`[ `] \1[escaped]\1 [* bold]"
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[ ] [escaped] bold
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"[A Arial (Sans-Serif)] [R Times New Roman (Serif)] [C Courier (Monospace)]"
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Arial (Sans-Serif) Times New Roman (Serif) Courier (Monospace)
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"[0 6pt ][1 8pt ][2 10pt ][3 12pt ][4 16pt ][5 20pt ][6 24pt ][7 28pt ][8 36pt ][9 48pt ]"
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6pt 8pt 10pt 12pt 16pt 20pt 24pt 28pt 36pt 48pt
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"[!Tahoma! Tahoma]"
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Tahoma
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"[@4 Green text] [$(255.220.200) Pink background]"
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Green text Pink background
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"[%EN-US English language] [%CS-CZ Czech language]"
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English language Czech language
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"[^upp.sf.net^ Hyperlink] [Icompiler, linker; Index entry]"
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Hyperlink Index entry
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"[:label: Labeled paragraph]"
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Labeled paragraph
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"[< Left paragraph alignment]"
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Left paragraph alignment
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"[= Center paragraph alignment]"
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Center paragraph alignment
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"[> Right paragraph alignment]"
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Right paragraph alignment
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"[# Justify alignment. Just some text to demosntrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...]"
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Justify alignment. Just some text to demosntrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...
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"[l1000 Left margin 1000dots]"
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Left margin 1000dots
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"[i1000 Indent 1000 dots.Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...]"
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Indent 1000 dots.Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...
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"[r1000 Right margin 1000 dots.Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...]"
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Right margin 1000 dots.Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...
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"Paragraph&[b200 Before 200dots]"
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Paragraph
Before 200dots
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"[a200 After 200dots]&Paragraph"
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After 200dots
Paragraph
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"[i200 [O0 bullet&][O1 bullet&][O2 bullet&][O3 bullet]]"
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bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
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"[O9i500 text bullet-|Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...]"
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text bullet Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...Just some text to demonstrate it... Just some text to demonstrate it...
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"[O9i200 [N1m.; -|level 1&][N1a -|level 2&][N1a -|level 2&][N1 -|level 1&][N1a -|level 2]]"
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level 2
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"[~300~=.2000~>-3000 -|Normal tab-|Centered tab-|Right tab]"
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Normal tab Centered tab Right tab
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"{{2:1G4g100F5f50 A1:: A2:: B1:: B2}}"
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"{{1:2 A1::l40/60R6@3 A2::! B1:: B2}}"
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"{{1:1:1|2 A1::-2 A2:: A3:: B1:: B2:: B3}}"
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"{{1:2 A1:: A2:: B1:: {{1:2 a1:: a2:: a1:: a2}}}}"
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"{{1~a30/50o Round border}}"
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