13.1.2.1 Selections

XBfe supports selection, pasting, and filling operations on a rectangle of pixels, as follows.

To select an arbitrary rectangle, press the left mouse button to determine the first corner; then move the mouse (with the button still down) to update the other corner of the rectangle; and release the button to define the rectangle. (If you release the button when the mouse is off the character bitmap, the selection rectangle remains unchanged.)

Once a rectangle has been selected, you can paste it, either within the same character from which it was selected, or in a different character. To do this, press the middle button; this outlines the region that will be changed; as you move the mouse (with the button still down), the outline moves accordingly; when you release the middle button, the selected rectangle is pasted onto the current bitmap, erasing whatever was in the affected area.

Pasting has several variations: if you have the Alt (a.k.a. Meta) key down when you release the middle button, the selection is flipped vertically; if the Control key is down, the selection is flipped horizontally; and if both are down, the selection is flipped in both directions. Here is a minimal example:

original vertical horizontal both ** * ** * * ** * **

This is useful when pasting serifs, since serifs are attached to the main stems in different orientations. (Incidentally, making the serif shapes consist of exactly the same pixels may actually make the serifs look different, because of surrounding character features or the difference in orientation. But it is still a good place to start.)

You can also fill the selected rectangle, i.e., change it to entirely black or white, by holding the Alt key down and pressing the right mouse button. The selection is filled with the color of the pixel the mouse is on. This is how you entirely erase a portion of the bitmap.