11.4.1 CCC setchar statements

To use an existing character as part of a new character, you can use either the setchar or setcharbb statement. They both take a character name in parentheses as their argument, as in:

setchar ( name ) setcharbb ( name )

See section 5.3.1 Character names, for the details of character names.

The difference between the two commands lies in their treatment of the existing character's sidebearings: the setchar command includes them, and setcharbb does not. setcharbb also removes any white space above and below the character shapes, as is usually present in accent characters.

This difference lets you construct characters without worrying about interaction between their side bearings. For example, you could make an `A' with an acute accent centered over the body of the `A' as follows:

define Aacute = setchar (A) hmove -.5 width (A) vmove height (A) setcharbb (acute) end

(See the next section for a description of the hmove and vmove commands.) Without the setcharbb command, this definition would be complicated by the side bearings on the acute character.