FAQ
Q: Where can I download the program?
A: http://ascgendotnet.jmsoftware.co.uk/download
Q: Where can I download the latest development version?
A: The executables are not provided online, but the source code is available from the CVS repository, and can be easily compiled using Visual Studio C# Express. Remember that this may contain unfinished code, be unstable, have bugs, and might be missing features. No support will be given.
Q: Help, the program just crashes when I try to run it!
A: If you are using Windows XP or earlier, then you need to have installed the .NET Framework 2.0 (choose the redistributable package).
Q: Why doesn’t the image look how it should when I paste it into…?
A: The font used for the conversion has to match the font the other program uses to display the text. Make sure that the size, style (bold/italic/etc) and effects are also the same. This is especially true for variable width fonts.
Q: Why doesn’t the contrast do what I expect?
A: The contrast is mostly negated by the effect of the stretch filter. Turn this off if you want to see a normal contrast adjustment.
Q: How can I convert a video file?
A: You can’t currently do this automatically in the program. A good way to do it manually is to use VirtualDub. Select the section of the video, and go to “File/Export/Image Sequence…” to save the images into a new folder as bmp or png files. This folder can then be selected and converted from the Ascgen’s batch processing mode.
Q: Why do the same settings produce a slightly different output each time?
A: A dithering filter is applied to improve the look of the output by adding a level of randomness to the text image, and it’s very unlikely you will ever produce two identical images. If necessary, you can turn it off by setting “Dithering Amount” to zero on the Dither tab of the text widget.
Q: Why can’t I select the Terminal font?
A: Because terminal is not installed on your system as a TrueType font, the program is not able to access it.
Q: Why aren’t the colour text images displayed in real-time?
A: The text is currently displayed through a RichTextBox, and it just isn’t possible to apply the colour information at an acceptable speed.
Q: Can you produce a version to run on other operating systems. You could use Mono!
A: Windows functions are required to get accurate measurements for the font used in conversions, so this isn’t possible at the moment.
