I found it myself (dawned on me to search old work email archives)

Font Explorer

Web Site: http://www.flounder.com/fontexplorer.htm

This application is definitely for a hardcore Win32 programmer (or whatever we call unmanaged, non-metro windows programming these days). It's UI is really ugly and may make little sense without knowing the windows font API calls. It started life as sample code from a Win32 programming book.

However, for those still programming on the bare metal windows, this tool is great.

It shows at a very, very detailed level how fonts can be rendered on windows. You can quickly adjust the parameters of the font API calls and see the resulting text. The previews are magnified and contain color-coded measurements and overlays that aid in visually explaining why the font is rendered the way it was.

Also it can spit out code for the ugly LOGFONT structures and other font API calls.

Typography fans or programmers in other languages/platforms may find some useful / interesting stuff here. Kerning maps, kerning explorer, internal vs. external leading...

It's free and includes source

I found it myself (dawned on me to search old work email archives)

Font Explorer

This application is definitely for a hardcore Win32 programmer (or whatever we call unmanaged, non-metro windows programming these days). It's UI is really ugly and may make little sense without knowing the windows font API calls. It started life as sample code from a Win32 programming book.

However, for those still programming on the bare metal windows, this tool is great.

It shows at a very, very detailed level how fonts can be rendered on windows. You can quickly adjust the parameters of the font API calls and see the resulting text. The previews are magnified and contain color-coded measurements and overlays that aid in visually explaining why the font is rendered the way it was.

Also it can spit out code for the ugly LOGFONT structures and other font API calls.

Typography fans or programmers in other languages/platforms may find some useful / interesting stuff here. Kerning maps, kerning explorer, internal vs. external leading...

It's free and includes source

^{Font Explorer: LOGFONT Explorer, Kerning Explorer (Source: Font Explorer; click images for larger variants)}

^{Font Explorer: Rasterization Explorer (Source: Font Explorer; click image for larger variant)}

I found it myself (dawned on me to search old work email archives) "Font Explorer" http://www.flounder.com/fontexplorer.htm

I found it myself (dawned on me to search old work email archives)

Font Explorer

Web Site: http://www.flounder.com/fontexplorer.htm

This application is definitely for a hardcore Win32 programmer (or whatever we call unmanaged, non-metro windows programming these days). It's UI is really ugly and may make little sense without knowing the windows font API calls. It started life as sample code from a Win32 programming book.

However, for those still programming on the bare metal windows, this tool is great.

It shows at a very, very detailed level how fonts can be rendered on windows. You can quickly adjust the parameters of the font API calls and see the resulting text. The previews are magnified and contain color-coded measurements and overlays that aid in visually explaining why the font is rendered the way it was.

Also it can spit out code for the ugly LOGFONT structures and other font API calls.

Typography fans or programmers in other languages/platforms may find some useful / interesting stuff here. Kerning maps, kerning explorer, internal vs. external leading...

It's free and includes source