16-Dec-2001

New version 0.50.0 out.

• This version features glyph selection window, you will see all cursors in one window. See it in action here. You can change editable glyph by clicking on one in glyph selection window.
• Some redrawing bugs fixed.
• Potential segfaults fixed (possibly created ;).

Now, I shall speak about future.
Future versions will bring:

• 0.60.0: Ability to edit some font metrics. Now it is somewhat b0rken.
• 0.70.0: Ability to import & export single cursors. Also command-line driven.
• 0.80.0: Internal re-arrangements which will make DeCurs into full blown BDF font editor.
• 0.90.0: Possible integration of PCF exporting code.
• 1.0.0: All of above working.

Intermediate releases (0.50.1) very expectable, they will contain bugfixes.
Now, timetable. As I'm doing this for fun, and at this moment DeCurs is at about perfect for my needs, there is not much reason for me to continue doing it. So next release is not in very near future. However, if You think that You have a feature that You need, e-mail me an we'll see what I can do.

Later
Now, when you've drawn you beautiful new cursor, I suggest you got to themes.org, And submit it under t.o > resources > cursors . DeCurs is already there ;).

Decurs, X11 (monochrome) cursors editor

What Is DeCurs?

DeCurs is dual in it's nature: it is a collection of better mouse cursors for XFree86, and a program to edit them, or any other font.

DeCurs -- the cursors

-- better mouse cursors for XFree86!
These cursors are "white", with black border, not "inverted" like standard X-Windows ones. I drew them using custom program (Win32 based), which I wrote. I recently ported that old piece of code to GTK+, and it's now available here.
You can download cursors below. Installation instructions below.

DeCurs -- the program

DeCurs is a GTK+ based program that lets you edit you XFree86 mouse cursors. It reads them from "bdf" -formatted font files. Now, don't worry, DeCurs comes with one handy =). However, if you want to edit a "pcf" -formatted file (this is the format your cursors are stored in XFree86), you need an utility called pcf2bdf, you can find it here.

Screenshots

[The Pieces(9k) cursors]
[new wait(33k) cursor (v0.42.2)]
[new root(44k) cursor (v0.42)]
[new pirate(25k) cursor (v0.42, cursor rarely used)]
[glyph selection in action(25k)]

Download

Newest version decurs-0.55.1(152k).
Older version decurs-0.50.1(224k).
Older version decurs-0.50.0(224k).
Older version decurs-0.42.2(282k).
Debian package (old): decurs_0.42.2-1_i386.deb(85k).
Only the cursors (DeCurs): cursor.pcf.gz.
Only the cursors (Pieces): pieces-font.tar.gz.

Installation

Please read Scott Brady's Mini-HOWTO, it makes it much easier to install new mouse-cursors.
Old method/site-wide.
Make a backup of /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/cursor.pcf.gz, then copy the one you downloaded from here over it (not the backup copy, silly). Restart computer OR (shutdown X-Windows AND restart font-server). (if you don't know how, just restart your comp.)
Now You should have 'em.

Usage

Debian:
Run Decurs from command-line 'decurs' or from menu. Note that example-fonts are located in /usr/share/doc/decurs/examples/fonts.
Others (self-compiled):
Run ./configure && make. Run DeCurs in decurs/src (so it can find cursor.bdf).
Common for all:
Before you edit, press 'Mask' -button. Before you save, press UnMask -button.
edit your cursors, when finished, run these:
bdftopcf -o cursor.pcf cursor.bdf, then
gzip cursor.pcf, from here on, install as DeCurs -- the font.
Alternative:
Read Scott Brady's Mini-HOWTO.

Keys & Buttons

Leftclick draws white
Rightclick black
Shift-Leftclick draws "transparent" color
Control-Leftclick moves "hot-spot". Hot-spot is place where your mouse "has clicked", for example in arrow it should be at the point.
Key 'b' prints some glyph information. Note that you may need to press 'TAB' key one or more times for this to work.

Known bugs

• When font masked and you reach to the end of font, mask is displayed. Workaround: Unmask and mask again.
• Some glyphs' mask do not overlay correctly, this has to do with mask being not modulo 2.

5-May-2003

Apparently not many of you can have gtkmm2.0 installed, even debian has it only in sid/unstable portion. For redhat I think you can have some luck with freshrpms.

I made packages, for Debian it's here. It's built on sid/unstable yesterday, so some dependencies may be too rough. In that case I think you will have better luck if you compile this package (untar and deb-buildpackage), then dependencies will be OK.
For redhat I have this package, but I couldn't test it. It should install OK on most LSB distros.

I've started working on XCursor editor, it doesn't crrently do much, except load theme files. It really will not be useful but to compose cursors (animations), and tune hotspots. Because xcursors are ARGB images, you really should edit them in some real graphics editor, like GIMP.

4-May-2003

New version, 0.55.1. Main change is port to GTK2. It proved a bit time-consuming, with longinsh timespan, because modern C++ has evolved past what I've learned → there was need to update my knowledge.
GTK2 and in some sense GTKmm suck. There's no easy and straight-forward way to draw text onto DrawingArea, however in the end it didn't take long, not much code to do it.
Now that I've VMware running cleanly, I'll try making deb & rpm -packages of this thing. Don't hold your breath though.

17-Feb-2003

If you are looking for some information on XFree86 4.3's cursors, then this isn't the right place. For more info on making cursors go here. For more technical information rather go here.
As for DeCurs' support for these, I cannot promise anything before X4.3 comes to debian. I've been a bit reluctant to install 'beta' (aka non-Branden) deb's on my system, even though they do exist.
My primary goal has recently been to port Decurs to gtkmm2, which've proved to be less than trivial.

6-May-2002

New version 0.50.1.
Only one new feature, possibility to change background color of editor. Examples: 'decurs blue', 'decurs green'. Use 'gcolorsel' or 'xcolorsel' to find suitable color.
My 'Pieces' cursor is now included (pieces.bdf) with DeCurs.