BBC BASIC for Windows
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New Font
Post by Matt on Nov 16th, 2014, 10:24am

Hi,

Out of curiosity more than anything else, I installed a new 'monospaced' font to my system. However, it didn't appear in the Set Font in the IDE. It appears in other applications, but not in BB4W. Is there criteria that the font set has to have in order to appear here?

Matt
Re: New Font
Post by rtr2 on Nov 16th, 2014, 12:58pm

on Nov 16th, 2014, 10:24am, Matt wrote:
Is there criteria that the font set has to have in order to appear here?

No, just that it is monospaced. Are you certain the font you have installed is correctly flagged (the fdwPitchAndFamily field must be FIXED_PITCH)?

Richard.
Re: New Font
Post by Matt on Nov 16th, 2014, 1:31pm

on Nov 16th, 2014, 12:58pm, g4bau wrote:
Are you certain the font you have installed is correctly flagged (the fdwPitchAndFamily field must be FIXED_PITCH)?

No idea. How would I find out?

Matt
Re: New Font
Post by rtr2 on Nov 16th, 2014, 3:26pm

on Nov 16th, 2014, 1:31pm, Matt wrote:
No idea. How would I find out?

Sometimes I think I'm the only person here who has ever heard of a well-known search engine called Google. rolleyes

This is what it found:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/tools/tools.aspx

Richard.
Re: New Font
Post by Matt on Nov 16th, 2014, 4:45pm

on Nov 16th, 2014, 3:26pm, g4bau wrote:
This is what it found:

Yep! Unfortunately, this means absolutely nothing to me. I read it; I downloaded the file. Still a complete blank. huh

Incidentally, I also used Google (and do so, quite a lot) and came up with nothing I could understand. I was just hoping there was some easy way of confirming it being a fixed pitch other than taking the website's word for it.

Matt
Re: New Font
Post by rtr2 on Nov 16th, 2014, 6:58pm

on Nov 16th, 2014, 4:45pm, Matt wrote:
I was just hoping there was some easy way of confirming it being a fixed pitch

Doesn't TTFdump do that then?

Edit: It would appear that it does. Google tells me that Windows "uses bProportion [in the PANOSE array] to determine if the font is monospaced". If I run TTFdump with a known monospaced font (Lucida console) the PANOSE array is listed as:

2 11 6 9 4 5 4 2 2 4

So the bProportion member (4th from the beginning) is 9 which is Monospaced.

Check out that value in the font you have installed.

Richard.
Re: New Font
Post by Matt on Nov 17th, 2014, 05:38am

on Nov 16th, 2014, 6:58pm, g4bau wrote:
Check out that value in the font you have installed.

With a lot of fiddling around (bearing in mind that this is an area I have had no previous dealings in), it seams that the PANOSE array is all zeros bar the weight which is 4. This would indicate that, not only is it not set to FIXED_PITCH, but that none of the values have be properly set.

Thanks for your guidance.

Matt
Re: New Font
Post by Joe68 on Mar 16th, 2015, 1:14pm

While messing about I decided to 'Set Font' - I fancied a change. I had been using Courier New, regular, 12 point. Deciding that the other fonts weren't as clear I picked Courier New again, but the appearance was different: much finer/washed out, if you like.
I've tried virtually every font & style & size but I can't recover the original.
I am using Windows 8.1 on the same machine I originally downloaded BB4W to, I have v6.00a(full) & v5.94a(trial) and the font appears the same on both.
As a bit of extra info, Courier New (regular, 12 point) appears different on BB4W and Word 2013. Also, the font "BBCWin" used to appear on the Word fonts list but is now not there; have the BB4W fonts moved?
Can anyone explain the difference? And possibly advise me on how to recover the original appearance?
Re: New Font
Post by rtr2 on Mar 16th, 2015, 2:14pm

on Mar 16th, 2015, 1:14pm, Joe68 wrote:
As a bit of extra info, Courier New (regular, 12 point) appears different on BB4W and Word 2013.

Don't take any notice of how it appears in Word, which does font rendering in its own special way. If you want to check the font in another application, choose something simple like Notepad.

Note that BB4W disables ClearType because that can interfere with the Uniscribe API that is used to render the editor pane (see my earlier post on that subject).

Quote:
Also, the font "BBCWin" used to appear on the Word fonts list but is now not there

Again, don't take too much notice of what Word says; for example it may list only TrueType and OpenType fonts. To check what fonts are installed use Control Panel; here (Windows 8.1) BBCWin is listed, in fact it appears as BBCWin Extra Bold!

To restore the BB4W editor font to its default state simply select the Use System Fixed Font checkbox; that setting causes the other selections (font, style and size) to be disabled and ignored.

Richard.
Re: New Font
Post by Joe68 on Mar 16th, 2015, 4:52pm

Thanks Richard for your rapid reply.

I (now) understand that Word does its own thing (unusual for Microsoft wink).

I tried your suggestions - checked the font in Notepad and it appears as normal, also BBCWin font is listed here.
A simple program to show Courier New 12-point in the output window gives the display I am used to.

I have tried rebooting the computer, going to BB4W system fixed font and back again, and everything else you have suggested and I can think of, but Courier New remains the same in the Editor window.

I know this is a very minor point, and everything else works perfectly, I just found Courier New particularly easy on the eye when programming and I was hoping to understand what had changed (even if I could not correct it).

Cheers.
Re: New Font
Post by rtr2 on Mar 16th, 2015, 5:24pm

on Mar 16th, 2015, 4:52pm, Joe68 wrote:
I just found Courier New particularly easy on the eye

On this Windows 8.1 laptop I'm using Courier New 11pt Bold. Without the bold setting it's a bit 'thin' (partly because of ClearType being off).

Many people think ClearType is awful, but if you actually prefer it (and don't worry about or don't notice the highlighting problem) the cheat is to set the editor font using your trial version of v5.94 or v5.95 rather than v6.00!

Richard.
Re: New Font
Post by Joe68 on Mar 17th, 2015, 1:19pm

Thanks again Richard.
I tried previously to get back to my preferred Courier New 12 point on v5.94a(trial) and it didn't work.
After reading your reply I tried again and it worked, also correct on v6.00a(full).
(I'm not sure why it wouldn't work first time but work on second try.)

Cheers smiley