Fonts in Win2000 ????

[Chris Boss]

Has anybody developed a program (in PB 5/6) for Win 95/98 which uses Fonts (defined using CreateFont API call) which works fine in Win 95/98, but when run from Win 2000 (or NT), the fonts defined are not always correct (ie. Font becomes bold, when it wasn't defined as bold) ?

I have code that works fine in Win 95/98, but when run in NT (especially 2000) the font sometimes will be bold, when it wasn't defined as bold.

Are there any "differences" between Win 95/98 and NT/2000 when using CreateFont that I should know about ?

[Borje Hagsten]

Bold is defined by weight, so maybe the problem is there.
Do you set it to 400 (= normal)?

[Chris Boss]

Yes !

The problem is not with selecting the font, but if I create the same font multiple times, sometimes the font will come back bold and sometimes it will come back normal. I use 400 for a normal font.

What I want to know is, is Win2000 more sensitive in selecting a font, so with certain values passed in CreateFont, sometimes it returns a bold and sometimes it won't.

[Lance Edmonds]

Chris, I'm running Win2K here, so if you want to post or email me a short app to demo your problem, I'll see what I can find out. I've done extensive testing of DOSPRINT with Win2K (using test files containing hundreds of font changes within a single Print Preview window) and I've not seen the problem as you describe it.



-------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
( mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A> )

[Chris Boss]

Here is the code I use for Creating a Font. Is there anything here that could "confuse" Win 2000 and cause to return a Bold Font, when Bold was Not asked for:

Sub EZ_DefFont (byval N&, byval TFace$, byval PSize&, byval FProp$) EXPORT
Local hFont as Long
Local W&, E&, O&, FW&, I&, U&, ST&, CS&, PR&, CL&, Q&, PF&, FF&
Local zTemp as AsciiZ*80, OKFlag&
Local PT!
' PT!=abs(PSize&)
' PT!=int(PT!*App_EZ_PointOffSet!)
' PSize&=-int(PT!)    ' a negative value defines by character height, not cell height
PSize&=-MulDiv(PSize&, App_EZ_PixelSY&, 72)
if (N&>5 and N&<=ubound(AppFont)) or N&=-1 then
    OKFlag&=0
    if N&=-1 then OKFlag&=1
    if N&>5 then
       if AppFont(N&)=0 then OKFlag&=1
    end if
    if OKFlag& then
        W&=0
        E&=0
        O&=0
        FW&=%FW_NORMAL
        I&=0
        U&=0
        ST&=0
        CS&=%ANSI_CHARSET
        PR&=%OUT_DEFAULT_PRECIS
        CL&=%CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS
        Q&=%DRAFT_QUALITY
        PF&=%DEFAULT_PITCH
        if instr(FProp$,"B") then FW&=%FW_BOLD
        if instr(FProp$,"X") then FW&=%FW_HEAVY
        if instr(FProp$,"I") then I&=1
        if instr(FProp$,"U") then U&=1
        if instr(FProp$,"-") then ST&=1
        if instr(FProp$,"D") then CS&=%DEFAULT_CHARSET
        if instr(FProp$,"S") then CS&=%SYMBOL_CHARSET
        if instr(FProp$,"O") then CS&=%OEM_CHARSET
        if instr(FProp$,"Q") then Q&=%PROOF_QUALITY     ' letter quality
        if instr(FProp$,"F") then PF&=%FIXED_PITCH
        if instr(FProp$,"V") then PF&=%VARIABLE_PITCH
        FF&=%FF_DONTCARE
        '  I can add choices for Font Families later
        PF&=PF& or FF&
        if len(TFace$)>31 then TFace$=left$(TFace$,31)
        zTemp=TFace$+chr$(0)

        ' Remember this font in LOGFONT structure
        if N&=-1 then
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfHeight=PSize&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfWidth=W&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfEscapement=E&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfOrientation=O&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfWeight=FW&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfItalic=I&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfUnderline=U&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfStrikeOut=ST&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfCharSet=CS&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfOutPrecision=PR&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfClipPrecision=CL&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfQuality=Q&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfPitchAndFamily=PF&
           App_EZ_LastFont.lfFaceName=TFace$+chr$(0)
         else
           hFont=CreateFont(PSize&,W&, E&, O&, FW&, I&, U&, ST&, CS&, PR&, CL&, Q&, PF&, zTemp)
           if hFont>0 then AppFont(N&)=hFont
         end if
    end if
end if
End Sub

Note: While the code above does come from a CopyRighted program (EZGUI), please feel free to modify it for your own use and use it as you please !

The Subroutine is very easy to use, since you just pass it the Font Name, Point size and a simple Property string with single characters for properties (ie. B=Bold, X=Heavy, Q=Quality, F=Fixed Width, V=Variable width, I=Italics, U=Underlined, etc.).

There are some other features in the code , you can remove since it is for use with other EZGUI functions (ie. the LOGFONT UDT is a Global for use with other EZGUI functions). You may want to convert the sub to a Function to return the font handle.

[Ed Turner]

Chris,
I believe the last 4 or 5 fields (not including lfFacename) are defined
as BYTE in the LOGFONT udt. You are using LONG's.
Regards... Ed

[Eric Pearson]

Chris --

> Are there any "differences" between Win 95/98 and NT/2000
> when using CreateFont that I should know about ?

I can't give you any concrete answers, but it has been my experience that fonts are not very consistent between 95/98 and NT. Even within one version of Windows, the results of creating a font are not always what you might expect. For example, when increasing the size of a font by a small amount, I often perceive a difference in the boldness of the resulting font.

For an example of this effect on NT, use the Control Panel's "Fonts" applet to look at the Arial font. To my eye, the 12-point font is much less bold than the 18-point font. On the other hand, Courier New seems very consistent to me.

I've never looked into it in detail, but here are a few thoughts. Let's say that you have a relatively small font, and Windows draws it with lines that are one pixel wide and high. Increase the width/height by a small amount and Windows will continue to use one-pixel lines, until a certain size-threshhold is reached and it starts using 2-pixel lines. (I'm not accurately describing the way characters are drawn, but you get the idea.) It is impossible for Windows to draw with a one-point-five-pixel line, so it has to jump abruptly from 1 to 2 pixels, and the resulting font looks very different. Not many fonts are drawn with 1-pixel fonts... I'm just trying to communicate the fact that Windows must deal with "integers only" is some unexpected places, and (I'm guessing) it could affect font creation.

I have often noticed that a certain font will appear to become significantly bolder when the size is increased beyond a certain threshhold. I don't know what the mechanism is that makes it happen, but it is a real and hard-to-predict effect.

I'm not certain, but I think that monitor resolution has an effect as well. I have designed a number of menus using one screen resolution, and when the programs were run on another machine with a different resolution, the relative boldness of certain fonts did appear to change.

Generally speaking, I have obtained much more consistent results with TrueType fonts than with other types. But all Windows fonts suffer from these effects to some degree.

-- Eric


-------------
Perfect Sync: Perfect Sync Development Tools
Email: mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>



[This message has been edited by Eric Pearson (edited January 11, 2000).]

[Chris Boss]

The problem that my Beta testers have experienced is that on Win NT or 2000 that a bunch of controls can be defined with the same Font (using my code above) , and yet the first control displays with Bolder text. The Font is the same (different handle, but defined with the same attributes).

The first time Win 2000 creates the font it is bolder, than the next time it creates it.

[Eric Pearson]

Chris --

Yes, sorry, you said that in a previous message and I missed it.

-- Eric

-------------
Perfect Sync: Perfect Sync Development Tools
Email: mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Fred Oxenby]

In Win95
nEscapment and nOrientation should be same value
In NT/2000
If graphics mode is set to GM_COMPATIBLE, nEscapement specifies both
the escapement and orientation.
You should set nEscapement and nOrientation to the same value
If graphic mode is set to GM_ADVANCED, you can specify the escapement
angle of the string independently

This does not explain the inconsistent behaviors in WinNT/2000
But perhaps would help to get the same inconsistency in Win95
It was a yoke!
Using %PROOF_QUALITY ?

Character quality of the font is more important than exact matching
of the logical-font attributes. For GDI raster fonts, scaling is disabled
and the font closest in size is chosen. Although the chosen font size may
not be mapped exactly when PROOF_QUALITY is used, the quality of the font
is high and there is no distortion of appearance. Bold, italic, underline,
and strikeout fonts are synthesized, if necessary.

-------------
Fred
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>
http://www.oxenby.se


[This message has been edited by Fred Oxenby (edited January 11, 2000).]