Os Common Script Font

[BRENT GARDNER]

My program written in PBWIN 8.4 ON Windows XP, uses a script font.
"Script MT Bold". But when I install on Windows Vista, that font is not available. Also, on Windows 98, font not available? How does one find a font common to all operating systems? This is crucial for my program as the textbox width size determines how text is printed out.

Later...

Anyone have code to create "Script MT bold" , point 13, indirect, so can use for all operating systems
and computers?

[Michael Mattias]

I have posted this multiple times, but here it is again:

Available on ALL Windows' systems:

• Courier New (monospaced)
• Arial (proportional sans serif)
• Times New Roman (proportional, serifed)
• Symbol (weird stuff)

Available on "current system" : EnumFonts() and/or EnumFontFamilies() Windows API functions... I know there are demos in the source code forum.

[Kev Peel]

Use GetStockObject() for the default GUI font, then GetObject, modify the LOGFONT structure to your taste, and finally use CreateFontIndirect to recreate the font. This is useful if you need bold fonts, italic, etc.

The fonts returned by GetStockObject() are always available.

[Michael Mattias]

Sheesh, am I a nice guy or what?

' FindScriptFontsOnMySystem.BAS
' 03.01.08
' MCM

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM     ALL


#INCLUDE "Win32API.INC"

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
    
 LOCAL s AS STRING, hDC AS LONG, iRet AS LONG
   ' get required DC for enumfonts call
    hDC    = GETDC (BYVAL %NULL)
    iRet   = Enumfonts ( hDc, BYVAL %NULL, CODEPTR (FindScriptFontsCallback), VARPTR(s))
    MSGBOX   S, %MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Available TrueType Script Fonts on this system"
END FUNCTION


FUNCTION FindScriptFontsCallback ( LF AS LOGFONT, TM AS TEXTMETRIC, BYVAL dwType AS LONG, S AS STRING) AS LONG
 ' pick out only True-Type (so they are scalable) and Script fonts (because that's what we want),
 ' add them to the string and continue enumeration until there ain't no more
   IF dwType = %TRUETYPE_FONTTYPE THEN
      IF ISTRUE (LF.lfPitchAndFamily AND %FF_SCRIPT)  THEN
          IF LEN(S) THEN
              S = S & $CRLF
          END IF
          S = S & LF.lfFaceName
      END IF
   END IF
   FUNCTION = %TRUE
END FUNCTION

PS: Including any available NON-TrueType script-style fonts and including the available sizes in message left to you. If not TrueType they are only available in the nominated sizes; but you can CreateFontIndirect from them as noted by Kev.

MCM

[BRENT GARDNER]

Anyone have code to create "Script MT bold" , point 13, indirect, so can use for all operating systems and computers?

How silly, I forgot windows is the head programer, not me. It will use
whatever font is on computer that is similiar to what I want. I had the
mistaken idea that I could create font specific for my program.

[Michael Mattias]

If you can obtain a font file and the right to redistribute it (e.g., you may NOT just willy-nilly redistribute the font files from your computer!), I have posted an example here of how use a font file in your application. Then you CAN use the same font regardless of target computer system.

Search on "AddFontResource" in message text. It may or may not be in the Source Code Forum.



MCM

[George Deluca]

I agree, the best solution is probably to ship a script font as part of your install. There's lots of free ones (see for example http://simplythebest.net/fonts/script_fonts.html) and I'm sure some of them are also redistributable.

[Kev Peel]

Windows may not be the head programmer, but it's font mapper is quite clever in that you can set a couple of attributes to a LOGFONT structure and it will find the best match. If you don't want to include a 100KB TTF font file with your application, then you need to let Windows auto-detect a match.

At least on Windows Vista, the following code will show the first "Script" font available:

 
#Compile Exe
#Dim All
#Include "WIN32API.INC"
Function PBMain
  Local hDlg As Dword
  Local hFont As Dword
  Local lf As LOGFONT
  ' Create the font...
  lf.lfFaceName = "script" ' <- Important for best match.
  lf.lfCharset = %OEM_CHARSET
  lf.lfHeight = -32
  lf.lfWeight = %FW_NORMAL
  lf.lfUnderline = %TRUE       
  lf.lfPitchAndFamily = %VARIABLE_PITCH Or %FF_SCRIPT Or %FF_DECORATIVE    ' <- Important for best match.
  hFont = CreateFontIndirect(lf)
  ' Create example dialog to display the font...
  Dialog New %HWND_DESKTOP, "Font Test", , , 300, 50, %WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW To hDlg
  Control Add Label, hDlg, 100, "Please Show Me Some Fancy Text Now!", 10, 8, 300, 50
  Control Send hDlg, 100, %WM_SETFONT, hFont, %FALSE
  Dialog Show Modal hDlg
End Function

[Chris Boss]

Here is a slightly more extended list of fonts that should be on most, if not all computers: (The ones with the (X) are the actual font)

Arial (X)
Courier New (X)
Symbol
Times New Roman (X)
Wingdings
Terminal
Courier
Modern
MS Sans Serif (X)
MS Serif
Arial Black (X)
Book Antiqua (X)
Calisto MT
Century Gothic
Copperplate Gothic
Impact (X)
Lucida Console (X)
Lucida Handwriting Italic
Lucida Sans Italic
OCR A Extended
Tahoma (X)
Verdana (X)
Westminster
Webdings

I don't know how this list holds up on Vista though.

[Michael Mattias]

It's not just WIndows which installs fonts..

Most word-processing applications include a set of fonts.

Every HP printer I have installed has included some fonts, too.

Not to mention, you can buy a "font pack" CD at Office Max for ten bucks and install that, too.