[softwarelist] Re: Text format in OvPro 2.77
- From: "Tonnie-mw Demarteau" <2ndhalf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 12:15:33 +0200
On Sunday, June 01, 2008 3:04 AM ,
John Grogan <johngrogan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ovation Pro's algorithm for choosing variants may be simple but it doesn't
seem to be applied consistently. With font System ( Fixed / Medium ), if
I select some text and choose System from the top level menu, the text is
changed to System.Fixed. If I click on B, the selection changes to
System.Medium but if I then click on N, it stays as System.Medium - so N
doesn't revert to the default variant.
Font Hull ( Black / Black.Oblique / Light / Light.Oblique ) is even more
perplexing in that although the default is Hull.Black, the B and N buttons
both yield Hull.Light. Just to add to the confusion, B+I and N+I both
yield Hull.Black.Oblique!
Interestingly, Bookmark ( Demi / Demi.Italic / Light / Light.Italic )
which seems to have its variants named similarly (except for Oblique vs
Italic) behaves exactly as one would expect - default and N give
Bookmark.Light while B gives Bookmark.Demi and the I button gives the
corresponding Italic variants.
It appears that the algorithm is not quite so simple - has it been tweaked
to accommodate some particular fonts to try to make it appear more
intelligent than it really is?
Regards
John Grogan
In a Windows font, the name of the font family - or better to say which
'members' with a maximum of 4 are combined in the Windows variable to build
the 'font menu' (Normal-Italic-Bold-Bold-Italic button) in programs- is
written INSIDE the font by the font designer.
So, in Hull
the weight/member Black = inside the font file Hull Black defined as being
the Bold in the font menu group 'Hull'
Black Oblique has inside the font file Hull Black Oblique the definition to
be used as 'Bold Italic'.
Same principle goes for Light and Light Oblique.
BTW: Bold has the meaning of being 'fatter than' ... but this is also
defined in the font file.
A designer can make a 'mistake' and define a UltraBlack as 'lighter/less
fat' than UltraThin.
For instance Bold has the number 700, Regular 500.
Bookmark Demi / Demi.Italic / Light / Light.Italic behaves as it does,
because it is defined this way in the 4 font files. 'Bookmark' is the
'shared' name of those 4 weights. Demi is defined as being the Bold one in
this group, Demi Italic as the Bold Italic (fatter and with an angle), Light
as the Normal (= less fat than the fatter weight in this particular group)
and the Light Italic as the less fat weight with an angle. And hence they
appear as they do in the font menu.
Due to RISC OS font system, where it is difficult or impossible to
distinguish 'groups of 4', it is hard to understand the way this works in
Windows (and Apple?) and also in the past in RISC OS. Hence you can find
those 4 'buttons' or 'effects' in many RISC OS programs too. When these
buttons are used in RISC OS in 'bigger' fonts, the results can be
unpredictable.
Too less info can be put or found in RISC OS fonts, so font mapping between
Windows and RISC OS has to be done with a lot of care.
System font in RISC OS isn't intended to be used as a scalable font.
Fixed isn't a Bold of Medium. Due to lack of info RISC OS can find, Fixed is
chosen as 'Bold', because it is the only other available font in the font
System folder.
Tonnie Demarteau
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