Portable fonts and usage recommendations needed

Scott Rossi scott at tactilemedia.com
Sat Aug 16 18:41:00 EDT 2003


On 8/16/03 2:45 PM, "Dar Scott" <dsc at swcp.com> wrote:

> I'm getting frustrated with fonts on multiple platforms.
>
> I tried using Ariel and Courier New thinking those would be most
> portable.  Just between OS X and Windows there are gross differences,
> both in metrics and--it seems--in the characters.
> 
> In some cases I can go to a fixed line height to force some metrics to
> be the same, but that will not work in most cases.  I would like to
> avoid a lot of formatting calculations.

Unless you ship your own fonts and have users install them, this seems
unlikely.


> I'd like to avoid tweaking a lot of profile parameters for platforms.

You may have your work cut out for you.


> Why are fonts with the same names so different?

In some cases, the fonts were probably designed by different people (not
sure about those you cited). But part of the problem is the display systems.
Macs usually display at 72 ppi, while Windows often displays at 96 ppi.  But
these settings are not universal and with folks increasing the resolution of
their systems, you can't rely on these figures 100%.

 
> Are there fonts that have exactly the same metrics on different
> platforms?

 There may be but this is doubtful due to the technical issue mentioned
above. Windows also has the blessing/curse of "large fonts" where folks can
set text to display larger system-wide, and allow for higher resolution
display (more screen real estate with same size text).


> Do other applications have such gross differences when the same font is
> used?

I would hazard a guess that if you placed the same app running on different
platforms side by side, you'd see differences in the text appearance.  It
has always been this way.  In cases where font appearance needs to be
virtually identical, some companies have shipped their own fonts along with
their apps but I doubt many folks do this any more (most users see having to
install a font for one app as a chore).


> If that shows a gross ignorance of font metrics and platforms, I would
> like to learn more.  Well, actually, I would like to learn more anyway,
> but my immediate goal is to address fonts on multiple platforms.  If it
> requires a break to get educated, please point me to the right
> resources.

Probably the only way you'll get identical cross platform text appearance is
to use images.  Of course, you then lose the benefits that text data offers.

It sounds like you're going about your projects the right way: use cross
platform fonts, design your stacks to be accommodating (allow extra space
for size variances), change sizes if necessary for each platform, and test
on the target systems (no emulators).

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design
-----
E: scott at tactilemedia.com
W: http://www.tactilemedia.com




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