Cross platform font symbols & quality

David V Glasgow dvglasgow at gmail.com
Sun Feb 12 08:22:46 EST 2017


I have always liked Trebuchet as a cross platform font, just nudging the size up by 1 point on Windows and leaving a bit of breathing space in fields.  However, I have encountered a few problems in my latest project which has a lot of rather closely packed fields, and needs smaller font sizes than I normally use.

1/ Trebuchet at small font sizes  (10 - 12) looks OK on Mac but horrible on Windows.  I assumed there would be no problem because of the font’s origins.  It is definitely installed on my Win test box, so it isn’t a substitution issue.  Weirdly, if the card is scaled to fullscreen, the same font sizes seems to look much better - not just bigger.

2/ I use the null symbol a lot, which appears fine on Mac, but as the dreaded rectangle on Windows.  Is this the MacOS making it look like null is available in Trebuchet, when actually it isn’t by substituting from symbol?  If so, how do I tackle this issue?

3/  I use male and female symbols downward cross female, and diagonally upward arrow.  These appear on both platforms, but look horrible on Windows (faint and jagged), even if I use Arial.


Win XP, Vista & 10
Mac 10.12
LC 7.1.3

Any advice?

Best wishes,

David Glasgow



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