Fonts and Property Inspector / fontNames / fontStyles Different on Every Platform

[Ralph DiMola]

LC 9.6 GM

Win 10. I have 3 Arial fonts installed.

 1) "Arial" with 4 styles (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic)
 2) "Arial Narrow" with 4 styles (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic)
 3) "Arial Black" with 1 style (plain)

 In the IDE:
 Via the PI "Arial Narrow" and "Arial Black" are not accessible.
 "Arial Narrow" (or Black) are not in seen in LC's fontNames or fontStyles functions either. I guess that's why they are not in the PI.

 One can select "Arial Narrow" (or Black) by typing the full font name into the PI or set via script.
 This appears to be a LC Windows IDE limitation with a work-around... OK I can deal with that.

 MS Word shows all 3 fonts.

 If you set the font name of a field to empty(PI or Script) then the font of the higher objects are inherited. This is displayed in the  PI in italic(as expected). In my environment I have no fonts specified all the way up to the stack so "Segoe UI" (displayed in the PI in  italic) is used.

 Set the font to "XXYYYZZ" then some unknown sans font is used. What font is this? How does LC choose a font when a field is set to a font that is not installed?

 Font observations by platform.
------------------------

 Win 10 using fontNames() and fontStyles():

 "Arial" has 4 styles (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic)

 No mention at all of:
 "Arial Narrow"
 "Arial Black"
------------------------

 Android using fontNames() and fontStyles():

 "Arial" has 4 styles (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic)
 But also shows
 "Arial Bold" with 1 style (bold)
 "Arial Italic" with 1 style (italic)
 "Arial Bold Italic" with 1 style (bold-italic)

 "Arial Narrow" 1 styles (plain)
 "Arial Narrow Bold" with 1 style (plain)
 "Arial Narrow Italic" with 1 style (plain)
 "Arial Narrow Bold Italic" with 1 style (plain)

 "Arial Black" with 1 style (plain)

---------------------

 iOS using fontNames() and fontStyles():

 "Arial" has 1 style (plain)
 "Arial Bold" with 2 styles (plain, bold)
 "Arial Italic" with 2 styles (plain, italic)
 "Arial Bold Italic" with 3 styles (plain, bold, italic)

 "Arial Narrow " has 1 style (plain)
 "Arial Narrow Bold" with 2 styles (plain, bold)
 "Arial Narrow Italic" with 2 styles (plain, italic)
 "Arial Narrow Bold Italic" with 3 styles (plain, bold, italic)

 "Arial Black" with 2 styles (plain, bold)

---------------------

 Mac OS using fontNames() and fontStyles():  (the same as iOS except for the bold italic)

 "Arial" has 1 style (plain)
 "Arial Bold" with 2 styles (plain, bold)
 "Arial Italic" with 2 styles (plain, italic)
 "Arial Bold Italic" with 4 styles (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic)

 "Arial Narrow " has 1 style (plain)
 "Arial Narrow Bold" with 2 styles (plain, bold)
 "Arial Narrow Italic" with 2 styles (plain, italic)
 "Arial Narrow Bold Italic" with 4 styles (plain, bold, italic, bold-italic)

 "Arial Black" with 2 styles (plain, bold)

----------------------------

 This is so inconsistent I can't even critique it.
 How do the rest of you deal with this craziness?

Ralph DiMola
IT Director
Evergreen Information Services
rdimola at evergreeninfo.net