[PD] [PD-announce] Pd-0.39.2-extended-rc1 released // fonts

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Apr 16, 2007, at 1:34 PM, Frank Barknecht wrote:

> Hallo,
> Miller Puckette hat gesagt: // Miller Puckette wrote:
>
>> I think that, since font sizes now differ between platforms, it's  
>> probably
>> OK to introduce a new, uniform font size as long as it doesn't  
>> exceed that
>> of any currently used one by more than about a pixel... and  
>> indeed, it will
>> be a huge benefit to get this straightened out at last!
>
> Yep, definitely.
>
> I now had a real look at pd-extended.  Some comments: The properties
> menu for IEMGUIs still explicitly specify names like "Deja Sans ..."
> or "Helvetica". I think, it would be better to use more general names:
> "Mono", "Sans Serif" and "Serif". That way it would be easier to map
> the names to different font faces eventially or when "-typeface X" is
> used.
>
> Then very much, even with Deja, I would prefer to have a bold typeface
> back. I find the non-bold fonts hard to read and for my tastes they
> are too similar in width to the object borders. Btw: the number in
> number boxes is positioned a little bit to low, not in the center.

I forgot to ask more questions about this.  It's a significant  
change, but not one that I have not put considerable thought into.

What font size to do use for your Pd patches?  When you use fonts of  
this size in other apps, do you have it set to bold?.  I thought  
about it and looked around, and I noticed that nobody that I saw uses  
bold fonts for text unless it's a header or special case.  Even when  
reading code.  Also, most people don't use 10pt fonts for normal  
reading.  For example, the default font for web pages is usually 12pt  
or 16pt.

I think that Pd's text is not really like reading a block of text,  
but maybe more like webpage menus.  It seems those are mostly not in  
bold fonts also, but sometimes are.

My first feeling when I saw the non-bold Pd was similar to your  
reaction: it seemed hard to read.  I decided to try it for a while,  
since every other app I use does not use bold fonts.  Now I am use to  
it and have a hard time reading the old bold Pd patches, especially  
compared to the new font at 12pt.  One big annoyance is the tiny - in  
DejaVu.  Arg... Anyone want to make a Pd font?

.hc

> _From a quick glance at pd.tk I still don't like, that the font face
> is hardcoded in many places. I'm tcl-illiterate, but it would be nice
> to have the fonts defined in just one place. One end goal IMO should
> be a system similar to the one in Desire Data: Here you can totally
> change the graphical appearance, from colors to fonts and beyond, by
> editing a GUI config file. With hardcoded font names everywhere this
> is porbably harder to realize.
>
> Also after seeing Chun's DD presentation at "make art" last week I
> fell in love with the Zoom feature of Desire Data: If like me one is
> sight impaired when in front of a screen (yep, I'm aproaching 40),
> with current Pd it is necessary to change the font size, which, even
> with the Deja-font and pd-extended, will still break the layout of a
> patch. Instead of that, zooming into a patch would be a much better
> solution for handicapped users.
>
> Ciao
> -- 
>  Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__
>
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