(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Does anyone know if it is possible to build a TTF (or other) font file that will ALWAYS create characters of a certain size - much larger than other fonts?

What I mean is this - a TTF font file will normally specify fonts of different sizes and types (eg bold, italic etc) but sometimes I find that certain fonts will not allow changes - they always display as non-bold, non-italic, or as capitals only.

I assume that is because the font designer built the TTF that way - in a sort of "cost reduced" format that has limited variants.

So I wondered if a TTF could be made that always shows up as, say, font size 20 or larger??

eg: could be called "TimesNewRomanGiant.TTF" or similar

Hi greengeek, I think you better ask about this in the 'Programming' section, I suspect guys like vovchik or mochimoppel know how (if it is possible).

Fred

greengeek wrote:Does anyone know if it is possible to build a TTF (or other) font file that will ALWAYS create characters of a certain size - much larger than other fonts?

A TTF font has no defined size. It's scalable by definition, so you can have it in any size you want. Some fonts use fine details not clearly visible when you set the size too low, but again that's not a question of font design but rather a question of choosing the size that's most comfortable for you.

MochiMoppel wrote:A TTF font has no defined size. It's scalable by definition, so you can have it in any size you want.

Thanks for the clarification Mochi.

What prompted my question was the example you offered on your font thread - showing the use of font name specification within gxmessage. I had not seen that before and i will find it useful as I use gxmessage a lot.

However - it seems there is no similar "font size" spec for gxmessage so the impact of using a non-default font is somewhat lost (especially if it is a difficult to read fancy font). I hoped there might have been a way to choose a special font within gxmessage so that it stood out more than the small sized default system font.

You might be able to run it with a special gtkrc to increase the font.

Gxmessage manual page says this - are you trying to do something else?

-fn | -font FONT
Specifies the message font, using GTK2's font specification system. For example,
-font "serif italic 14". (GTK2's font system is not compatible with xmessage. See
the Compatibility section, below, for a workaround.)

disciple wrote:Gxmessage manual page says this - are you trying to do something else?
-fn | -font FONT
Specifies the message font, using GTK2's font specification system. For example,
-font "serif italic 14".

Brilliant! Thanks!
I had displayed the --help info for gxmessage but did not spot that little gem.
cheers!

EDIT - i had thought that the "-fn" parameter indicated "font name" and I had no idea it was possible to include the size spec along with the name too. Very handy.

Heeheehee, i dont need yad or yafsplash any more now that i can instruct the user using big fonts in gxmessage! This will be handy.