Font Issue - Mac and PC

[Clancy]

Does anyone have any information regarding the differences between fonts in Windows and Mac OS ? Our database was designed for the Mac and has worked well for a number of years but since migrating some of our workstations to Citrix and Windows output prints incorrectly due to the fonts on the Mac and PCs being ever so slightly different. It appears that FileMaker for Windows is not WYSIWYG. FileMaker themselves do not see this as their problem but as a font problem.

Thanks in advance,

Dave.

[spragueg]

When I create cross platform solutions I try to use fonts that exist on both platforms. Try using Arial or Verdana. I ususally don't have any problem with those fonts.

[kenneth2k1]

Like Sprague said.

But it is not a WYSIWYG problem, nor is it a platform problem. It would simply be an installed font problem. If the font that your solution has is not present in the fonts folder, then FM will sub it with another font. Same thing would happen with MS Word, or many other programs.

If these fonts were really, really, really, really, really... really, really, really necessary, you could add these fonts in a folder with your solution, and the user could install them.

ken

[stanley]

Another issue is that some fonts actually are slightly different on the two platforms, depending on where you got them from, if you're using Adobe Type Manager, TrueType, PostScript, etc. Seeing that FileMaker performs the fairly magical trick of being cross-platform, you've got to expect that a little bit of tweaking may be necessary when switching between the two.

You can make different layouts for printing & displaying on the various platforms, then determine which to show via Status(CurrentPlatform) which returns the following data:

Returns 1 if the current platform is the Mac OS 9 and earlier, -1 if the current platform is Mac OS X, 2 if the platform is Windows 95 or Windows 98, or -2 if the platform is Windows 2000 or Windows NT.

I've had to do this kind of thing from time to time on multi-platform networked systems involving extremely dense printout forms, and it works fine.

-Stanley

ps: After two years, I finally figured out kenneth's signature.

[kenneth2k1]

Haha

When someone told it to me, he said it like "ID-ten-T" and it took me a while. Now we tell the less computer-literate that that is their computer problem, and they go, "oh. How do I fix that?"

And we say, "I have to replace the chair-to-keyboard interface."

[Clancy]

Thanks for the input guys but we are using Arial 11pt with fonts supplied by Microsoft for both platforms and although some output is OK for larger reports the differences become more noticeable. As we are using Windows 2000 on our Citrix Server would it be advisable to try Adobe Type Manager ?

Thanks,

Dave.

[mborgens]

To me, this is a FileMaker problem. Apple the King of fonts cannot create an FileMaker font that is the same on both platforms?

I have taken a few steps beyond restricting fonts. I make sure each layout's margins are set. I usually set them to ".5", left, right, top and bottom. Then I build each layout, line by line. I do not have text blocks. Even within each line, if there is any significant space, beyond 2 or 3 spaces, I break those into separate text lines. These things have made the biggest difference in reducing layout shift between Macs and PCs. - mark

[kenneth2k1]

To me, this may be more of a cross-platform compatibility issue. I don't care what they say, going from Mac to PC and vice versa never turns out quite right, regardless of the program. Objects get all out of place and their sizes are different. The translation is never quite perfect (unless it's a pdf, jpeg and those other ones). Sticking to the "big three" fonts is always a good idea.

The only way around it is to test, and correct it after-the-fact.

[stanley]

If you really want your layouts to look right on each platform, then you've got to design different layouts for each, and use the Status(CurrentPlatform) to determine which layouts to take the user to. I've found that even printouts sometimes have to be designed separately (not nearly as often as screen layouts.)

-Stanley