Filemaker 7 fuzzy font problem

[Scott Gius]

I loaded both Filemkaer 7 Pro and Filemaker Developer and was stunned

at the lousy screen font display. Previous reports that I like to

display at relatively small font or magnification onscreen in order

to see the maximum amount of fields and data at once are close to

being un-readable.

I found some posts that said the V2 update fixes this, but after

going thru the substantial update the improvement is minimal if at

all.

The fonts are clear when at larger magnification / size, but the

reports that I can still run in FM6 in the desired magnification are

frustrating and close to unusable in 7.

Anyone have a clue? I have seen some other disgruntled users, but

nothing like I would expect with such a blatantly strange and

disfunctional "upgrade".

This, couple with the fact that you have to convert all of your old

files with a user interactive dialogue box is infuriating.

Scott

[rogermax]

I complained heavily on this. After running the updater, the issue was completely gone for me. It appears that others have not seen the dramatic difference that I did. Don't what to suggest, but that has been my experience.

[Oldfogey]

Scott, Are you using W2k? I have checked out the posters who are now happy with the font display and they all seem to be XP users.

I use W2K and the converted results are unusable.

[Scott Gius]

Thank you Paul J. and Roger for your feedback.

I have used the update on both my home W2k sys and my office XP sys and the results appear to be the same. I am just astounded that Filemaker would issue this release with what certainly appears to be such a glaring flaw. My perfectly clear screen font displays from FM6 are totally problematic in 7 and no other upgrade from FM ever had such a problem.

I am going to continue looking for info and posting any suggested fixes. The feedback from one user about switching to Tahoma had no positive effect for me.In essence, this release is unusable for me until I figure out how to fix this or Filemaker releases a patch that really does work. What is so surprising to me is that they could issue a release with this significant problem.

Scott

[Scott Gius]

In toying around with this some more I found a workaround but it involves re-configuring all of my reports and layouts, a solution I find maddening at best. The workaround to achieve the same resolution I need is to change the screen magnification and reduce the font size. The reports in question were at Arial 14 with 75% zoom which I found to be perfect for displaying the data I needed on screen to achieve the maximum use of real estate.

Switching to Arial 10 at 100% zoom achieves a similar result, but this of course means I will have to redo all of my layouts on all the affected reports, which is quite numerous. If this is the only solution then I find it to be one of the most maddening and unacceptable software upgrades I've experienced in quite some time, and I partake of many programs and upgrades in both my personal and business life.

I have been dealing with this only for a couple of days, but I certainly am motivated to complain to Filemaker. I have been one of their biggest supporters of their products for many years, but this situation makes it very tough to remain a fan.

Scott

[Toni]

I did apply the update today, and I have to say a minimal improvement which is near to nothing. I'm using Win2K, later on this day I'll try the update on my PC at home which is a WinXP and see if something changes.

I do have this problem only in the preview mode with both FM 7.0v1 and FM 7.0v2, on the browse mode it is perfect even when I go at 400%.

It's not that good really. It got to be fixed!

[Toni]

I've tried the update on WinXP and still the problem isn't fixed.

Are we missing something in here? It looks like this upgrade has worked for others.

[The Shadow]

The update didn't fix the preview mode problem (it appears to be using bitmaps) - just the Browse mode at 100%.

[kanaric (John)]

I understand this to be a WYSIWYG issue. The people at filemaker wanted to show on your screen what would be printed out, not something that is close. So this is what they did: changed the font upscaleing and down scaleing (aka makeing a ariel 10 point font show ariel 15 point at 150%) TO showing the font and then multiplying / dividing the pixels and then attempting to antialias them. This has always looked like hell under windows. XP / 2000 whatever, only under unix / macs will this look ok due to the way windows shows a zoomed AAed font. The easy fix for this is show everything at 100%. After updateing to V7.02 that is.

Good luck

John

[mirkovonberner]

Unusable on a Mac OSX 10.3.5, jaggy, very jaggy even 7.0.2

[Ender]

In OS X, you should check in System Preferences->Appearance , make sure the "Turn off text smoothing for font sizes..." is set to 8 or lower. Fonts don't behave well in FM7 if font smoothing is not used.

[JMP]

Windows 2000 Filemaker 7.0v2 8 and 9 point Arial font looks very bad at any zoom level including 100% in preview mode though changing Edit/Preferences/General/Font smoothing style to "Smooth,light" made some improvements.

[Han]

Hallo all and thank you for your discussion.

I'm get this problem also. in preview mode the Arial font or other font with font size 7 or 8 when i zoom 150% font looks very bad. i have tried your solution, but font still looks very bad. I experiment with Win2000, WinXp, Filemaker pro 7.v2, filemaker developer 7.v2, can you help me ?

[tsidel]

We just upgraded from FM 5 to FM 7 and we are experiencing the jagged font problem on os x - panther - and we have Turned off text smoothing for font sizes..." set to 8 or lower.... Any suggestions?

[Ender]

Have you updated to 7v3?

[tsidel]

I just downloaded the update.. However, in doing so, I have realized that what we do have installed is 7.0v3.. so appearantly we are updated. (we just purchased FM 7 a couple of weeks ago). Any other suggestions?

[Han]

Hallo All,

Thank you for your solution, i have installed v3 and updated. now after running the updater, the issue was completely gone for me.

thank you all

[Leader]

John Kanaric's explanation is fascinating, FM's trying to correct for Microsoft's notorious font rendering problems and making them worse. Agh.

When I switched to FMP 7.0.0 on XP, perhaps I was lucky, but I had not seen display problems in the first couple of versions or the last one. Our most annoying problem was the wide variation of how MS fonts printed between W95, W98, WME, W2K, WXP, and all the myriad of printers wanting to do things their own way.

[Leader]

John Kanaric's explanation is fascinating, FM's trying to correct for Microsoft's notorious font rendering problems and making them worse. Agh.

When I switched to FMP 7.0.0 on XP, perhaps I was lucky, but I had not seen display problems in the first couple of versions or the last one. Our most annoying problem was the wide variation of how MS fonts printed between W95, W98, WME, W2K, WXP, and all the myriad of printers wanting to do things their own way.

[Leader]

John Kanaric's explanation is fascinating, FM's trying to correct for Microsoft's notorious font rendering problems and making them worse. Agh.

When I switched to FMP 7.0.0 on XP, perhaps I was lucky, but I had not seen display problems in the first couple of versions or the last one. Our most annoying problem was the wide variation of how MS fonts printed between W95, W98, WME, W2K, WXP, and all the myriad of printers wanting to do things their own way.

[lmead]

I am using OS X 10.3.9 and FMP 7.0v3. I have a letter that I am archiving to another file by using Preview and Copy, then the image is pasted into a container field. The original layout and the container field are both set to a full 8 X 10 page. I have the container graphic set to "Enlarge" and "Maintain Original Proportions", and "Align Top and Left". It looks fine on screen but is VERY fuzzy when printed. On a PC, the letter looks fuzzy both on screen and when printed.

[comment]

This is not a font issue. In version 7, when you use Copy in Preview mode, you get a bitmap image of the page (unlike previous versions, where the result was a vector image). IOW, the resolution is fixed at Mac's native display resolution of 72 dpi - while at least 300 dpi is needed for decent printing.

When viewed on a Mac's screen, the image looks just as it looked in Preview. However, the native resolution of Windows is 96 dpi, so it will look fuzzy on a PC screen.

In theory, at least, you could zoom in to 400% before using Copy. Then, if you can print the result at quarter size, you will have a resolution of 288 dpi.

In addition, archiving letters as images is extremely inefficient. In terms of data storage, one picture is worth many times a thousand words.