Mac vs. PC

[Steverino]

My database looks beautiful on my Mac, but not so great on a PC -- the fonts don't look at all professional, and the graphics created within FM look coarse and amateurish.

I thought I could maybe get some improvement by changing the font smoothing on the PC, but I didn't notice any difference.

Any advice? Or will I always have this issue with PCs?

[Fenton]

What fonts? It is true that Macs have more smoothing, which is a mixed blessing.

[Steverino]

Tahoma. But it's not just fonts -- it's also layout objects. Here are some small examples --

First on a PC, then on a Mac. Notice that it isn't just the font, it's also some of the layout objects.

[grumbachr]

I have some similar issues and have tried to do something on my own to make things look good on both platforms but so far I have no "rules" that seem to help.

I'd love to hear what others have to say on this topic.

An example of my current frustration are some graphic elements that I'm using to create headers (1 pixel wide stretched). They are showing up fine in Browse mode on both platforms but in Preview mode they have an odd fade on the PC.

[Fenton]

I'm mostly on a Mac, but have noticed much the same. I just went into PC mode (using Parallels Desktop).* In Control Panels > Displays > Appearance > Effects, I changed the font smoothing from Standard to Clear Type. It made the fonts smoother in FileMaker, nearly equivalent to the Mac (actually better, less fuzzy).

Of course, you'd have to tell all your users to do that. And it likely requires a bit more processing, video card or something. Looks better though.

*So I'm still on the same Mac, same video card. But Clear Type does make quite a difference.

[Steverino]

Thanks, I'll try it.

Edited August 23, 2007 by Guest

[Fenton]

Yes. I said where to do it in my post. I think you'll find it. I haven't got Windows XP running right now (and it takes so darn long to run through all its little tests).

[Steverino]

Tried it, and it still doesn't match the quality of the display on a Mac. (I can post the examples, if you insist.)

[Steverino]

FYI -- the graphics and fonts with Vista are almost on a par with those of the Mac operating systems.

[Fancytricks]

Hi There, we are a company (sohnar.co.uk) and have a system which manages design companies.

The cross platform issue is a big thing, however after spending a year on this I have some solutions:

Use font: VERDANA (10pt) best font for cross platform.

Font Smoothing: www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

thanks, Kyle

[MogensBrun]

Hi,

Today I found another way of selecting font on Win and Mac platforms. Lets suppose we want to use Lucida Grande as standard for (most) fields and field labels on Mac while we want the file to display the same fields and labels in Tahoma or Segoe UI on Windows. This goal would actually give better design freedom than being forced to use a font, which happens to work on both platforms. The mentioned fonts are optimized to either platform (Ludida Grade is the prefered Leopar font, Tahoma is the preferred XP font and Segoe UI is the preferred Vista font).

If we develop on Macintosh we just have to specify Lucida Grande for our set of fields and labels. When we open the file on the Windows platform this fields and labels will be shown with "unknown" font. Never the less a font is applied, and that font is specified in Preferences/Fonts/Specify Font when you select "Roman" input type. To get Lucida Grande (or other or the platform "unknown" fonts) to be displayed in Tahoma, you only need to select it as the "Western" (same as "Roman" on Mac) input type on the Windows platform.

The same file has separate settings for input type for Win and Mac, so you can otherwise create fields and labels on Win with Segoe UI as font, and get it displayed in Lucida Grande on Mac if you similar select Lucida Grande here as the Roman input type.

Note: In a newly created file the default font used for fields and labels will always be the font defined in Preferences to be used for Roman/Western input type.

Conslusion: Platform specific font selection can be performed between one ( and only one) font to another font on the other platform - if the first font is “unknown” to the other platform. And vice versa.

The drawback is of course that some fields and labels will show "unknown" font on the "other" platform, but as long the developer knows the rule it should have no practical consequences for the users.

Note about Tahoma on Win: If you create a file on Win and selects Tahoma as main font, you can't get that converted to Lucida Grande on Mac, because Tahoma is a known font here. So if you want a change between Lucida Grande and Tahoma you must definitively develop on Mac.

Mogens Brun

FMintegrator

[comment]

Unless I am missing something, these are application preferences, not file settings. You can format a field to show in Lucida Grande while developing on a Mac, but you have no control over the default font of a Windows platform your file ends up on.

Of course, in version 9 you can use conditional formatting - but you still need to have the alternative font installed in order to select it.