Fonts problem

[mike-in-nc]

Hi,

I am looking for a good launchbar, and this may be the one.  I am trying it out.  I notice that the dialogs do not display well when Windowx (XP SP2) is set to Large Fonts.  I am over 50 & use high-resolution monitors, and using large fonts is a must for me.

See the screen capture, attached.

Regards,
...Mike

[jgpaiva]

Hi mike-in-nc! Welcome to DC.
I hope launchbar commander will suit your needs.
About the dialogs appearing funny with large fonts, it's a known problem with all of mouser's programs.
I think it's the tool mouser uses to make GUIs that has that problem with non-standard font sizes. You're not the first to complaint about it, let's hope it gets fixed!

In the meanwhile... Enjoy the program

[mike-in-nc]

jgpaiva,

Thanks for the comments.  I hope that, soon, developers will stop thinking of Large Fonts as "nonstandard." They have been available as a standard option in Windows for at least 10 years, probably more.  They are necessary for anyone who is using a high-res monitor unless their eyes are perfect.  Mine aren't!

I expect not to continue evaluating this program or other software by Mouser.  Too bad for me, it looks interesting.  However, since the fonts issue is known but has not been fixed, I would guess the probability of a fix is close to zero.  I gave up using programs that have this problem, because sooner or later, a dialog will come up with a critical part cut off and then I'll be stuck. Fortunately, most developers have become aware of the need to test under different resolutions and font settings, and this issue (at least in my experience) is now rather uncommon.

Regards,
...Mike

[jgpaiva]

I'm sorry, i'm not a native english speaker and didn't mean it's not normal to have bigger font sizes. What i meant was to say it's non-default, not non-standard.
I'm very sorry to hear you say that, as this problem really isn't the developer's fault.

[mike-in-nc]

Hi JGPaiva,

Thanks again.  I understand your points.  I wish that LaunchBar Commander would display correctly on my computer.  I am using "Route 1" for a launch bar now, which is good, but I was looking for more flexibility.

It seems that Mouser's target audience excludes anyone who changes settings on their computer.  That is Mouser's right to choose.  However, I think it's better to design programs that don't require default settings on a computer.  No developer can expect to control everything the user does.

This really was a problem (say 20 years ago), when programs demanded to be installed in certain directories, or demanded to have drive "C" be your boot drive, or when programs installed their own hotkeys that could not be turned off, or more recently, when programs were constantly installing their own junk into Windows directories.  What a mess!  Fortunately, things have improved, and developers have begun to show respect for the user.

I have another program that uses the active titlebar text color as the background for a dialog.  Ouch!  That color defaults to white in most Windows schemes, but in mine, it's dark blue.  Unfortunately, the developer didn't choose the corresponding (active titlebar background color) for his text, which would have made it legible.  Instead, he hardwired the text to be in black.  Why put unnecessary limitations on the configurations that can use your software?

OK, enough of my philosophy!  Nice talking to you, and maybe we'll cross paths again somewhere.

Best wishes,
...Mike

P.S.  I never would have guessed that your native language is not English -- your English is excellent.  I am afraid that, like many North Americans, my foreign languages are poor.  I have a little Spanish, but no (and I guess) Portuguese nor French.

[mouser]

mike - i completely understand your position.

please understand that i am not one of those developers who says, well because only a small percentage of people need a certain feature i will ignore.  the large font issue has come up several times before and it makes me very mad that it is so hard to fix properly(!).  one of the few areas that c++ builder really falls on its face. i have tried to fix it in the past and indeed i can make things a bit better but not solve it perfectly.

part of the problem is that my own personal aesthetics are for nice tight options without much blank space, which is part of what causes the problem.  maybe i should just give this up and use lots of blank space for option dialogs.

i have not given up on fixing this problem and i hope you will keep your eye open for when i do; it's just proven painfull enough that it's one of those things i tend to put in the back of my mind and plan to revisit when i stumble upon a good solution..

[mike-in-nc]

please understand that i am not one of those developers who says, well because only a small percentage of people need a certain feature i will ignore.   ...
part of the problem is that my own personal aesthetics are for nice tight options without much blank space, which is part of what causes the problem.  maybe i should just give this up and use lots of blank space for option dialogs.

-mouser (November 04, 2006, 09:32 AM)

Mouser,

I'll take a look in a few months and see what you might have come up with.  I realize this is not trivial, and most of my programs (specialized for science) don't even attempt a GUI because it is a huge time sink.  However, my limited experience writing GUIs suggests that the only solution is been to leave more space (as you say) and then test repeatedly at several resolutions.  With larger fonts, text *does* take more space, no matter how that is measured (pixels, proportion, etc.).

Thanks for the reply, and best wishes,

...Mike

[mike-in-nc]

Mouser,

An interesting possibility is "elastic form"

http://home.flash.net/~qsystems/

but I suspect you are already aware of that.  Unfortunately, it costs $$ (35).

Regards,
...Mike

[mouser]

i do know about that and some others.. i might try them out again.. delphi and c++ builder actually have fairly nice resizing stuff, just not well suited to solving the large font issues.

what irks me is i'd think at the very least it would be possible to easily say: "don't use large fonts for this form" even if OS is set to default to large fonts.  that wouldn't by ideal for you large font lovers but at least it would make the forms usable.  maybe i just need to hunt around more for a way to do this programmatically..

[mike-in-nc]

"don't use large fonts for this form"

-mouser (November 04, 2006, 11:16 AM)

One approach, but not one I could cheer about.  I use large fonts because I can't comfortably read the itty-bitty ones.

M