Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
Fonts have natural margins that vary widely. A decorative or cursive font may have ascenders and descenders much higher and lower than a book typeface. That means the leading between the lines needs to be larger. I use display font for the labels for my forms, called Verdana has an automatic 16 point margin at 14 point font size, even though there is nothing about the font itself requiring it! It's just how the font is done. Bob S > On Feb 3, 2018, at 09:12 , Ralph DiMola via use-livecode > wrote: > > David, > > Nice I've been wrestling with this. I am going to see how your > observations translate into mobile. I'm going to apply your of findings to my > app and see if I get better results than I get now. There have been a few > threads in the past few years addressing vertically centering text in a > field. None of them seem to address all font size cases. This 6px thingy > might explain a lot! > > Thanks again for all your work. > > Ralph DiMola > IT Director > Evergreen Information Services > rdim...@evergreeninfo.net > > -Original Message- > From: use-livecode [mailto:use-livecode-boun...@lists.runrev.com] On Behalf > Of David Epstein via use-livecode > Sent: Friday, February 02, 2018 9:38 PM > To: use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Cc: David Epstein > Subject: Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents > > Thanks for the responses on this. I used Bernd’s tool and did some more > tests, and found some things that may be helpful to others. > > While the left and right margins of a field are meant literally (a 5 pixel > left margin leaves 5 white pixels to the left of the text), the top margin is > more complicated, no doubt owing to the variety of textHeights that need to > be accommodated. For example, a margin of "0" will often clip the top of the > text--as if "0" meant a "negative margin". > > 6 seems to be a magic default value for a field's top margin, which avoids > clipping the content. With horizontal gridlines visible, a 6 pixel buffer > makes the top row the same height as the other rows. And with a 6 pixel > buffer the formattedHeight of the field will exactly match the > formattedHeight of the field's content (although a non-zero borderwidth or a > horizontal scrollbar changes this). > > Thus--what I wondered about in my original post--with a margin less than 6 > the formattedHeight of the field is less than the formattedHeight of the > content; the content is in effect clipped. At smaller textHeights this will > be visible, while at larger textHeights only white space above the characters > is clipped. > > I was trying to answer two questions, and I think I'm pretty close. > > 1. How do I make sure that the field's contents are all visible if I set the > field's height to the formattedHeight? Answer: Set the top and bottom > margins to 6. For the left and right margins, even 1 pixel should be enough > to keep everything visible. > > 2. What margins will provide a symmetrical look for a text box? > A top margin of 6 doesn’t look like a 6 pixel margin; how it looks depends on > the textHeight. I estimate that its apparent height is one fourth of the > effective textHeight, and I use this to size the other margins in the > “tightMargins” handler below. > While the top margin of 6 looks good with horizontal gridlines, without them > (and especially if you show a text baseline) it looks too small compared to > the space between subsequent lines. To match that larger space, in effect > doubling the apparent top margin, add one third of the effective textHeight. > See “niceMargins” handler below. > > Example of usage: > set the margins of fld 1 to the niceMargins of fld 1 set the height of fld 1 > to the formattedHeight of fld 1 > > getProp niceMargins > put the effective textHeight of the target into t > put round(t*7/12) into m1 > put round(t/3) into m2 > return m1,6+m2,m1,m1 > end niceMargins > > getProp tightMargins > put round(.25*the effective textHeight of the target) into m > return m,6,m,max(6,m) > end tightMargins > > Improvements to these are welcomed. > > David Epstein > > > ___ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > > > ___ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
RE: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
David, Nice I've been wrestling with this. I am going to see how your observations translate into mobile. I'm going to apply your of findings to my app and see if I get better results than I get now. There have been a few threads in the past few years addressing vertically centering text in a field. None of them seem to address all font size cases. This 6px thingy might explain a lot! Thanks again for all your work. Ralph DiMola IT Director Evergreen Information Services rdim...@evergreeninfo.net -Original Message- From: use-livecode [mailto:use-livecode-boun...@lists.runrev.com] On Behalf Of David Epstein via use-livecode Sent: Friday, February 02, 2018 9:38 PM To: use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Cc: David Epstein Subject: Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents Thanks for the responses on this. I used Bernd’s tool and did some more tests, and found some things that may be helpful to others. While the left and right margins of a field are meant literally (a 5 pixel left margin leaves 5 white pixels to the left of the text), the top margin is more complicated, no doubt owing to the variety of textHeights that need to be accommodated. For example, a margin of "0" will often clip the top of the text--as if "0" meant a "negative margin". 6 seems to be a magic default value for a field's top margin, which avoids clipping the content. With horizontal gridlines visible, a 6 pixel buffer makes the top row the same height as the other rows. And with a 6 pixel buffer the formattedHeight of the field will exactly match the formattedHeight of the field's content (although a non-zero borderwidth or a horizontal scrollbar changes this). Thus--what I wondered about in my original post--with a margin less than 6 the formattedHeight of the field is less than the formattedHeight of the content; the content is in effect clipped. At smaller textHeights this will be visible, while at larger textHeights only white space above the characters is clipped. I was trying to answer two questions, and I think I'm pretty close. 1. How do I make sure that the field's contents are all visible if I set the field's height to the formattedHeight? Answer: Set the top and bottom margins to 6. For the left and right margins, even 1 pixel should be enough to keep everything visible. 2. What margins will provide a symmetrical look for a text box? A top margin of 6 doesn’t look like a 6 pixel margin; how it looks depends on the textHeight. I estimate that its apparent height is one fourth of the effective textHeight, and I use this to size the other margins in the “tightMargins” handler below. While the top margin of 6 looks good with horizontal gridlines, without them (and especially if you show a text baseline) it looks too small compared to the space between subsequent lines. To match that larger space, in effect doubling the apparent top margin, add one third of the effective textHeight. See “niceMargins” handler below. Example of usage: set the margins of fld 1 to the niceMargins of fld 1 set the height of fld 1 to the formattedHeight of fld 1 getProp niceMargins put the effective textHeight of the target into t put round(t*7/12) into m1 put round(t/3) into m2 return m1,6+m2,m1,m1 end niceMargins getProp tightMargins put round(.25*the effective textHeight of the target) into m return m,6,m,max(6,m) end tightMargins Improvements to these are welcomed. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
Thanks for the responses on this. I used Bernd’s tool and did some more tests, and found some things that may be helpful to others. While the left and right margins of a field are meant literally (a 5 pixel left margin leaves 5 white pixels to the left of the text), the top margin is more complicated, no doubt owing to the variety of textHeights that need to be accommodated. For example, a margin of "0" will often clip the top of the text--as if "0" meant a "negative margin". 6 seems to be a magic default value for a field's top margin, which avoids clipping the content. With horizontal gridlines visible, a 6 pixel buffer makes the top row the same height as the other rows. And with a 6 pixel buffer the formattedHeight of the field will exactly match the formattedHeight of the field's content (although a non-zero borderwidth or a horizontal scrollbar changes this). Thus--what I wondered about in my original post--with a margin less than 6 the formattedHeight of the field is less than the formattedHeight of the content; the content is in effect clipped. At smaller textHeights this will be visible, while at larger textHeights only white space above the characters is clipped. I was trying to answer two questions, and I think I'm pretty close. 1. How do I make sure that the field's contents are all visible if I set the field's height to the formattedHeight? Answer: Set the top and bottom margins to 6. For the left and right margins, even 1 pixel should be enough to keep everything visible. 2. What margins will provide a symmetrical look for a text box? A top margin of 6 doesn’t look like a 6 pixel margin; how it looks depends on the textHeight. I estimate that its apparent height is one fourth of the effective textHeight, and I use this to size the other margins in the “tightMargins” handler below. While the top margin of 6 looks good with horizontal gridlines, without them (and especially if you show a text baseline) it looks too small compared to the space between subsequent lines. To match that larger space, in effect doubling the apparent top margin, add one third of the effective textHeight. See “niceMargins” handler below. Example of usage: set the margins of fld 1 to the niceMargins of fld 1 set the height of fld 1 to the formattedHeight of fld 1 getProp niceMargins put the effective textHeight of the target into t put round(t*7/12) into m1 put round(t/3) into m2 return m1,6+m2,m1,m1 end niceMargins getProp tightMargins put round(.25*the effective textHeight of the target) into m return m,6,m,max(6,m) end tightMargins Improvements to these are welcomed. David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
What version of LiveCode on what platform are you trying this on? There have been a number of bugs related to object geometry calculations, including fields, over the years, found and fixed in various releases of LC. Some were platform and version of OS specific. On 1/31/2018 8:31 PM, David Epstein via use-livecode wrote: > Is there somewhere an explanation of how a field’s textSize, borderWidth, > margins, and formattedHeight interact? > > According to the dictionary entry for “formattedHeight”, a field’s > formattedHeight is calculated “including top and bottom margins”, while the > formattedHeight of a chunk is calculated “disregarding margins.” > > That does not seem consistent with these results for a field whose textSize > is 16 and whose margin is 4: > > the formattedHeight of line 1 of fld 1 19 > the formattedHeight of line 1 to 2 of fld 1 38 > the formattedHeight of fld 1 15 if there’s one > line of text > the formattedHeight of fld 1 34 if there are > two lines of text. > > Even though there are top and bottom margins of 4, the field’s > formattedHeight is smaller, rather than larger, than the formattedHeight of > its contents. > > A perhaps related question: Why does a field margin of zero clip the visible > text at the top and left? > > Many thanks. > > David Epstein > ___ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
I get 14 for line 1 and 22 for the field. Put that in your smipe and poke it! ;-) Bob S > On Jan 31, 2018, at 17:31 , David Epstein via use-livecode > wrote: > > Is there somewhere an explanation of how a field’s textSize, borderWidth, > margins, and formattedHeight interact? > > According to the dictionary entry for “formattedHeight”, a field’s > formattedHeight is calculated “including top and bottom margins”, while the > formattedHeight of a chunk is calculated “disregarding margins.” > > That does not seem consistent with these results for a field whose textSize > is 16 and whose margin is 4: > > the formattedHeight of line 1 of fld 1 19 > the formattedHeight of line 1 to 2 of fld 1 38 > the formattedHeight of fld 1 15 if there’s one > line of text > the formattedHeight of fld 1 34 if there are > two lines of text. > > Even though there are top and bottom margins of 4, the field’s > formattedHeight is smaller, rather than larger, than the formattedHeight of > its contents. > > A perhaps related question: Why does a field margin of zero clip the visible > text at the top and left? > > Many thanks. > > David Epstein ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
Re: FormattedHeight of a field and its contents
Hi David, have a look at http://berndniggemann.on-rev.com/margins/marginsapp.livecode.zip It does not explain why but shows what influences the formattedHeight of a field when changing margins, border size, scrollbars, text height etc. Kind regards Bernd -- Sent from: http://runtime-revolution.278305.n4.nabble.com/Revolution-User-f278306.html ___ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode