I personally work on a Windows XP 1600x1050 laptop, therefore I know how
painful is using tiny fonts. Here's what I did:
* I changed the windows setup to use large fonts because without this
the menu, buttons, etc, fonts were much to small for any application,
not only XXE.
* I used Options|Options, Style Tab and changed to default font size
from 12pt to 14pt.
* I used Options|Options, Style Tab and changed the Monospaced font from
Monospaced (it seems to be an alias for "Courier New" on Windows) to
"Lucida Console".
After this, I got a usable XXE.
The fact that 12pt is rendered like 9pt fonts in native Windows
applications is something controlled by the Java runtime , not by us.
Therefore it is not easy to improve this situation.
Manuel Collado wrote:
> In Windows (NT/200/XP at least) screen fonts seem not to be scaled
> properly. The default font size (12pt) is rendered like 9pt fonts in
> native Windows applications.
>
> The nasty effect is that similar characters (numeral '1' vs. lowercase
> 'l' and numeral '0' vs. uppercase 'O') are undistinguishable in the
> default monospace font (apparently Courier New).
>
> Perhaps my experience is just another Murphy's Law anecdote, but the
> fact is that I found an (apparently) duplicate in a list of
> abbreviations ('lst' for 'listing' and '1st' for 'first') in some
> document, deleted one of them, found my data wrong, and spent a lot of
> time figuring out what I did wrong, and diagnosing the problem.
>
> Probably the discrepancy in scaling is due to a discrepancy in the
> assumed screen resolution. The Windows default is 96 dpi. XXE perhaps
> assumes 72-75 dpi.
>
> A suggestion would be to assume 96 dpi as the default screen resolution
> (and reduce the default font size to 10pt to preserve appearance) or to
> increase the default font size to 13pt (that is rendered like 10pt in
> native Windows applications). A 10pt Courier New scaled to 96 dpi is the
> smallest size that gives a (minimum) visual distinction between the
> mentioned similar character pairs.
>
> Please find attached sample files to test the fonts appearance.
>
> Hope this would help others.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> * {
> display: block;
> font-family: monospace;
> }
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> * {
> display: block;
> font-family: sans-serif;
> }
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> * {
> display: block;
> font-family: serif;
> }
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="monospace.css"?>
> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="serif.css"?>
> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="sans-serif.css"?>
> <text>
> <line>1l1l1l1l1l1l1l1l</line>
> <line>0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O</line>
> <line>8B8B8B8B8B8B8B8B</line>
> </text>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> --
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> xmleditor-support at xmlmind.com
> http://www.xmlmind.com/mailman/listinfo/xmleditor-support
--
Hussein SHAFIE, hussein at pixware.fr,
Pixware, Immeuble Capricorne, 23 rue Colbert,
78180 Montigny Le Bretonneux, France,
Phone: +33 (0)1 30 60 07 00, Fax: +33 (0)1 30 96 05 23
