Big ugly font difference between QB64 v1.4 and QB64 1.5 (and QB64 v2.0)

[bplus]

I had a calendar making program spaced just right with Windows Font something happened when I went to make calendars for this year using QB64 v2.0, it turns out the Font change occurred in QB64 v1.5 just never caught it because was not working with fonts for awhile.

Something happened that stretches the f o n t  a l o n g  t h e  x - a x i s ??
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The upper is the look from QB64 v 1.5 and v 2.0

The lower is the look from QB64 v 1.4 (I had changed form arial rounded bold to just arial to make sure it wasn't just the one font acting different.

I also noticed this "spread out look" trying different fonts in the Crypt-O-Gram variations and had to stick with the default because it was spreading out so wide across the screen.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

Looks to me like one is monospaced and one isn't

[bplus]

Same exact code printed both those images just that one was done in QB64 v 1.4 and the other QB64 v1.5.

[bplus]

This is the start of the program with the font loading:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. CONST XMAX = 1100
2. CONST YMAX = 700
3. CONST tMar = 40 'top margin allows room for 3 hole binder punch on top (landscape orientation) or left side (portrait orientation)
4. CONST sideMar = 10
5. SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(XMAX, YMAX, 32)
6. _SCREENMOVE 100, 0
7. DIM dayNames$(0 TO 6), monthNames$(1 TO 12), monthDays(1 TO 12) AS INTEGER
8. FOR i = 0 TO 6: READ dayNames$(i): NEXT
9. DATA "Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday"
10. FOR i = 1 TO 12: READ monthNames$(i): NEXT
11. DATA "January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"
12. FOR i = 1 TO 12: READ monthDays(i): NEXT
13. DATA 31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31
14.  
15. ' this loads and checks fonts (Windows 10)
16. DIM SHARED FH, CH, CW, FH2, CH2, CW2
17. FH = _LOADFONT("Arial.ttf", 24, "MONOSPACE")
18. IF FH <= 0 THEN PRINT "Trouble with font load file, goodbye.": SLEEP: END
19. CH = _FONTHEIGHT(FH): CW = CH * .6 'this make printing char by char the same as printing a string for ARLRDBD.ttf
20. _FONT FH
21. 'test font, in box? for 5 above 5 below height = 30
22. 'Line (5, 5)-Step(CW * Len(monthNames$(1) + Str$(2018)), 30), , B
23. '_PrintString (10, 10), monthNames$(1) + Str$(2018)
24.  
25. FH2 = _LOADFONT("Arial.ttf", 18, "MONOSPACE")
26. IF FH2 <= 0 THEN PRINT "Trouble with font load file, goodbye.": SLEEP: END
27. CH2 = _FONTHEIGHT(FH2): CW2 = CH2 * .25 'this make printing char by char the same as printing a string for ARLRDBD.ttf
28. _FONT FH2
29. 'Line (5, 45)-Step(CW2 * Len("testing smaller font 1, 2, 3, 31"), 25), , B
30. '_PrintString (10, 50), "testing smaller font 1, 2, 3, 31"
31.  
32. y = 2022 '<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< update for 2021
33. DIM EasterMonth AS INTEGER, EasterDay AS INTEGER
34. Easter y, EasterMonth, EasterDay
35. 'PRINT EasterMonth, EasterDay, CH2
36. 'END
37.  

hmm looks like I set CW2 wrong but that does not make a difference to how wide it's printing.

[bplus]

Here is a simplified example to see it clearly:

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[Pete]

I got bit with some similar "font" bug earlier, in my Wheel of Fortune spoof. I ran perfectly in V2.0 and 1.5 but did not pick up _FONTWIDTH, _FONTHEIGHT the same in 1.3 and 1.4.

Pete

[SMcNeill]

Here is a simplified example to see it clearly:

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Looks like an obvious bug fix to me.

The left one isn't monospaced.  Those 2 "l" use up less screenspace than the single "H" does.The one on the right is spacing everything the same width as that "W", which *does* make it monospaced.

If that's not what you're wanting then remove "MONOSPACE" from the load parameters for _LOADFONT".

[FellippeHeitor]

It indeed looks like loading monospaced fonts does work as expected beginning with v1.5.

@bplus as Steve said, removing “monospaced” should give you the results you expected.

[SMcNeill]

I got bit with some similar "font" bug earlier, in my Wheel of Fortune spoof. I ran perfectly in V2.0 and 1.5 but did not pick up _FONTWIDTH, _FONTHEIGHT the same in 1.3 and 1.4.

Pete

Probably the same issue.  From the screenshots, it's obvious there was a bug fix introduced into the source.  Before 1.5, that "MONOSPACE" wasn't auto-spacing fonts at all. 

Run this as a print under Bplus's "Hello World" code.

PRINT "HWHW".
PRINT "llll".

If the fonts are monospaced, both outputs should use the same screen width.  In 1.5, they do.  Before that, they're bugged.

HWHW
llll

Vs.

HWHW
llll

[Pete]

Here's how I experienced the bug. I cut away non-essential code. In 1.5 up , it displays the _FONTWIDTH correctly, as 36. In 1.4 and 1.4, it displays 0, which is incorrect.

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. DIM SHARED overlay
2. _SCREENMOVE _MIDDLE
3.  
4. Screen0 = _NEWIMAGE(80, 25, 0)
5. SCREEN Screen0
6.  
7. font = _LOADFONT("lucon.ttf", 60, "monospace")
8. IF font <= 0 THEN font = 16
9.  
10. overlay = _NEWIMAGE(_WIDTH * _FONTWIDTH, _HEIGHT * _FONTHEIGHT, 32)
11. _DEST overlay
12. _FONT font
13. COLOR _RGB(255, 102, 0), 0
14.  
15.  
16. y = 1: x = 1
17. COLOR _RGB(255, 255, 255)
18. t$ = "I'd like to solve the puzzle, please!"
19. PSL y, x, t$
20. SLEEP
21.  
22. _FONT 16
23. _FREEFONT font
24. _FREEIMAGE overlay
25.  
26. _DEST 0
27. _DELAY .66
28.  
29. SYSTEM
30.  
31.  
32. SUB PSL (y, x, t$)
33.     t$ = LTRIM$(STR$(_FONTWIDTH))
34.     _PRINTSTRING ((x - 1) * _FONTWIDTH, (y - 1) * _FONTHEIGHT), t$
35.     overlay_hardware = _COPYIMAGE(overlay, 33)
36.     _PUTIMAGE (0, 0), overlay_hardware
37.     _DISPLAY
38. END SUB
39.  

Pete

[bplus]

It indeed looks like loading monospaced fonts does work as expected beginning with v1.5.

@bplus as Steve said, removing “monospaced” should give you the results you expected.

Thanks guys. Guess I am living in past. I remember "MONOSPACE" was required for .ttf, at one time. I do like a consistent width for characters but not the same as Height, yikes! it even looks more than that to me.

But now how can I get consistent width about .5 the height of a character? Like the default font, very easy to use and predict it's length, no matter the string, and looks normally spaced.

[SMcNeill]

Here's how I experienced the bug. I cut away non-essential code. In 1.5 up , it displays the _FONTWIDTH correctly, as 36. In 1.4 and 1.4, it displays 0, which is incorrect.

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. DIM SHARED overlay
2. _SCREENMOVE _MIDDLE
3.  
4. Screen0 = _NEWIMAGE(80, 25, 0)
5. SCREEN Screen0
6.  
7. font = _LOADFONT("lucon.ttf", 60, "monospace")
8. IF font <= 0 THEN font = 16
9.  
10. overlay = _NEWIMAGE(_WIDTH * _FONTWIDTH, _HEIGHT * _FONTHEIGHT, 32)
11. _DEST overlay
12. _FONT font
13. COLOR _RGB(255, 102, 0), 0
14.  
15.  
16. y = 1: x = 1
17. COLOR _RGB(255, 255, 255)
18. t$ = "I'd like to solve the puzzle, please!"
19. PSL y, x, t$
20. SLEEP
21.  
22. _FONT 16
23. _FREEFONT font
24. _FREEIMAGE overlay
25.  
26. _DEST 0
27. _DELAY .66
28.  
29. SYSTEM
30.  
31.  
32. SUB PSL (y, x, t$)
33.     t$ = LTRIM$(STR$(_FONTWIDTH))
34.     _PRINTSTRING ((x - 1) * _FONTWIDTH, (y - 1) * _FONTHEIGHT), t$
35.     overlay_hardware = _COPYIMAGE(overlay, 33)
36.     _PUTIMAGE (0, 0), overlay_hardware
37.     _DISPLAY
38. END SUB
39.  

Pete

0 is correct-- that's the result you get when the font is not loaded using MONOSPACE.

Since momospace was broken prior to v1.5, so that it didn't actually load and make fonts monospaced, then a 0 for fontwidth is the expected, and correct, result. 

V1.5 fixed the issue with loading monospace fonts, so that value will obviously change to reflect that for you.

[SMcNeill]

Thanks guys. Guess I am living in past. I remember "MONOSPACE" was required for .ttf, at one time. I do like a consistent width for characters but not the same as Height, yikes! it even looks more than that to me.

But now how can I get consistent width about .5 the height of a character? Like the default font, very easy to use and predict it's length, no matter the string, and looks normally spaced.

It's not the same as height-- it sets it so each character has the same WIDTH.  Look at the width of the "W" on your screenshot and then look at the width of those "l"s.  Even from the beginning, everything had the same height (you specified it with the 24 in the second parameter), but the widths were inconsistent.

[SMcNeill]

Notice the difference in the widths in the same font here, once loaded with monospace and once without:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. Screen _NewImage(1280, 1024, 32)
2. t$ = "Hello World"
3. For i = 0 To 10
4.     text$(i) = Mid$(t$, i + 1, 1)
5. Next
6.  
7.  
8. FH = _LoadFont("Arial.ttf", 24)
9. _Font FH
10. For i = 0 To 10
11.     Locate i + 1, 1: Print text$(i); text$(i), _PrintWidth(text$(i))
12. Next
13.  
14. FH2 = _LoadFont("Arial.ttf", 24, "MONOSPACE")
15. _Font FH2
16. For i = 0 To 10
17.     Locate i + 1, 20: Print text$(i); text$(i), _PrintWidth(text$(i))
18. Next
19.  
20.  

[bplus]

Repeat:

But now how can I get consistent width about .5 the height of a character? Like the default font, very easy to use and predict it's length, no matter the string, and looks normally spaced.

That Monospace is worthless to me, it's way too wide. How can I get like a guaranteed 12 X 24, 32 X 64, 48 x 96, 10 X 20 for all characters?