[reportlab-users] TableStyle "FONTNAME"

[Tim Roberts]

Jason Craig wrote:

>>

> Yes it does depend on how picky you are.  I did not say that they are 

> the same thing; my statement is correct.  On a typical Windows 

> computer (Mac has Helvetica by default, right?), if you ask a program 

> for Helvetica and a font named Helvetica is not installed you will be 

> given Arial.  Hence, since Microsoft has >50% market share, and since 

> most programs I know of behave this way, Helvetica is usually another 

> name for Arial.


Give me an example.  I don't know of any Windows program where it's even 
possible to "ask for" Helvetica if it is not installed.  The CreateFont 
API doesn't do any substitution based on name; if you ask for a sans 
serif font named Helvetica, you'll get Arial, but only because you had 
also specified that it was sans serif.

We're both probably making a bigger deal out of this than it's worth, 
but I would assert that your statement is incorrect.  Helvetica and 
Arial are very similar fonts, and one can often be substituted for the 
other, but there's nothing in Windows that makes them equivalent.  They 
are NOT two names for the same thing.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.