[reportlab-users] TableStyle "FONTNAME"

[Jason Craig]

Tim Roberts wrote:

> 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.

>


The main thing I was thinking of was that Firefox and IE on Windows will 
use Arial when asked for Helvetica.  I just did a test in OpenOffice, 
and if you type Helvetica in it's font field you get Arial.  Don't know 
at what point, be it application level or OS level this is happening.  
Yes, I agree, we are making too much of it.

--Jason