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On Tue, 19 Sep 2000 21:56:13 +0200, Avenarius wrote:
A> Which one is that, Allie? Where could I find it? I think I need it,
A> too. Right now I'm using Courier New Bold (not-bold is ugly) and I'd
A> be willing to trade it for a better-looking one.
You may look here http://home.bsu.edu/prn/monofont/index.html for some
extra fonts. You may even find some for sale if you're desperate. :-)))
ACM>> The only plus for using a variable width font is a purely selfish
ACM>> one, ie, visual appeal.
A> Here I don't follow you.
It's a daring statement, yes :-); but I think it's true. Why do you use
a proportional font over a fixed width font. You prefer how it looks,
right? It's the one that you want to read your messages and compose your
mail with, right? How does the recipient come into the picture? Where's
the consideration for the recipient in this decision? The recipient is
not involved, hence it's selfish, or a sender centric choice.
Now take a fixed width font now. They are usually pretty darned ugly and
tend to take up more screen real estate than a proportional font but
there are distinct advantages to it. These advantages stem from what
makes it what it is. A fixed width font is one in which *all* characters
have the same width. This is in contrast to proportional fonts where all
characters do not share the same width and the variation with character
widths depends on the variable width font being used.
Because all fixed width fonts share this quality of a fixed character
width, the formatting of text using a fixed width font will appear
exactly the same no matter what fixed width font is being used to
display the material. IOW's, no matter which fixed width font is being
used, each line of text and word will be have the same exact relative
position to each other no matter what fixed width font you are using.
This allows the exchange and appreciation of precision formatting
between users who are free to use whatever fixed width font they desire.
This makes you able to do nice things with the assurance that the person
at the other end will be able to see exactly what you intended.
*--------------------------------------------------*
* Try looking at this block of text with a *
* proportional font and tell me what it looks like *
*--------------------------------------------------*
If you look at the above with Arial it will not look as it looks with a
fixed width font. Now switch between fixed width fonts and you'll see
that the alignment remains the same.
A> What's selfish is sending html messages and cluttering other people's
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A> mailboxes with unnecessary kilobytes and eventually megabytes.
Copy and paste the above underlined text to notepad and look at it using
Arial. The underlining is out of alignment isn't it? Now switch between
different fixed width fonts.
A> Yet what I choose to view on my own screen is solely my own business,
A> isn't it? It can't inconvenience anyone, as long as the posts I'm
A> sending off are all set to plain text, which they are.
But, what font will you use to compose mail? :-)
The thing is that the reverse of what I wrote above applies.
a) If you use a variable width font to create a box with text as I did
above, then for the recipient to see it as such, they would have to be
using the *same* variable width font that you used. OTOH, if I did it,
you would need to use *any* fixed width font of your choice. It offers
you *and* the recipient more flexibility. Not selfish. :-)
b) If I use a fixed width font or my own variable width font, I could
never send you precisely formatted material and expect you to be able to
read and see it as intended because you are not using a fixed width font
and you may very well not be using the exact same variable width font as
I am.
The long and short of it is that fixed width fonts allow exchange of
messages between users with full knowledge that the formatting will be
seen exactly as intended even though the users are each using their own
choice of fixed width font. To achieve the same effect with a variable
width font, all users would have to agree to use the *same* variable
width font.
I hope that helped clarify my initial statement? :-)
- --
A. Curtis Martin..
Moderator TBUDL/TBBETA | PGP Key ID: 0xEE079937
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- ---
** "Skiier: Someone who pays an arm and a leg to break them. "
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