Font size across platform

[CvT]

Hello,

Why do documents when opened in Macintosh are rendered a lot smaller
(visually) than when opened on a PC?

For example - if an excel document is created using 12pt Times New Roman, it
is perfectly legible when opened on a PC. When done under osx, it is tiny
and so you have to zoom in to view it (to 125-130%). If you save any
changes, then the zoom is saved.

So what? I am an independent consultant and work in teams that primarily use
PC and there is constant filesharing between team members. It is a real
nuisance when transferring files, especially clients who sometimes reduce
the font rather than zoom out.

Many thanks and apologies for the multiple group posting - I didn't know
which would be appropriate.

 

[Bill Weylock]

You're not imagining this.

The Mac displays graphics at 96dpi, while WinTel displays graphics at 72dpi.

That's why. Great for detail work on graphics and video, but a pain in the
monitor for designing web pages across platforms and for sharing files.

I do not know about saving zooms. I'll be interested to read what someone
else says about that.


Best,


- Bill

Hello,

Why do documents when opened in Macintosh are rendered a lot smaller
(visually) than when opened on a PC?

For example - if an excel document is created using 12pt Times New Roman, it
is perfectly legible when opened on a PC. When done under osx, it is tiny
and so you have to zoom in to view it (to 125-130%). If you save any
changes, then the zoom is saved.

So what? I am an independent consultant and work in teams that primarily use
PC and there is constant filesharing between team members. It is a real
nuisance when transferring files, especially clients who sometimes reduce
the font rather than zoom out.

Many thanks and apologies for the multiple group posting - I didn't know
which would be appropriate.

Panther 10.3.4
Office 2004

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

Bill, you have "bass ackwards" At no time in PC history has a PC ever, ever used
72dpi. and the reverse is true as well at no time in Mac's history has a Mac ever
used 96dpi.

The formula for figuring what the font size will look like from computer is:

a word written in 12pt type on a PC will look 72/96 (3/4) as large on a Mac. So 12
point type will look like 9 point type on a Mac.

On the other hand the formula for figuring the font size for Mac type on a PC is
96/72 that 1-1/3 as large. so the same word on a Mac written in 12 pt will appear
1.33334 as large on a PC roughly 16 point.

And that doesn't begain to explain, the problems. Pc and Mac Draw their fonts
differently.

Finally Arial was MS crude attempt to come up with an equivent to Helvetica.
It was poorly done but the PC folk liked it.

Then Apple saw the style Arial and decide to create their on version of Arial (more
realistic) to be platform Compatible. But its not exactly the same.

NOW MS has a version helvetica which doesn't look like Mac's and Mac has it version
of Arial which almost looks like MS version but not quite.

This is 20 years worth of history and until both apple and MS agree to use exactly
the same version (it ain't gonna happen). then there will always be differences.

The only way you can get Mac and PC documents to look exactly the same is convert
them to pdf's in which case they are now special types of drawings intead of true text.

You're not imagining this.

The Mac displays graphics at 96dpi, while WinTel displays graphics at 72dpi.

That's why. Great for detail work on graphics and video, but a pain in
the monitor for designing web pages across platforms and for sharing files.

I do not know about saving zooms. I'll be interested to read what
someone else says about that.


Best,


- Bill






Panther 10.3.4
Office 2004

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Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
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If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

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[CvT]

Wow. Very interesting.

So I guess there is no workaround...

 

[Elliott Roper]

Wow. Very interesting.

So I guess there is no workaround...

Of course there is. These days it is hard to find two machines with the
same dots or pixels/inch. Back in the mists of time Macs were more or
less 72dpi and PC's were 96dpi on screen. One screen on my Powerbook is
106.5dpi, the other is slightly more.

There are 72 pt to the inch (either exactly or approximately, depending
on which side of the pond you happen to be)

All sorts of confusion has occurred between pixels and points, and
looking at the nonsense written about it on the web, it ain't going
away any time soon.

What appears on a user's screen is utterly out of your hands.
Since it is simplicity itself for the viewer to up the magnification of
his/her Word Doc, just worry about how it will look when printed. 12pt
type on a 12 pt leading will get 6 lines of type *printed* per inch. It
looks horrible, you would be better off with 12pt type on a 14pt
leading (the distance in points between the baseline of two lines of
text. Sometimes leading is taken to mean the extra space so you might
see 12pt with 2pt leading meaning 12pt on 14pt.

Since fonts vary wildly, the height of an x in two different fonts of
the same size may be quite different. The size of a font is the
distance from the top of the highest ascender to the bottom of the
lowest descender in points. Fonts with ornate flowery ascenders and
descenders will have smaller x's than a newspaper font like Times.

If you want ot look into this some more, here is a good glossary
http://store.adobe.com/type/topics/glossary.html

 

[Klaus Linke]

.... and if you always use "Zoom > Page width", you never need to worry
about the matter again ;-)

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Elliott Roper]

... and if you always use "Zoom > Page width", you never need to worry
about the matter again ;-)

That is an excellent scheme. I made a macro to do exactly that, and
swap to page view while I'm at it.

The beauty of it is that you can make the type as big or as small as
you like by dragging the window corner.

If you would like a copy, here it is again. I have posted this earlier

Sub pageWidth()
'
' pageWidth Macro
' Macro recorded 05-01-2004 by Elliott Roper
'
If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPageView
Else
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPageView
End If
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.PageFit = wdPageFitBestFit
End Sub

 

[Bill Weylock]

Major blush!

Of course.

Bill, you have "bass ackwards" At no time in PC history has a PC ever, ever
used
72dpi. and the reverse is true as well at no time in Mac's history has a Mac
ever
used 96dpi.

The formula for figuring what the font size will look like from computer is:

a word written in 12pt type on a PC will look 72/96 (3/4) as large on a Mac.
So 12
point type will look like 9 point type on a Mac.

On the other hand the formula for figuring the font size for Mac type on a PC
is
96/72 that 1-1/3 as large. so the same word on a Mac written in 12 pt will
appear
1.33334 as large on a PC roughly 16 point.

And that doesn't begain to explain, the problems. Pc and Mac Draw their fonts
differently.

Finally Arial was MS crude attempt to come up with an equivent to Helvetica.
It was poorly done but the PC folk liked it.

Then Apple saw the style Arial and decide to create their on version of Arial
(more
realistic) to be platform Compatible. But its not exactly the same.

NOW MS has a version helvetica which doesn't look like Mac's and Mac has it
version
of Arial which almost looks like MS version but not quite.

This is 20 years worth of history and until both apple and MS agree to use
exactly
the same version (it ain't gonna happen). then there will always be
differences.

The only way you can get Mac and PC documents to look exactly the same is
convert
them to pdf's in which case they are now special types of drawings intead of
true text.

Panther 10.3.4
Office 2004

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

... and if you always use "Zoom > Page width", you never need to worry
about the matter again ;-)

Regards,
Klaus

The problem is that it throws off your line breaks and page breaks when sent from
one to the other.

There is a workaround of sorts. send the document as a word file using a font with
the same name Times new Roman, or Arial. Then create a pdf version which is real
easy on OSX since you can do it natively from the print window. send that as well
have him/her look at the PDF first then they can adjust fonts appropriately to
compensate for the line breaks, in the real document perhaps if adobe forces the
issue and does away with everything but open type fonts then documents will only
then be exactly the same on both platforms.

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |MEMBER:VPEA (LIFE) ETA-I, NESDA,ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

no need to blush. Its confusing for everyone. Its not important anyway what it looks
like on the screen. Its what the page breaks and paragraph breaks show when printed
which is where the 72/96 proble really affects.

Major blush!

Of course.






Panther 10.3.4
Office 2004

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |MEMBER:VPEA (LIFE) ETA-I, NESDA,ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>

 

[Bill Weylock]

Thanks.

I got the two figures of course from web designer chatter, because it was a
major problem for them a couple of years ago. I think now that standard
business class monitors can usually accommodate more than one page of text
the issue is probably receding, but I have not paid attention for a while
now.

I do what you suggest with Word documents. I generally send two versions as
a courtesy. When I send only one, I send a pdf. I try to make that the
standard these days.

Did you notice (as I just did) that we have been cross-posting to three
groups. I'm choosing Word for this one.


Best,


- Bill

no need to blush. Its confusing for everyone. Its not important anyway what it
looks
like on the screen. Its what the page breaks and paragraph breaks show when
printed
which is where the 72/96 proble really affects.

Panther 10.3.4
Office 2004

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Followup set to microsoft.public.mac.office.word

Did you notice (as I just did) that we have been cross-posting to three
groups. I'm choosing Word for this one.

The best way to do this is to cross-post to all the groups, but set the

Followup-To:

field to the group you want all replies to go to. That way your reply
doesn't just disappear while the conversation continues in the other
groups.

It's also customary to include the header I give in the first line.

(I set the Followup-To: field to this group in this message, even though
it wasn't cross-posted.)

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

Actually I hadn't paid attention to the three newsgroups.

I have to be careful with Word files from my Association president we post to a
website. I usually make corrections, create a PDF then send back to my prez before
even work on it anymore. Then I either use the Pdf on the website. Or convert to a
HTML document and have Macromedia Dreamweaver "fix Microsoft HTML".

Thanks.

I got the two figures of course from web designer chatter, because it
was a major problem for them a couple of years ago. I think now that
standard business class monitors can usually accommodate more than one
page of text the issue is probably receding, but I have not paid
attention for a while now.

I do what you suggest with Word documents. I generally send two versions
as a courtesy. When I send only one, I send a pdf. I try to make that
the standard these days.

Did you notice (as I just did) that we have been cross-posting to three
groups. I'm choosing Word for this one.


Best,


- Bill








Panther 10.3.4
Office 2004

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |MEMBER:VPEA (LIFE) ETA-I, NESDA,ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>