Fonts

## 5 Fonts

### 5.1 The Font Model

Text related objects can be handled with the font option `{font,Font}`. A `Font` is represented as a two or three tuple:

- `{Family,Size}`
- `{Family,Style,Size}`

Examples of fonts are: `{times,12}`, `{symbol,bold,18}`, `{courier,[bold,italic],6}`, `{screen,12}`.

The most important requirement with the font model is to ensure that there is always a "best possible" font present. For example, if an application tries to use the font `{times,17}` on a computer system which does not have this font available, the `gs` font model automatically substitutes `{times,16}`.

Note that GS requires that the following fonts are available if using an X-server display:

- fixed
- -*-courier-*
- -*-times-*
- -*-helvetica-*
- -*-symbol-*
- "-*-new century schoolbook-"
- -*-screen-*

To find out which font is actually chosen by the `gs`, use the option `{choose_font,Font}`. For example, the following situation might occur:

    1> G=gs:start().
    {1,<0.20.0>}
    2> gs:read(G,{choose_font,{times,38}}).
    {times,[],38}
    3> gs:read(G,{choose_font,{screen,italic,6}}).
    {courier,italic,6}
    4>

When programming with fonts, it is often necessary to find the size of a string which uses a specific font. `{font_wh,Font}` returns the width and height of any string and any font. The following example illustrates its usage:

Font Examples

    -module(ex15).
    -copyright('Copyright (c) 1991-97 Ericsson Telecom AB').
    -vsn('$Revision: /main/release/3 $ ').

    -export([start/0,init/0]).

    start() -> spawn(ex15, init, []).

    init() ->
        I=gs:start(),
        Win=gs:create(window, I,
                      [{width, 400},{height, 250},
                       {title,"Font Demo"},{map, true}]),
        E = gs:create(canvas, can1,Win,
                      [{x,0},{y, 0},{width,400},{height,250}]),
        Fonts = [{times,19},{screen,16},{helvetica,bold,21},
                 {symbol,12},{times,[bold,italic],33},{courier,6}],
        show_fonts_in_boxes(Fonts,0),
        receive
            {gs,_Id,destroy,_Data,_Arg} -> bye
        end.

    show_fonts_in_boxes([],_) -> done;
    show_fonts_in_boxes([Font|Fonts],Y) ->
        Txt = io_lib:format("Hi! ~p",[Font]),
        {Width,Height} = gs:read(can1,{font_wh,{Font,Txt}}),
        Y2=Y+Height+2,
        gs:create(rectangle,can1,[{coords,[{0,Y},{Width,Y2}]}]),
        gs:create(text,can1,[{font,Font},{text,Txt},{coords,[{0,Y+1}]}]),
        show_fonts_in_boxes(Fonts,Y2+1).

Copyright © 1991-2006 Ericsson AB