Re: Screen font appearance on Macs & PCs...

Subject: Re: Screen font appearance on Macs & PCs...
From: Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- CHISP -dot- NET>
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:30:58 -0700

Dan Schmitz wrote, about making a UI for both Mac and PC:

>It becomes a real issue as I have to design interfaces with labeled
>buttons, as well as format a lot of design elements into a relatively small
>interface. Fonts displayed correctly on my Windows PC will often be too big
>or not fit in the space provided when viewed on a Mac. In an environment of
>mixed computing platforms, it would be nice if what I see is what everyone
>else sees.

I've never designed a UI for software to run on both Mac and PC, but I've
always thought that the way to do it is to design two UIs. One has stuff
like balloon help and a number of nifty idioms that the other lacks.

So just draw two complete sets of screens. Then the font-compatibility
problem will never arise. It'll be much easier than designing two entire
UIs from scratch, because of course you're going to make the two interfaces
very, very similar. That's all that's needed to make it easy for users to
switch between platforms. They just have to be very similar, not
identical. They *can't* be identical unless you want to violate the whole
language of UI idioms on at least one of the platforms. Two sets of very
similar screens won't even add much burden for the programmers (assuming
they know what they're doing).

By the way, don't use Arial on the Mac, at least not without a special
reason to. For that matter, don't use Arial for labels and buttons on
Windows. I haven't used Windows in a while, but as I recall, Verdana (very
nice) seems to have taken over, and MS Dialog was the (fairly nice)
standard for those things before 95. I know that Arial is Powerbuilder's
default, but if I catch you using Powerbuilder to make a UI, nothing
personal, but I'm gonna have to smack ya.

Uh oh, is this off-topic? (If so, please tell me off-list.)

--
Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- chisp -dot- net>
Author, _Practical Software Requirements: A Manual of Content & Style_
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1884777597/002-3618777-1904817
http://www.manning.com/Kovitz

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