Re: Fonts on PDA's...

: So the question is: what fonts should be there? I can't afford
: 1.6 megabytes, which is what the 75 DPI directory of fonts works out to,
: for example.

For the Microwindows distribution, which runs on the iPAQ,
I've included four standard bitmap fonts which are compiled
into the server. Of course, TrueType or Adobe Type 1 fonts
can be loaded, and users can add them if desired. The following
four fonts I've found work well for title bars, dialog boxes,
and terminal emulators, while requiring a grand total of 26k
bytes of flash...

1. System Variable Font, 14x16 (used for title bars, thick, Serif, etc)
2. GUI Variable Font, 11x13 (used for dialog boxes, thin, Sans Serif, etc)
3. PC Charset Fixed Font, 8x16 (used for PC character set, ROM font, less
useful)
4. System Fixed Font, 6x13 (terminal emulator, thin)

Of course, different sizes of this set may come in handy, but
these sizes seem to work well together for different face/size
needs in multiply running apps.

: Truetype or Type1 fonts, while scalable, come much more dearly (and may not
: do well at low resolutions), and are about 10x larger than a single
: bitmap font.

There can be big differences in TrueType font sizes, for fonts which look
nearly identical on the screen. For instance, I include a basic Serif
font in Microwindows (for Times Roman compatibility) that comes in
at a whopping 52k. This looks great on the screen, but I'd guess it doesn't
print too well. The equivalent Microsoft Times Roman font, which looks
identical
for smaller (<24 point resolution on screen-size devices) comes in at > 225k.

My conclusion is that it isn't always a good idea to toss the TrueType stuff;
with a good basic mix of compiled-in bitmap fonts, a few additional
TrueType fonts allow a browser or other fancy text-display program to
run while still keeping flash space to a minimum.

I'm still hunting down free TrueType fonts for inclusion, I'm looking for
fonts in each of these categories (let me know if you find some good
small ones that are free)

    Serif (Times Roman) in: regular, bold, italic
    Sans Serif (Helvitica) in: regular, bold, italic
    Courier New (fixed pitch) in: regular, bold, italic.

Regards,

Greg
Received on Wed Sep 13 00:07:23 2000