Affinity (Word like) vs. CorelDRAW font preview

[Petar Petrenko]

Hi,

there is a problem with code pages preview in a font list. There is an attachment. Select the text (written with cyrilic support) and you will see, if you scroll through fonts list the all fonts "support" cyrilic, whicih is not true. That is because Affinity decided to adopt Word like font preview (same problem there, too). As you can see from the example only interpunction signs are with Bauhaus font, not the whole text, because Bauhaus do not support cyrilc.

But, CorelDRAW has top notch way of showing the fonts list. Simply, fonts that do not support the proper code page are shown in the list but are grayed out and can't be applied to the text. I like Affinity to choose his way of fonts list preview rather then the one we have now.

Cyrilicg text.afpub

[walt.farrell]

44 minutes ago, NNN said:

Select the text (written with cyrilic support) and you will see, if you scroll through fonts list the all fonts "support" cyrilic, whicih is not true.

Even the font you've chosen doesn't have those characters, as the Preflight check shows. I'm not sure why the fonts aren't being flagged in the font list.

Publisher V1 doesn't flag them, either, except in Preflight. This feels more like it should be a Bug report, not Feedback.

[kenmcd]

"Codepage" is an antiquated pre-Unicode encoding method, and Affinity applications only support Unicode.

Many modern fonts have no codepage encoding info in them at all (or very limited).

In the Unicode/OpenType era fonts typically have script and language support info in a couple fields in the metadata table. Microsoft fonts all have this info filled-in (and MS apps use this). Most Google Fonts fonts do too. And many commercial fonts too. So Affinity could use that info (but it is not always complete). And many old fonts do not have this info.

There is a more detailed method of indicating language support being discussed and tested, but it is not in the OpenType specs yet, and not widely used. Basically in the concept testing phase.

So "codepage" info is not the answer going forward. Mostly just in old fonts.

There are a few online font tools which do a good job of checking language support (they compare a required character list to what is actually in the font).

And some font managers have some language support info.

I doubt Affinity is going to be adding any features related to checking font language support any time soon. So you will need to check your fonts yourself (which I know can be kind of a PITA).

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, kenmcd said:

I doubt Affinity is going to be adding any features related to checking font language support any time soon. So you will need to check your fonts yourself (which I know can be kind of a PITA).

Yes, but I'm sure I've seen the Affinity applications indicate, on the Font field in the Context Toolbar, that the font doesn't contain the characters you've Selected. I don't remember how, but it's similar to the indication of a missing font. 

Why isn't that happening here?

[kenmcd]

6 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Yes, but I'm sure I've seen the Affinity applications indicate, on the Font field in the Context Toolbar, that the font doesn't contain the characters you've Selected. I don't remember how, but it's similar to the indication of a missing font. 

Why isn't that happening here?

The Corel font picker has the ability to filter the font list based on script (Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Devanagari, etc.).
(Not actually "code page" but by script - I forgot how it worked).

So I assumed that is what he is looking for - the ability to filter the font list by language/script - and then using that font for the text.
I suppose you could enter some test text, apply the font, and look like you describe.
But that would be a long process.

Users want to know: which of my fonts can I use for the Cyrillic script, and then which fonts support specific languages such as Bulgarian, Serbian, or Ukrainian, etc. (which have differences from the basic Cyrillic script).
The Corel font picker can at least filter by script (but not by language).

Corel built their own Font Manager application and their font list/picker incorporates the filters from that application.
Affinity uses the font list/pickers from the OS (with their quirks and limitations).
And I doubt a custom font picker application is high on their long ToDo list.

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, kenmcd said:

So I assumed that is what he is looking for - the ability to filter the font list by language/script - and then using that font for the text.

Yes, I'm not questioning that. 

My issue is that I'm sure the Affinity applications will indicate, in the Font field, if the font currently assigned to selected text doesn't contain all the selected characters.

I don't remember exactly how it's flagged, but I've seen it. However, that's not working for this text. And I'd like to understand why. 

It would also satisfy the posted issue, I think, if it were working.

[kenmcd]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

My issue is that I'm sure the Affinity applications will indicate, in the Font field, if the font currently assigned to selected text doesn't contain all the selected characters.

I don't remember exactly how it's flagged, but I've seen it. However, that's not working for this text. And I'd like to understand why. 

It would also satisfy the posted issue, I think, if it were working.

I see. I had not looked at the test page.
Bauhaus 93 has zero Cyrillic support and nothing seems to indicate that.

I like the way ID and QXP immediately highlight the unsupported text the moment it is typed. You know instantly, and exactly where your attention is focused. Not something you may notice later.

[walt.farrell]

32 minutes ago, kenmcd said:

Bauhaus 93 has zero Cyrillic support and nothing seems to indicate that.

Preflight shows it, but the font display is supposed to, also, I think.

Yes, highlighting the text right away would be nice.

[Petar Petrenko]

10 hours ago, kenmcd said:

Users want to know: which of my fonts can I use for the Cyrillic script, and then which fonts support specific languages such as Bulgarian, Serbian, or Ukrainian, etc. (which have differences from the basic Cyrillic script).
The Corel font picker can at least filter by script (but not by language).

Yes, that is exactly what I want.

9 hours ago, kenmcd said:

I like the way ID and QXP immediately highlight the unsupported text the moment it is typed. You know instantly, and exactly where your attention is focused. Not something you may notice later.

This would be even better. Lets see if Affinity is going to do something about this in near future.

[Petar Petrenko]

9 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Preflight shows it, but the font display is supposed to, also, I think.

Retail version or beta?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, NNN said:

Retail version or beta?

I think I checked V1 (1.10.6) and 2.1 current beta.