Any chance the font menu selector list will get an increase in type size?

[blackxacto]

I'm doing a lot of straining my eyes to read the scrolling type font list.

Having a lot of fonts, I need to see the font display style list more than the name of the font.

Some of the Affinity Photo font display styles are tiny.

[firstdefence]

Under Preferences > User Interface Click on the Large button under Font UI Size:

[Guest]

Hello firstdefence,

If @blackxacto is under Windows, this option unfortunately does not exist.

[Gabe]

Hi @blackxacto ,

If it's this menu, no, you cannot change it, unless you're on a MAC. But that will change ALL the text within the app interface. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, blackxacto said:

Some of the Affinity Photo font display styles are tiny.

I know this won't help with your issue but the reason the fonts are displayed at different sizes is because all fonts are displayed in the list at the same relative point size & some fonts do in fact appear smaller than others at the same point size when used in a document. For example, "Hello World" is the same 30 pt text size in these five fonts:

[blackxacto]

Thank you, yes, I had Large (which isn't large enough) chosen in Preferences. Its still tiny for most fonts.

They could grab more screen acerage if they trashed the font names & displayed font name in its display font.

Who cares if the deco fonts have names beside them. If I see the decos I know the font.

Edited June 15, 2018 by blackxacto
clarity

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, blackxacto said:

They could grab more screen acerage if they trashed the font names & displayed font name in its display font.

Some apps display only the display font preview & not the plain text name, but all of them I am familiar with display these previews the same way that Affinity does, using the same relative point size for all of them, which is what causes the size variation. IOW, they all allocate the same amount of text space to each entry in the columnar list of fonts so they are previewed in the same way in the list as they would be in a document in a text block of that same size.

[blackxacto]

But what has that got to do with my request for more screen acerage. More screen acerage, bigger display possible.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, blackxacto said:

But what has that got to do with my request for more screen acerage. More screen acerage, bigger display possible.

Only if they ignore the actual differences in the sizes of different fonts of the same nominal point size, so for example Futura would be previewed at a smaller font size than Arial & Bickam Script Pro at much larger one.

These differences are built into the fonts themselves by their designers, for example by using different cap heights, ascender & descender heights, x heights, etc., as shown in the illustration at the top of this Wikipedia entry. So not only would this depart from the conventional way of previewing each font in the same point size in the list, among other things it would mean that fonts with descenders or ascenders in their names would display at oddly different sizes vs. similar fonts that did not have those same descenders or ascenders in their names.

The tl;dr version: the display is intended to be as much as is practical a 'what you see is what you get' preview.

[blackxacto]

The app is designed to display fonts at one size in that specific menu. Increase the menu size, delete the name of the font, increase the font size allowed. I see no issue w that.

[MikeW]

R C-R is correct--within the app's current fixed size for displaying fonts.

BX's request is a solid one. Though I almost never want a preview of what a font looks like in any application, adjusting the display size of both the names and, if they are shown as a preview, then the preview as well is a good request.

CorelDraw is an example. You can display a font preview at the bottom and leave the list as names. If one opts to show a preview using the font name, one can also adjust the size of the list using a slider as indicated.

Really, the options to configure whether the font name displays as text or a preview and the size can only benefit all users. Here's I've adjusted the list to display really big, but not as big as it can get.

 

[R C-R]

35 minutes ago, MikeW said:

If one opts to show a preview using the font name, one can also adjust the size of the list using a slider as indicated.

Personally, if you mean this is doable on a per font (or even per typeface) basis that would add a level of complication I would prefer to avoid. I can imagine having even just 100 fonts installed & trying to keep track of which ones are being displayed representative of their document point size & which ones are not as something that would drive me crazy.

I can see that this is something some users would find useful but I have to wonder if enough would to justify the bloat that would add to the app. Just saying.

[MikeW]

Geez, R C-R. It's the entire menu not font by font.

[blackxacto]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Personally, if you mean this is doable on a per font (or even per typeface) basis t

Nope, didn’t say it, nor want it. Just increase the size and delete the font names. Display the font name as the style 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, MikeW said:

Geez, R C-R. It's the entire menu not font by font.

Thanks. That wasn't obvious to me because I don't have CorelDraw or any other app with that option. Just so I am clear about how it works in CorelDraw, are all fonts shown at the same relative size or height rather than with the same relative point size?

[MikeW]

Hi R C-R,

It's no different than a "static" size list like Affinity software displays. It's just configurable to allow the font listing to be increased/decreased, show previews or not, etc.

Bickam Script, for example, would still be lighter and finer than Arial Black. It's just that, like my screen shot, the preview/listing can be made larger or smaller. Making the preview list larger or smaller in point size doesn't change the relative size to each other. 

It's a nice feature in CD for people who desire it. Like I mentioned, I shut off previews in applications that allow it. I don't need to see what a font looks like. I use a font manager and have already chosen what fonts I'm going to use. I just need to read a name. But my own preference isn't the OP's preference. Choice is good.

[blackxacto]

48 minutes ago, MikeW said:

I don't need to see what a font looks like. I use a font manager and have already chosen what fonts I'm going to use. I

That’s one way to do it. Have not ever seen designers use that work process. I only want to choose in the app and skip the extra time anywhere else.

[dutchshader]

The way i do it, is to make a line of text select it and hover over the fonts in the font list. 

[toltec]

1 hour ago, blackxacto said:

Have not ever seen designers use that work process. 

I would have thought that process is more common. If you are designing professionally for a business customer, you will usually need to discuss the choice of font with the customer, and then make sure both the customer and the printer has the fonts.

It's not legal to just give the fonts to either and although I know it happens. Bigger companies won't want to break the law, and you shouldn't !

Edit: The other thing is of course, the company might tell you the 'company font' before you start, so you just need the font names. Having stuff match for a company identity is very important.

This also works with colours, the customer would need to know what Pantone colours are being used or will tell you, etc.

Obviously, if you are just designing for yourself or friends, it doesn't matter. Designing professionally puts far more restrictions on what you can do.

But as @MikeWsays, "choice is good".

Of course, if you are in a queue behind someone who can't make up their mind what to choose, choice is not so good 

[toltec]

5 hours ago, blackxacto said:

Nope, didn’t say it, nor want it. Just increase the size and delete the font names. Display the font name as the style 

As I discussed in my post above, that is OK for one off or new work, but not useful for repeat work or professional design work when the font is specified beforehand or being used again.

If you are doing regular, design work for a company, you will be using the same fonts over and over. In those cases you just need the font name. Most of the time I just want the font name, I don't need a visual display of what the font looks like. 

Big font displays also mean more scrolling.

[MikeW]

1 hour ago, blackxacto said:

That’s one way to do it. Have not ever seen designers use that work process. I only want to choose in the app and skip the extra time anywhere else.

I have about 100k fonts total. My main folder I peruse has about 10k. Of those 10k, I have used well over half of them through the years. 

There isn't a system made, much less an application, that can handle that many fonts. I'll stick with using a font manager.

[blackxacto]

1 hour ago, dutchshader said:

hover over the fonts in the font list. 

Where are you doing this in AP?

[toltec]

You haven't mentioned if you are using Mac or PC but why not use a font viewer ?

This one is for a PC and the display is 10 times better than in an App like Designer and you get all the characters, not just the characters in the font name.

http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer.php

That is sometimes very important if you need to find a particular character like a question mark, which is often the only real difference between fonts.

There is one called Fontbase which works on Mac PC and Linux. 

I don't actually use them any more but I'm sure somebody here has more experience with one.

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, toltec said:

[Getting all the characters, not just the characters in the font name] is sometimes very important if you need to find a particular character like a question mark, which is often the only real difference between fonts.

Why not use the Affinity apps’ Glyph Browser? 

[toltec]

1 minute ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

Why not use the Affinity apps’ Glyph Browser? 

Because the display of the actual fonts is still small, which is what the OP doesn't like. Also, viewing lots of fonts would be a real pain.

A font viewer can display big letters plus the full range of characters

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ?!@£%

and makes browsing more than one font at a time very easy.