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> <input>G=gs:start().</input> {1,<0.20.0>} 2><input>gs:read(G,{choose_font,{times,38}}).</input> {times,[],38} 3> <input>gs:read(G,{choose_font,{screen,italic,6}}).</input> {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:
Figure 5.1: 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).