Font Forum

Hello, I have problem with OCR A Extended font. its version is 1.0.

Problem is in Windows this font looks not so good as on paper. Is there any way to get such look on monitor screen? In Word it looks weird. I show you example.



This is how the font looks after printing on a paper. I used here virtual PDF printer, but it is very alike. Look at sizes 10 to 14 and especially 14 to 15. You see no difference in its thickness.

Now look how it looks in Windows, MS Word.
Look at font size 14 and 15. Why is 15 size so "fat" compared to 14? Why does Windows not scale them properly? I kept default hinting, I autohinted also - everytime results are alike or worse.



1. The question is how to make as same look as on paper? Or just force it to scale equally to avoid such distortions.
2. What is wrong with this font? or What is wrong with Windows.
3. Can I replace default Windows font rasterizer? in example product of other company you have preview where the font is scalled wonderfully, but it uses its own font rasterizer, not Windows' one.

You can clearly see you have used a scaled view mode in Word, so this is not a fair comparison.

Do set Word's view to 100%.

I made PDF screenshot at 100% but Irfan View it resized omg.

Now you have 100% PDF



In Word It is 100% of view

As you see difference between 14 and 15 is well visible. Don't know how to remove such issue. I had hoped Windows give you real 100% WYSIWYG font preview, it seems it is either not possible or font needs changes.

Actually, Bob, what I think you are seeing is good hinting. The 14pt. stems are being artificially sueezed so you don't end up with fuzzy grey edges, and the 15pt. stems are being bolstered a bit to do the same thing. This is actually evidence of a professionally developed font, and getting it to work like that is a big technical challenge - FCP doesn't even support it. WYSIWYG is not, and never has been, an absolute. Ever since laser printers came on the scene, their resolution has been vastly better than screens, so anything and everything you see on the screen is a compromise of what will actually be printed. In the end, even if you do manage to eliminate the hinting from this font, it still won't look like what gets printed - those fuzzy edges that approximate the color (amount of ink) of your text will be rendered as nice clean black lines when you print it.

Also keep in mind Word uses Windows built-in rasterizer, while your PDF viewer might use another rasterizer. So even if you view both at 100% you can still get different results.

Thanks for your efforts!
It seems I must like what I see on screen then.
In fact printed font looks wonderfully, there are no any distortions and so on.

S!