The Font Menu

The Font menu has commands that alter the font and other character attributes.  It's called ªFontº rather than something like ªcharacterº or ªstyleº because it's more evocative of what's in the menu, especially for users without a technical background.  Applications that support text entry and editing should provide a Font menu and Font panel.  The panel is defined in the Application Kit; it contains controls that set and preview fonts.  The menu has a command to bring up the panel, and commands to make common adjustments to a font.

The only required commands in this menu are Font Panel, Copy Font, and Paste Font, although frequently used commands like Bold and Italic should almost always be present.  Applications that are not text intensive may decide to omit some of the less frequently used commands, such as Heavier and Lighter.

Command 	Action
Font Panel...  Brings up the Font panel and makes it the key window.

Bold	Makes the current selection bold, if it's not bold already, and makes it unbold if it is.  The name of the command alternates between ªBoldº and ªUnboldº depending on the selection.

Italic	Makes the current selection italic or ªoblique,º if it isn't already, and makes it unitalic if it is.  The name of the command alternates between ªItalicº and ªUnitalicº depending on the selection.

Larger	Makes the current selection one point larger.

Smaller	Makes the current selection one point smaller.

Heavier	Uses a heavier typeface to display the current selection.

Lighter	Uses a lighter typeface to display the current selection.

Superscript	Superscripts the current selection.

Subscript	Subscripts the current selection.

Unscript	Removes superscript or subscript properties of current selection, returns to baseline.

Copy Font	Copies the font attributes of the current selection, including font family, font size, bold, italic, underlining, superscript, and subscript.

Paste Font	Paste the font attributes stored in the pasteboard by applying the attributes to the current selection.