Developer --> Technical Publications

     


FontSync Control Panel

The FontSync Control Panel enables the user to indicate which font characteristics FontSync should ignore when comparing fonts. Changes take affect immediately (that is, the checkboxes are "live"). If the user does not change the settings in the control panel, by default all the characteristics listed in the panel will be compared during a match operation.

For advanced users who either need or want to change those settings, the optionally-installed FontSync Control Panel provides two ways of doing so. The user can either change the setting directly in the control panel by disabling those settings that they don't want considered in the evaluation, or can run an AppleScript that does so.

Figure 2-1 shows the FontSync Control Panel. In this example, the user has disabled the kerning and advanced layout table data match options. As a result, FontSync functions that perform font matching will overlook kerning and advanced layout table data information when comparing fonts. If the user does not specify any options, by default, all match options are enabled. <<when and how is FontSync alerted to changes the user makes to these settings?>>Disabling all the font characteristics would lead to nonsensical results, since any font would match in that case. Your application may wish to post an alert explaning why that is prohibited when the last option is disabled.

In addition to being able to deselect font characteristics used in font matching, the user can also select the checkbox indicating not to match fonts if missing data. This checkbox corresponds to the kFNSMissingDataNoMatch flag. If the user selects this checkbox, FontSync will report font reference mismatches when both fonts are missing data needed by a selected option. This is useful, since some older font references may not have all the data needed for matching newer ones. If the user selects the Use Defaults button, FontSync will cancel any user-specified setting changes and set them to their default values (that is, all characteristics used when performing font matching). If the preference file could not be written, an appropriate alert is displayed. If the user selects the Revert button, they revert to the settings that were in force when the control panel was launched.

Figure 2-1 Font matching characteristics in the FontSync Control Panel

The following is a brief description of the match options listed in the control panel:

  • Font names. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore internal font names when performing font matching. Internal font names are derived from the font name table used by the system.
  • Glyphs. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore visual characteristics of the font, including glyph repertoires and character shapes, when performing font matching.
  • QuickDraw Metrics. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore QuickDraw character metrics, such as advanced width and bounding box, when performing font matching. QuickDraw metrics is the space in which a glyph sits as computed by QuickDraw text.
  • Character Encoding. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore character-to-glyph mappings when performing font matching.
  • WorldScript Layout. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore language-specific information used by WorldScript when performing font matching.
  • Font Technology. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore font types, such as TrueType and PostScript, when matching fonts.
  • Kerning. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore internal kerning tables when performing font matching.
  • ATSUI Metrics. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore Apple Advanced Typography for Unicode Imaging (ATSUI) character metrics, such as advanced width and bounding box, when performing font matching. ATSUI metrics is the space in which a glyph sits as computed by ATSUI.
  • Print Encoding. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore font and glyph names used when printing to Postscript when performing font matching.
  • Advanced Layout. If the user disables this match criterion, FontSync will ignore tables used for advanced layout features, such as automatic ligatures, and AAT and OpenType tables, when performing font matching.

  • © 2000 Apple Computer, Inc. (Last Updated 30 June 2000)