changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work)
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@bennetthaselton Notepad++ Preferences > MISC. > Use DirectWrite
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@supasillyass OK yes, turning off DirectWrite (and restarting Notepad++ as required) fixed the problem.
Also, in Notepad++ 8.5.8 DirectWrite was disabled by default so I didn’t run into this issue, but in Notepad 8.6 it is enabled by default.
(OK now the problem is solved for me, so it’s up to the devs if they want to try to “solve” it for other users, but – not sure what would be the best way to prevent other users from running into this problem. Perhaps when you switch to a font that is a bitmap font, Notepad++ checks if DirectWrite is enabled and alerts the user that they have to disable DirectWrite if they want to use that font?)
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@bennetthaselton said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
so it’s up to the devs if they want to try to “solve” it for other users
If Notepad++ devs got deep into all of the potential peculiarities of font issues, they could probably spend all of their time there. Better to expend their efforts on real text editing functionality!
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@bennetthaselton said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
not sure what would be the best way to prevent other users from running into this problem
Encourage them to not use fonts that are 40 years old? Bitmap font technology was big in the 80s, but even Microsoft supported True Type fonts starting in Windows 3.1 in 1992.
Fixedsys was a bitmap font released in 1985, and used as the default font for Microsoft Notepad through the Windows ME era (~2000). After that, even MS started defaulting to a non-bitmap font (Lucida Console) as the default, due to the superiority of non-bitmap formats for fonts.
The fact that Windows still allows people to use bitmap fonts at all in Win 11 and beyond is the extraordinary thing, not the fact that many Windows features (including Direct Write) no longer support using 1980s font technology.
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@PeterJones said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
using 1980s font technology
Yesterday I got a lot of satisfaction out of using a cold chisel and a hammer to deal with a problem that others, using high tech tools, were straining and struggling with all their might to solve. :-)
Thank you though as I was wondering why DirectWrite sometimes fails and why for a long time Notepad++ did not make it the default.
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@PeterJones well it’s not just FixedSys, the same bug repros with more than half of the available fonts on my system.
Enable DirectWrite (and restart if not already enabled), type some text in Notepad++, then go to Global Styles->Default Style, and hit the down arrow keyboard key in the “Font name” dropdown to iterate through the available choices. (The selection takes effect instantly, without having to do Save & Close.) On my system, more than half of the font selections have no effect.
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@bennetthaselton said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
Enable DirectWrite (and restart if not already enabled), type some text in Notepad++, then go to Global Styles->Default Style, and hit the down arrow keyboard key in the “Font name” dropdown to iterate through the available choices. (The selection takes effect instantly, without having to do Save & Close.) On my system, more than half of the font selections have no effect.
Tried this test using N++ 8.6 on a very-lightly customized Win11 Pro. And Notepad++ changed the font every time.
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@bennetthaselton said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
On my system, more than half of the font selections have no effect.
Most of those are probably not monospaced fonts anyway. You should still have a good selection of nice looking monospaced fonts to choose from or download some more. Or just disable DirectWrite, but it does have other benefits.
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@supasillyass thanks. I’m not trying to solve the problem for myself now though (I can use FixedSys if I disable DirectWrite), I’m just trying to narrow down the bug in case anyone wants to fix it.
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@Alan-Kilborn Well now I’m wondering what the pattern is :)
Trying a clump of six fonts that appeared alphabetically in the list, and picking each one, these are the selections that had an effect:Eras Medium ITC - no
Felix Titling - yes
Fixedsys - no
Footlight MT Light - no
Forte - yes
Franklin Gothic Book - noOut of the four that didn’t work, presumably they’re not all bitmap fonts (I don’t know much about this, but for all of them except Fixedsys, Control Panel says they are TrueType fonts, which means they are vector fonts and not bitmap, right?). So at least on my system, it’s not just bitmap fonts that it doesn’t work for.
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Well, further experimentation has given me one odd bit:
I looked for the fonts you listed (Eras … Franklin) and I only have Fixedsys. I have Franklin Gothic Medium, so I changed from Fixedsys to that (FGM). The odd thing is that for that change, I saw no change in Notepad++ rendering, i.e., after changing to FGM, it still appears as if I was using Fixedsys.
In short: No ideas. :-)
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@Alan-Kilborn @Terry-R @PeterJones @bennetthaselton @guy038 or anybody else, so using these, can I change the color, font or size of just one of the many lines in my file? I want one line to stand out and look different, permanently (that is, even if I switch off the laptop/desktop, the changes should remain the next time I open and see that file).
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@dr-ramaanand I was able to change the background color by clicking settings, selecting Global Styles, then Selected text colour, clicking on background color and selecting a different background color. Now I will switch off my system to check if it is a permanent change.
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@dr-ramaanand it looks like that changes the background color of whatever is selected. Now, how do I change the background color of a line (when there are multiple lines) permanently? If that is not possible, please let me know how to make a line or two stand out permanently (those lines should stand out and look different, permanently, that is, even if I switch off the laptop/desktop, the changes should remain as they are, the next time I open and see that file)
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@dr-ramaanand said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
can I change the color, font or size of just one of the many lines in my file? I want one line to stand out and look different
It can’t reasonably be done, and in fact, it isn’t a reasonable expectation for a text editor.
See HERE for further info. -
@Alan-Kilborn thank you! I just saved my file with every thing in that line in capital letters. That seems the only option.
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My preferred font, Source Code Pro, is definitely a TrueType font, but it also is affected by this bug.
fonts dot google dot com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro (sorry breaking it up, I can’t post links)
Disabling DirectWrite allows me to use Source Code Pro again, thank you for the tip. This is just another data point.
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N++ DirectWrite is set to Scintilla’s SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITE (1), but there are also SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITERETAIN (2) and SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITEDC (3).
In N++ UI this can not be changed, but you can try with scripting, for example with NppExecsci_sendmsg SCI_SETTECHNOLOGY 3I use Source Code Pro with DIRECTWRITEDC and quite happy with it.
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I think I’ve found some more info on this issue.
When DirectWrite is enabled, I can only use the base version of the font. Any other variant will default to some fallback font.E.g. “Bahnschrift” works, but none of its varians: “Bahnschrift Condensed”, “Bahnschrift Light”, etc.
“Ariel” works, but not “Ariel Black”, “Ariel Narrow”, “Ariel Rounded MT Bold”.I’d like to use “Fira Code Medium”, but I’ll have to use “Fira Code”…
(I don’t want to turn off DirectWrite, because some chars won’t render properly without it)
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@Andi-Kiissel said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
In N++ UI this can not be changed,
In the upcoming N++ version (probably v8.7.8) these Scintilla rendering modes will be accessible via the standard N++ Preferences > MISC.: GitHub commit.
@Tobias-Lind said in changing font not working in v8.6 (but changing size and color does work):
When DirectWrite is enabled, I can only use the base version of the font. Any other variant will default to some fallback font.
The whole problem with the N++ DirectWrite mode & fonts is in the fact that the DirectWrite uses WSS (Weight-Stretch-Style) font family model whereas the older GDI RBIZ (Regular-Bold-Italic…) one. Notepad++ originally supported the older GDI font handling only, then it makes the newer DirectWrite mode accessible but did not accommodate the existing N++ GDI font handling code to match the WSS model of the DirectWrite font families.
There was a nice patch for the Scintilla library, which solves exactly that but unfortunately it has not been accepted. So someone has to fix that directly in the N++ codebase. There is the MS DirectWrite interface IDWriteGdiInterop helper intended exactly for that job, so maybe a challenge for someone capable with free time…?
