Hi. FM 8.5 win/mac

Most of the users are on Macs but there is at least one on Windows. I
need a symbol font that includes a character that is a bold star, that
will show up similarly on both Mac and Windows.

Thanks in advance!

Greg

You can use any true type font, and if it is not on both platforms you can
distribute it along with your solution. The end user has to install the
font, but that should not prove to be to difficult.

Ursus


"Greg Dember" <greg (AT) artocratic (DOT) com> schreef in bericht
news:greg-50D5D9.10465514012007 (AT) bubbleator (DOT) drizzle.com...

In article <45aa882b$0$45362$dbd45001 (AT) news (DOT) wanadoo.nl>, "Ursus"
<ursus.kirk (AT) wanadoo (DOT) nl> wrote:
Unless the Mac user has installed Microsoft Office, I don't think there
are actually any fonts that are exactly the same between Mac and
Windows. This is precisely because of the licensing issues below.

FileMaker tries hard to match "similar" fonts when moving a database
across to the opposite platform, but it can cause minor alignment
problems with normal fonts (as can the way the two operating systems
render fonts on-screen - you should ALWAYS check the database on the
operating system it will be used on). Symbol fonts are a bit of a
nightmare.

It depends what you're is trying to do, but using a graphic instead of
a font is probably the best answer.

Another way would be to use two fields - one formatted to be Zapf
Dingbats for the Mac and one formatted to be WingDings for Windows -
and place them on top of each other on the layout(s). You would then
have to use the Get(CurrentPlatform) function to work out which
platform the database is being used on and set the appropriate field to
the character that produces a star.

The final way would be to make you own True Type font that has a star
in it, but then as Ursus says you have to have a user that knows how to
install fonts correctly (or use an installer-creator application to
make an installer to do it for them).




NO.
It's never a good idea to tell people to simply distribute things on
their computer since unless they created it themselves it's almost
certainly copyrighted.

Depending on where the font came from, it can be illegal to distribute
it like that. Most fonts, including those installed by the operating
system, have a license agreement just like any piece of software that
means you are not allowed to simply copy them wherever you like.

There are many freeware fronts around on the Internet which DO mean you
can copy them anywhere.



Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Ursus wrote:
Unless there is some recent development in Tru-type licensing that I am
unaware of, tru-type fonts are subject to the same restrictions as all other
software.

It would be safer to find a free font you like, that has an installer
available for both platforms, then either point to that, or distribute it as
part of your package. Or find a non-free font you like, and try to negotiate a
distribution license with the maker.

Kent