Programming .NET Windows Applications

Fonts

Fonts provide control over the visual aspect of text. They define the style of the characters, the size, and any attributes such as bold or italic.

Typographical Stuff

There is a considerable difference between the way a computer user thinks of fonts and the way a traditional typographer thinks of fonts, even if that typographer uses a computer for her font design work. This section looks at fonts from the typical computer user's point of view.

Tip

To learn more about traditional typography, several good books are available, such as The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst (Hartley & Marks).

Before delving into the properties, methods, and events provided by the Font class, let's review the most common typographic conventions, especially as they apply to .NET applications.

Fonts are classified according to common stylistic features. The broadest classification, is that of serif fonts versus sans serif. A serif is the little frill found at the bottom of the character strokes. Commonly used serif font families include Times New Roman, Garamond, and Palatino. Serif fonts are often referred to as roman fonts (notice the lower case). A sans serif font (Latin for "without serif") does not have these embellishments. The commonly used sans serif fonts include Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, and Helvetica.

Most Windows systems also include one or more fonts, such as Symbols and Dingbats, that don't fall into either category, since they contain mostly non-alphabetic characters (●