VS2005 controls default font size differs from SDK User Interface Control Guidelines

[tomj]

I have application for Pocket PC 2003 (Compact Framework 2.0).

I noticed that when I drop some controls on form, there default font
size differs form User Interface Control Guidelines.

Checkbox has Tahoma, 9pt vs. "use the 8pt, Tahoma black font",

Button has Tahoma, 9pt, style=Bold vs. "use the 8pt, Tahoma bold font",

...

Why?

It not convenient to change font size every time.
Can I adjust default font size for controls?

Thanks,
Tom.

 

[Tim Wilson]

Tahoma, 9pt has been used since CF v1.0. I'm not sure exactly why this was
chosen since the guidelines have always stated Tahoma, 8pt...

"On Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC devices that include Asian languages, use
9pt Tahoma regular font. For all other languages, use 8pt Tahoma bold font."
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...-us/mobilesdk5/html/mob5concommandbuttons.asp

The full .NET framework supports ambience with the Font property; however,
this is not supported in the CF. For a description of ambience see the
remarks section at the following link. If ambience were supported in the CF,
then you could set the Font of the Form (or parent) and that would cover
most of the controls. You could adjust the rest manually.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.font.aspx

So, AFAIK, the only options are to manually change the fonts, either through
the properties window in the designer or by looping through the controls at
startup and setting the fonts, or to derive new controls from the existing
controls and change the font that way.

 

[tomj]

Hi Tim,

If ambience were supported in the CF, then you could set
the Font of the Form (or parent) and that would cover
most of the controls.

Do not think that "future" font ambience support in the CF
will solve my problem. Because according to User Interface
Control Guidelines a half of controls should use Tahoma 8pt,
another - Tahoma 9pt.

TextBox - Tahoma 9pt,
CheckBox - Tahoma 8pt,
ComboBox - Tahoma 9pt,
Label - Tahoma 8pt,
ListBox - Tahoma 9pt,
ListView - Tahoma 8pt,
Menu bars - Tahoma 9pt,
Button - Tahoma 8pt,
.....

Thanks for reply,
Tom.

 

[Tim Wilson]

Do not think that "future" font ambience support in the CF

will solve my problem. Because according to User Interface
Control Guidelines a half of controls should use Tahoma 8pt,
another - Tahoma 9pt.

If you're using each control on each form, then yes. However, if you heavily
favor one type of control in your UI design then you'd set the parent to
reflect the appropriate font. This is what I meant. At this point, I don't
see MS introducing ambience anyways. I just wanted to make the point that if
things were as they were on the desktop then this may be an option.