Why do the same fonts look different in different programs?

[Will]

I get so tired of copying and pasting stuff from one program to another (say from Wordpad to Windows Live Mail or vice versa) and
seeing the fonts looking different, line spacing being different (even if I'm only moving a single word), etc. Is there no way of
achieving consistency in word processing these days with fonts? Times New Roman at size 15 font should look the same all the time.
Is something else that I'm unaware of changing something? Can I control this?

 

[Bob I]

You can have different zoom set in each application.

 

[Will]

Thanks Bob. Very true - I'd neglected to consider that. But I'm copying from Email and I thought there is no zoom in WLM but I'll
check to make sure the zoom is at 100% always in Wordpad. Is Text Size in WLM the equivalent of Zoom? I have mine set at Largest.
Maybe that's the problem here?

 

[Bob I]

Never used WLM but that "Text Size" would be the likely cause of your
difference.

 

[Will]

Thanks Bob. This really makes perfect sense and is something most of us overlook when moving data between programs. Its so easy,
especially with keyboard shortcuts to manipulate font sizes, particularly on different websites, to dial things in just right as
most browsers have finally woken up to something Opera pioneered years ago, that we often don't realize the font has been changed.
But there's something to consider: When I change the zoom, the font should not change. The zoom is just my magnification level
chosen - the font has not changed. Ideally I would think it best to never change the font size as that's been chosen by the author
for often several reasons unbeknownst to the reader. And it really shouldn't be necessary to change the font. But some programs
kind of mangle the two. OS X does this a lot too. Really shortsighted of them but perhaps it makes it easier to design the program
that way - one less step.