Re: 3+/4 screen fonts in Win98 [was: MSWord Print]

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

Jay Harlow  wrote:

> This thread gives me some hope. Ever since I moved my Xy3+ to a Win95
> (now 98) machine, I have been frustrated by the limited choices of font
> for screen display. The drop-down menu at the top of the window gives a
> choice of sizes for two fonts -- one a clunky, always-boldface (to my
> eye, at least) roman, tiring for more than a few minutes' work, the
> other a very thin sans serif with small caps that are almost
> indistinguishable from l.c.

This query, like many others about running the DOS versions of XyWrite
under Windows, has nothing to do with XyWrite per se. Rather, the
problems you are having are related to how a DOS program (any DOS
program) is run and displayed under Windows. (In that regard, which
version of Windows one is using and even on which hardware and at which
resolution is much more relevant than which version of Xy.)

Anyhow, you are up against a sore limitation of Windows 95/98/Me, namely
the poor selection of screen fonts for the DOS box. Even if you have
selected both TrueType and Bitmap fonts in the "Font" tab of Properties
for the DOS box, you still get only the choice you describe, and the
window is not freely scalable (it only jumps to certain fixed sizes when
you try to drag the lower right corner). There is no complete remedy for
this, but there are a few things you can do. Some additional bitmap
fonts (freeware and low-priced shareware) can be found here:

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/dosfon_e.html

A web search might possibly turn up more.

An explanation of how to modify SYSTEM.INI to give more sizes for DOS
boxes with TTF fonts is here:

http://twcny.rr.com/technofile/texts/tec070499.html

Changing the screen resolution of Windows (right-click anywhere on the
desktop and select Properties -- Settings) will also affect how the DOS
boxes look. Some experimentation might be in order, provided your
hardware (monitor/video card combination) is up to it.

> Full screen looks worse, and seems to offer no options

For full screen DOS, even under Windows, I use a wonderful program
called Ultravision which gives me a wide range of fonts that look much
better than the ordinary DOS font. Unfortunately, it is somewhat
hardware dependent, and even more unfortunately, it is orphaned and not
findable on the web, as far as I know. (I have a commercial version
dating from 1992.) I successfully got Ultravision to run under Win 95
and Win 98 on a generic desktop with a vanilla video card (sorry, no
details now) as well as on two Compaq laptops, one with an 800x600 TFT
and one with a 1024x768 TFT screen. Currently, I am using it on an HP
Omnibook with a 15-inch 1400x1050 TFT display. I wouldn't consider
working in full-screen Xy without UV, since my work involves typing and
staring at the screen for many hours a day. I think there are also some
pre-Windows utilities for tweaking DOS screen fonts out there, but since
I have no need for them (thanks to Ultravision), I don't have any
details.

Hope this gets you started on the road towards a better looking XyDOS
screen. Incidentally, you might also want to look into utilities that
let you access the full range of colors for text-based DOS programs,
rather than the garish defaults.

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx