[solved] Helvetica on Windows OS

[sguttag]

I work with QCAD on both Mac and Windows OS. My preferred (strongly) font for some of my text is Helvetica. I've noticed that on the Mac OS, there is no problem. I select Helvetica and when I print (either to printer or to PDF) I get Helvetica. On my Windows based machines, While the drawing will indicate it is Helvetica (and I DO have the Helvetica Font loaded on the Windows machine), what QCAD displays on screen and what it prints is Arial.

Why is that? And, more importantly, is there a way I can configure QCAD to not substitute Arial for Helvetica?

Not Helvetica.JPG (29.95 KiB) Viewed 5640 times

Presuming the screen shot worked, anyone that knows the differences on the two fonts knows that "R" is not an Helvetica "R."

[andrew]

Thanks for your report.
QCAD does not do any font substitution, but the underlying Qt might, usually only if a font is not available.

Could you please indicate your exact QCAD version and Windows version and attach your DXF file, so we can try to reproduce the problem here? Thanks.

Also: is the Helvetica font shown in the text dialog as an available font or did you load a file that uses Helvetica?

[sguttag]

I'll work with a file tomorrow when I'm at work...that is where the Windows machine is.

It is a Windows 10 computer (build 2004) and QCAD is current 3.25.2 on both machines. Mind you, it is often the same file (my drawings are normally on my Google drive so as I go between work and home I am working on the same drawings. But, when I print/export to PDF, I know from which computer I was on, at the time, based on the Helvetica/Arial font.

Helvetica, as I mentioned, is loaded on both machines (Mac and Windows 10) so I can use it in word processing documents (and there isn't an issue there, I've only ever noticed it on QCAD).

The screenshot I showed was from my office (Windows 10) machine where the list shows Helvetica but the font displayed is clearly Arial. BTW...I opened a new file just for the example so yes, the font is available in the Text dialog box...it didn't come over via a file.

Maybe there is the problem...the "Helvetica" font that is being drawn in the font dialog is NOT Helvetica...it is Arial. As I look at the letters e, t, c and a...they're wrong. Helvetica Neue, right below it are correct though italics. I have a screen shot that has both Mac and Windows versions of QCAD and both claiming Helvetica but only one really has it.

Screen Shot 2020-10-20 at 7.52.16 PM.png (986.29 KiB) Viewed 5619 times

What is weird is that MS-Word seems to have no trouble, on the Windows machine using the real Helvetica.

Hevetica Test201020.dxf

(99.25 KiB) Downloaded 365 times

[sguttag]

For what it's worth. I just tried this on a different Windows computer running Windows 7 Pro and again, it uses Arial for the displayed and printed font despite having Helvetica loaded into the Windows Font folder and when one selects a font in QCAD, Helvetica shows up but it is really Arial letters that are writing out "Helvetica."

[andrew]

Interesting...

I did some quick digging and I'm not sure if this is a Qt bug (the library QCAD uses for text rendering among other things) or a Windows "Feature" or a mixture of the two.

In a nutshell, Windows really likes to substitute Helvetica for Arial. There's a registry entry that controls that behaviour, under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes:

Screenshot 2020-10-21 at 21.55.08.png (338.71 KiB) Viewed 5574 times

If you change that to "Helvetica" with value also "Helvetica", the effect in QCAD is instantly visible.

[CVH]

Nice catch.

This solves a lot of Helvetica issues ...
Regards
CVH

[sguttag]

Yup! That definitely fixes the problem. Thanks!