Fonts in Pages 08 - A question

[bellbram]

Being new to Pages 08 I'm still struggling to get to grips with the multitude of bells and whistles.

What I can't find — and would really like — is a way to get the Font Menu to list fonts as actuals.  I know one can see what they look like by reference to the Font Book but that's very inconvenient.
Word, AW and Mariner Write list fonts as actuals and I imagine there must be a way to get Pages to do likewise.   Someone (Dick? Jim?) let me in on the secret please.

[sandyman]

On the Fonts panel, click the little cog on the bottom row and select "show preview" from the pop-up menu.


Sandy

[bellbram]

Thank you Sandy.  That gets me half-way there — at least I can see what a font looks like once I've selected it, but what I was hoping for was a menu listing all fonts in their actual shape, thus saving the chore of trawling through a long list and clicking on them individually to find one that suits the occasion.   With fonts listed as actuals, one can see right away the one to pick.

I can't believe that a sophisticated prog like Pages has missed out on that most helpful of items.

[tacit]

QUOTE(bellbram @ Jun 21 2008, 05:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you Sandy.  That gets me half-way there — at least I can see what a font looks like once I've selected it, but what I was hoping for was a menu listing all fonts in their actual shape, thus saving the chore of trawling through a long list and clicking on them individually to find one that suits the occasion.   With fonts listed as actuals, one can see right away the one to pick.

I can't believe that a sophisticated prog like Pages has missed out on that most helpful of items.

More and more programs are moving away from that, actually. And the most sophisticated programs--page layout programs--abandoned it long ago.

The reason is that modern computers do not contain just English-language Roman fonts. Most computers have a variety of dingbat fonts, Japanese and Chinese fonts, Cyrillic fonts, and other non-Roman fonts. Spelling out the name of the font in the font menu in the actual fonts makes the name of the font impossible to determine.

[Xairbusdriver]

It also places a very large burden on the cpu(s) and/or the graphics card. Actually, as more new apps and new versions of old ones appear, I expect you'll be seeing more and more of them using the "Font" display function built into the OS. No need to 're-invent the wheel!' Even if the new one falls off every once in a while!

[bellbram]

Tacit & ABD:  Thanks for the explanations, but it still seems to me a retrograde step.   I accept what you say about Japanese, Chinese, Dingbats, etc., but don't see that as an excuse for not putting Roman fonts as actuals.   If Word & Write can do it, why not Pages?

If one wants a new font, but not quite sure which, it's a real bind to have to trawl through over 200 font names to see what they look like.
I may just go to the trouble of creating my own font 'dictionary'  

[krissel]

Peter, this app is freeware and can print out an example of all your fonts to create your "dictionary".

http://www.brightpebbles.org/fontparade


That is one reason I still use Appleworks since it can display all the fonts in their own style.

[bellbram]

Thanks for that Kris.    Very useful.  Will save me a lot of trouble.

[Paddy]

I'd have to disagree with the statement that "more and more programs moving away" from showing WYSIWYG fonts in the menu. InDesign CS2 and CS3 and Photoshop CS3 (and probably CS2, but I never owned that) both have a WYSIWYG option for the type menu - the type name is spelled out in the system font, but the word "sample" is spelled out beside it in the named font. Illustrator also has this - though from the character palette menu rather than the one in the top menu bar. It doesn't slow anything down except the first time when it builds the menu. I always leave it on by default, finding it very useful and much faster than any other method of getting a quick view of a typeface. Of course, if I need more info or a better look, I can also use Font Book.

There's a short video about all of this here: http://yabb-adobe-doo.com/cinema3/wysiwyg_font_menu.html

Unfortunately, none of this helps you with Pages, Peter, but to say that programs are moving away from WYSIWYG font menus is not correct, when Adobe makes it available in their applications and Quark has just added this feature (at the request of users) to QuarkXpress 8:

http://planetquark.com/2008/05/29/quark-an...-quarkxpress-8/

So...tell Apple what you want too - maybe they'll listen! Always worth a try - nothing is carved in stone.

[bellbram]

Paddy:  You've given me heart.  I shall stiffen the sinews and summon up the blood and I will let Apple know my view on WYSIWYG fonts.
Trouble is, I'm not at all sure how to make contact with the right folk.  Your guidance would be appreciated.

There's life in the old dog yet  

[Paddy]

Here ya go, Peter:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

[bellbram]

Thanks for the URL.  Have just let them have a piece of my mind.  Not too much — I can't spare it