Fonts, Fontsets

Report · Feb 22, 2008

Some folks have reported that RH 7 ran slowly -- for example, taking a long time to open a topic -- until they got rid of some fonts. We discussed what we found in the rhfontset.apj file, and in the project cpd file's fontsets table. How many are too many?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick wrote:
Wow, Fonts, Fontsets, Typefaces, points ems oh my!

I'm a bit confused here by what you are all referring to. Here's why.

To me, a “fontset” is what a RoboHelp (or web) author declares as a “fallback” when deploying pages to the internet. Essentially, you declare a fontset that lists three or four fonts that are intended to be used. Then in your style sheet, instead of pointing explicitly at a specific font, you point at the fontset you declared. The browser will then try to use the first font listed in the fontset. If that isn't found, the second and so on.

That's my own best guess as to why there is a “fontset” table in the CPD. Now as to why all the fonts themselves would be listed in the fontset.fpj, that's a bit of a mystery.

Cheers... Rick
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere a developer or two might explain this better, but here's a stab at it.

When you create a new project, RH picks up (nearly) all fonts in your WINDOWS/Fonts folder, I believe, since the RH lineup closely tracks the Windows collection.

RH records the list in two places: rhfontset.apj and a table in the cpd MS Access database. Why the apparent duplication? The apj filetype is a recent development. I'm guessing we're in a transition period while Adobe figures out whether it's safe to abandon the database table. Maybe RH uses one for some things and the other for something else. They seem to be parallel.

With Windows XP and Office 2007, I have more than 350 files in the Fonts folder. Some are "real" bold or italic versions of a standard typeface. RH picks up about 130 font families, for about 185 entries in the apj and cpd lists.
I said "nearly" all. The main type is TTF, True Type Font, for printers. Some are just for screen display. Adobe also supplies some PostScript Type 1 fonts for PS printers and Open Type fonts for text in other languages and the Mac OS.

A font file can become corrupted. You may have inherited or installed a nonstandard font. Your css, cpd and/or apj file may be damaged. I think these are more likely causes for RH to run slowly, rather than having a couple hundred fonts.

A family:
Arial, Arial Black, Arial Narrow, Arial Baltic, Arial Greek, and a few others.
Some fonts also have separate files for bold and italic styles, but RH doesn't list them.

A fontset:
Arial, Helvetica, Geneva

Arial is a creation of Microsoft. Mac OS doesn't have Arial, so the Mac browser uses the alternatives you specify, or goes to its own substitution list. Some PC users might remove Arial because they prefer another.

As Rick points out, the Font Sets dialog lets you specify the alternatives. Each font can be the leader of a set. You select one you're using, maybe a font designed for your company but not in general use, and select alternatives from a dropdown list. The dialog gets the lists from one or the other RH file, or maybe both lists from just one file. Whatever, what you save from the dialog is updated in both places. The first font in a set is tagged with its alternatives, and the latter remain independent fonts as well. You can delete a font from RH or edit a fontset.

Here's a question:
Among readers in the forum, has anyone found a need to create a font set in RH? Why?

Harvey

Report · Feb 22, 2008

Hi Harvey

Well, I'd say you are close. If you re-read what I posted, you will see why we declare fontsets.

Here, I'll copy/paste
Essentially, you declare a fontset that lists three or four fonts that are intended to be used. Then in your style sheet, instead of pointing explicitly at a specific font, you point at the fontset you declared. The browser will then try to use the first font listed in the fontset. If that isn't found, the second and so on.

Font sets are used in the world of Web development. They are there to provide a slight bit of control over the way your pages look on different browsers. For example, most PCs don't have Helvetica, as that is a Macintosh type font. So you specify a font set of Arial, Helvetica and Sans-serif. The browser attempts to use Arial first. Can't be found? Try Helvetica. Can't find that? Then Sans-serif is the catch all used.

As for the .APJ file, this did not originate with Adobe. .APJ means “Annaheim ProJect”. It appeared with X5 I think. I think the name Anneheim probably stems from a code name used when E-Help had RoboHelp. Sorta like version 2002 being named “WildFire”. I believe the purpose of the file is to support the new XML project scheme.

Hopefully this helps... Rick