[vtk-developers] Using system fonts on Windows (fontconfig equivalent?)

[Elvis Stansvik]

2017-04-11 22:00 GMT+02:00 David Lonie <david.lonie at kitware.com>:
> On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 3:54 PM, Elvis Stansvik
> <elvis.stansvik at orexplore.com> wrote:
>> Would it make sense as future improvement to add a VTK module similar
>> to vtkRenderingFreeTypeFontConfig, but which interfaces with the
>> Windows font backend?
>
> Sure, that would be useful.
>
>> How are people dealing with this in VTK applications today? Do they
>> just accept that fonts in VTK will look out of place compared to
>> surrounding UI elements and other programs (and not respecting the
>> user's font settings)? What's the situation on macOS? We're planning a
>> port to macOS as well, and would of course like to respect the user's
>> font choice there as well.
>
> Most of the applications I'm aware of that use a consistent font
> across components with VTK do so by specifying a font file explicitly
> as part of their distribution, or just settle for matching
> serif/sans-serif/monospace properties.

Alright, I guess that's what we'll do for Windows/macOS for now then,
even if the goal was to obey the user's settings and not impose a
specific shipped font. The problem is that the font we choose to ship
may not fit in well with the user's chosen font (which the surrounding
Qt GUI will respect).

Elvis

>
> HTH,
> Dave