* Default font and legibility

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E Wilcock
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Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

I use Family Historian as an adjunct to The Master Genealogist, so please regard me as a new user. I have FH version 5 using Windows 7 (Home) on a Sony Vaio desktop computer.

I find the default font on FH pale (dotted) and hard to read. Could someone explain please why it was chosen as default? And what is lost when one changes it?

I used a property box menu and altered it to Arial Unicode MS. This was a somewhat random choice.

Is there a preferred font for improving clarity for older users? And would this be the best choice across all windows?

I also managed to alter the font for the list of children on the main screen using the customise view link and altering the font for the children on the focus window.

I would like to know whether there is any way of making a blanket change to make all screens more readable?

And whether there is a particular recommended font?

Searching FH Help for the topic Font I couldnt find the relevant info. There was on a Forum discussion about fonts a reference to a pop up menu, but even using help I have been unable to find that menu. May be someone can help me here?
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Jane
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by Jane »

Personally I like Tahoma or similar, I think the default font is a Standard windows one, so much these days depends on the PC you are running and how you have font smoothing configured that it must be difficult to select one which works best on all variations.
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tatewise
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

When you say FH V5 I presume you mean V5.0.11.
To check use Help > About Family Historian.

In the FH Help on the Search tab enter Font Preference and click List Topics.
That lists most of the Help pages on setting Font Preferences for various windows.

I tend to prefer Arial or Arial Bold and increase the point Size as necessary.
(Tahoma and Calibri are very similar.)

If the problem affects other applications as well then try the Windows Control Panel > Personalization > Display options to adjust text Size, ClearType, and DPI.

BTW:
Regarding TMG have you seen the how_to:import_from_tmg|> Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG)?
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Thank you Jane. I havent looked at my windows settings. But will do.

I may have a subsidiary question. One of the attractions of Family Historian is that I read it is ?unicode. So (unlike The Master Genealogist and some others) it can accommodate non Latin alphabets. So I might be able to type in Hebrew or Cyrillic names as given on original documents. We have Japanese too on our tree so I was curious.

But at the moment typing in characters from Hebrew and Cyrillic (which I select in Windows 7 and can see on screen) in a name tag and a note field, reverts when saved to rows of question marks
I notice that the font I have selected for Family Historian seems to force a subsequent choice of Script - Does this mean that everything or nothing must be in Russian characters?

There is no hurry on this - I am just experimenting with FH and it is the weekend - wont be doing more now!

Tatewise - I almost cross posted - No. I seem to have version 5.0.0 - I upgraded yesterday from version 4 and assumed I had downloaded the latest. And yes, thank you, I am aware of the Import from TMG developments. Years ago, I wanted to move data from TMG to FH and have always appreciated the special help given me at that time.
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

So I guess you have purchased the V4 to V5 Upgrade download from Calico Pie?

You can download the latest free upgrade via fhugdownloads:contents:family_historian_5.x.y_upgrade|> Family Historian Version 5.0.11 Upgrade.

Currently FH only supports Windows Code Page 1252 which includes some foreign characters but not all.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252 for details.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Thank you Tatewise - Following up to your query about my version, I had already updated.

As for non-Latin alphabets, it seems that I have for years misunderstood the situation. Many apologies.
I find (from the net) that GEDCOM 5 itself does not allow characters from non Latin alphabets. I thought that users of The Master Genealogist longed for a unicode version because with software in unicode one could enter genealogical data for names of people and places in other fonts and languages. Not so. And this is across all programmes, it seems.
I am sorry to have been ignorant.
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

On Sat Oct 11 you said "I seem to have version 5.0.0" so I advised how to upgrade for free to version 5.0.11.

The GEDCOM 5.5 specification has several approved character encodings, including Unicode (UTF-8), but many genealogy programs also support other encodings such as ANSI/Windows Code Page 1252.

So GEDCOM 5.5 does support non-Latin characters and many genealogy programs do also.

For more details see FH File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File > Help and under Format see Export Format Dialog which describes various character encodings.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Mike - With many apologies - I am grateful for your help. However, I am not an IT expert and am not conversant with the technicalities. So I dont understand the many options in the GEDCOM export/import Help to which you pointed me.

I am not wrestling with TMG import at this point of time. But I think you are explaining to me that the use of unicode or choice of other encodings is to facilitate exchange between programmes?

I was looking for the ability to enter data in a font using non Latin characters. I can use Russian these days in MS Word and on an Android smart phone. So I thought it would be easy. And it would indeed by useful. Looking on the internet, it seems family researchers would like to enter personal or place names in the original characters in which they appear in original source documents, e.g. In my case Hebrew, Russian or Japanese. Many of our friends and neighbours who had previously English language family trees, might now like to add Indian, Vietnamese, Korean names etc.

But I can also see from the net that it is rare to find genealogy software programmes that allow this. Even the best known Hebrew genealogy software, which allows Hebrew and English, it does not allow for Russian Cyrillic.

So I was clearly expecting too much of Family Historian -
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

Unicode character encoding has only really become popularised in the last decade.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode for full details.
The first specification emerged in 1991 and the latest version 7.0 in June 2014.

Software products have gradually adopted Unicode over those years, and are still doing so.

Genealogy products have a much smaller user base than the products you mention, so the cost benefits of adopting Unicode will take longer to materialise.

Family Historian is always evolving and sooner or later may also adopt Unicode, just like other products, in order to maintain its market share, so just wait and see.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Thank you very much for explaining -
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Jane
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by Jane »

Just to let you know I have spoken to Calico Pie and have got permission to say that the next version of Family Historian will have full Unicode support.
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Jane, I just read your post about this on the Roots Web list for former users of TMG. And at once came back here, feeling hopeful but uncertain.

I am sorry to be so dense, but does unicode support just facilitate import and export of data with other programmes?

Or will users of Family Historian be able to write in data - place names and personal names - in the original Russian, Japanese and other non European characters? If so, that would be wonderful.
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

Yes, all of the above, for any of 100s of thousands of characters in any text fields.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Thank you. That is so wonderful!
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by jmurphy »

Jane wrote:Just to let you know I have spoken to Calico Pie and have got permission to say that the next version of Family Historian will have full Unicode support.
Jane -- this is great news. I recommend FH all the time because of the flexibility one has with queries and plugins, and many people instantly reject it because it does not have Unicode support.

A big thumbs up to Simon for adding this feature.
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Gsyd
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by Gsyd »

In saying that "the next version" will support full Unicode, does that refer to Version 6?
Also, will it (or does it) include the ability to enter, save, display, print etc Hebrew text, and to do it in its usual direction of right-to-left?
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

Yes, FH V6 has full Unicode support as stated in how_to:about:version_6.0|> Family Historian Version 6.0.
I believe that includes Hebrew text, providing you choose a font that supports it.
I am not sure about right-to-left text entry. Maybe that is associated with the PC language and keyboard.
You may have to enter the Hebrew text in reverse order, while other text is entered left-to-right.
However, all the screen menus and prompts, and in particular key words in Narrative Reports will be English.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by DavidNewton »

If you right-click in a text field one of the options is Right to Left Reading order, there are other options which might be relevant.

David
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E Wilcock
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by E Wilcock »

Not sure why this has come up again?

But in case it helps - I put Hebrew names , also Russian into FH 6 with no problem.
I have Russian letters on my physical keyboard (because we learn Russian) and if Russian is set in Windows 7, it types directly in to FH.

For Hebrew, I dont possess a Hebrew keyboard. So I never type Hebrew directly into Word or FH.

When I need to transcribe Hebrew from a paper document to a computer document, I set my Windows 7 to Hebrew, then google on line Hebrew keyboard, use that website to type what I need and then copy and paste it in FH. (or in MS Word)

I have only used Hebrew letters in FH to reproduce Hebrew names as they appear in documents - not for long texts which might involve the word wrapping of languages written from Right to left like Arabic and Hebrew.

But I have just tried a few things.
Again you need to use Windows settings. I have Russian and Hebrew already on my Windows settings,. I set my Windows language to Hebrew if I want to type in Hebrew or Yiddish and my computer then writes from right to left.
I have just experimented by typing into the Note field that appears on the MAIN menu in the Properties box. With Windows 7 set to Hebrew, the characters go in from right to left.
As that field doesnt wrap, I then tried on the FH Note field for a Residence Fact. The Hebrew goes in right to left and also wraps.

And (out of curiosity) if I ask fh for an individual summary report - Wow I get such beautiful Hebrew letters. Presumably in the FH default font.

I havent typed meaningful Hebrew as I dont have a Hebrew (physical) keyboard. Plus I dont know enough Hebrew to write in Hebrew anyway.

Copying names in both Hebrew and Russians seems simple in Windows programmes but my experience is that both Hebrew and Russian dont always work in emails or on line and you get strings of question marks.

So I generated a FH website and the Hebrew note showed there too. (I altered the local output sentence to include the residence note)

We now have Japanese family and I dont know if anyone has tried that on FH?

Just be careful when setting additional languages in Windows. You want to type using non-Latin alphabet - You do not want to switch the whole operating system to an alphabet you dont understand.
You may be better at Hebrew than I am, But I once wanted to see if an ipad would write in Russian so in an Apple show room. I managed to set a whole i-pad to Russian and as I couldnt understand Russian in those days, nor ipads, and I couldnt discover how to switch it back. Staff in the Apple store were a bit cross!
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by Gsyd »

Thank you for the several responses re Hebrew text – all informative and useful, giving me what I need to go ahead, install FH and start using it.
It will be my first foray into computerising my genealogy findings.
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tatewise
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Re: Default font and legibility

Post by tatewise »

Since you are a newcomer, then spend plenty of time understanding how Family Historian works.
Experiment with the Family Historian Sample Project before working on your own Project.
Study the how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers and follow its links to the rest of our Knowledge Base. Please do use the Documentation & Tutorials before rushing into building your Project, otherwise I guarantee you will regret it.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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