The system draws all text in a dialog box using the system font by default. An application can direct the system to use another font by setting the DS_SETFONT style for the dialog box and specifying a point size and typeface name. Although a dialog box template can specify a font, the system always uses the system font for the title and menus of the dialog box; the DS_SETFONT style does not change this.
When the DS_SETFONT style is specified, the system sends a WM_SETFONT message to the dialog box procedure and to each control as it creates the control. The dialog box procedure is responsible for saving the font handle passed with the WM_SETFONT message and selecting the handle into the display device context whenever it writes text to the window. Predefined controls do this by default.
When the DS_SETFONT style is given, the system uses the average character width of the font to calculate the position and dimensions of the dialog box. Otherwise, it uses the average character width of the system font.