System Font Too Large After Installing Screen Fonts

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.0, 3.0a

SUMMARY

After using a third-party Windows screen font creation and installation utility, such as Bitstream Fontware Installation Kit, to create and install large Windows screen fonts, the text under the icons in Program Manager and on the Windows 3.0 desktop, may become very large. This is because the fonts that were being used originally were the wrong resolution for the video driver that is installed.

You must install the appropriate set of screen fonts from the original Windows disks by using the Control Panel. You can also use the EXPAND.EXE utility to decompress the appropriate font files from the disks by copying them to the Windows SYSTEM directory and modifying the [fonts] section of the WIN.INI file, appropriately.

MORE INFORMATION

The screen font used for the text under the icons for Program Manager is chosen from the list of available screen fonts in the WIN.INI, with a preference for those fonts that match the screen resolution of the video driver installed. For Windows installed using the VGA video driver, the preference would be to use the font closest to Helv 8 (VGA Res). This font is included in the file HELVE.FON. If that font is not installed, the system will attempt to pick an appropriate substitute, choosing from fonts with the correct resolution first.

When you install additional screen fonts that have been created for the correct resolution for the Windows video driver, these fonts will take precedence over other screen fonts that may be closer in size and style to Helv 8 (VGA Res) but are at the wrong resolution.

For example, if you are running in VGA mode and the only Helv font installed at VGA resolution is 24 point, the font under the icons in Program Manager will use the Helv 24 (VGA Res) font even if there is a Helv 8 (8514/a Res) font installed.