NAME

       Tk::Font - Create and inspect fonts.

SYNOPSIS

           $widget->Font(option?, arg, arg, ...?)

           $font->Option?(arg, arg, ...)?

DESCRIPTION

       The Font method provides several facilities for dealing with fonts, such as defining named
       fonts and inspecting the actual attributes of a font.  The command has several different
       forms, determined by the first argument.  The following forms are currently supported:

       $font->actual(-option?)
       $widget->fontActual(font?, -option?)
           Returns information about the actual attributes that are obtained when font is used on
           $font's display; the actual attributes obtained may differ from the attributes
           requested due to platform-dependant limitations, such as the availability of font
           families and pointsizes.  font is a font description; see "FONT DESCRIPTION" below.
           If option is specified, returns the value of that attribute; if it is omitted, the
           return value is a list of all the attributes and their values.  See "FONT OPTIONS"
           below for a list of the possible attributes.

       $font->configure(-option??=>value, -option=>value, ...?)
           Query or modify the desired attributes for $font.  If no -option is specified, returns
           a list describing all the options and their values for fontname.  If a single -option
           is specified with no value, then returns the current value of that attribute.  If one
           or more option-value pairs are specified, then the method modifies the given named
           font to have the given values; in this case, all widgets using that font will
           redisplay themselves using the new attributes for the font.  See "FONT OPTIONS" below
           for a list of the possible attributes.

           Note: the above behaviour differs in detail to configure on widgets, images etc.

       $font = $widget->Font(-option=>value, ...>?)
       $font = $widget->fontCreate(?fontname??, -option=>value, ...>?)
           Creates a new font object and returns a reference to it.  fontname specifies the name
           for the font; if it is omitted, then Tk generates a new name of the form fontx, where
           x is an integer.  There may be any number of option-value pairs, which provide the
           desired attributes for the new named font.  See "FONT OPTIONS" below for a list of the
           possible attributes.

           Note: the created font is not shared between widgets of different MainWindows.

       $font->delete
       $widget->fontDelete(fontname?, fontname, ...?)
           Delete the specified named fonts.  If there are widgets using the named font, the
           named font won't actually be deleted until all the instances are released.  Those
           widgets will continue to display using the last known values for the named font.  If a
           deleted named font is subsequently recreated with another call to fontCreate, the
           widgets will use the new named font and redisplay themselves using the new attributes
           of that font.

       $widget->fontFamilies
           The return value is a list of the case-insensitive names of all font families that
           exist on $widget's display.

       $font->measure(text)
       $widget->fontMeasure(font, text)
           Measures the amount of space the string text would use in the given font when
           displayed in $widget.  font is a font description; see "FONT DESCRIPTION" below.  The
           return value is the total width in pixels of text, not including the extra pixels used
           by highly exagerrated characters such as cursive ``f''.  If the string contains
           newlines or tabs, those characters are not expanded or treated specially when
           measuring the string.

       $font->metrics(-option?)
       $widget->fontMetrics(font?, -option?)
           Returns information about the metrics (the font-specific data), for font when it is
           used on $widget's display.  font is a font description; see "FONT DESCRIPTION" below.
           If option is specified, returns the value of that metric; if it is omitted, the return
           value is a list of all the metrics and their values.  See "FONT METRICS" below for a
           list of the possible metrics.

       $widget->fontNames
           The return value is a list of all font objects that are currently defined for
           $widget's MainWindow.

FONT DESCRIPTION

       The following formats are accepted as a font description anywhere font is specified as an
       argument above; these same forms are also permitted when specifying the -font option for
       widgets.

       [1] fontname
           The name of a named font, created using the fontCreate method.  When a widget uses a
           named font, it is guaranteed that this will never cause an error, as long as the named
           font exists, no matter what potentially invalid or meaningless set of attributes the
           named font has.  If the named font cannot be displayed with exactly the specified
           attributes, some other close font will be substituted automatically.

       [1a] $font
           A font object created using the Font method. This is essentially the same as using a
           named font. The object is a reference to the name, and carries additional information
           e.g. which MainWindow it relates to in an manner peculiar to perl/Tk.

       [2] systemfont
           The platform-specific name of a font, interpreted by the graphics server.  This also
           includes, under X, an XLFD (see [4]) for which a single ``*'' character was used to
           elide more than one field in the middle of the name.  See "PLATFORM-SPECIFIC ISSUES"
           for a list of the system fonts.

       [3] [family,?size,??style,??style ...?]
           A properly formed list whose first element is the desired font family and whose
           optional second element is the desired size.  The interpretation of the size attribute
           follows the same rules described for -size in "FONT OPTIONS" below.  Any additional
           optional arguments following the size are font styles.  Possible values for the style
           arguments are as follows:

               normal      bold    roman   italic
               underline   overstrike

       [4] X-font names (XLFD)
           A Unix-centric font name of the form
           -foundry-family-weight-slant-setwidth-addstyle-pixel-point-resx-resy-spacing-width-charset-encoding.
           The ``*'' character may be used to skip individual fields that the user does not care
           about.  There must be exactly one ``*'' for each field skipped, except that a ``*'' at
           the end of the XLFD skips any remaining fields; the shortest valid XLFD is simply
           ``*'', signifying all fields as defaults.  Any fields that were skipped are given
           default values.  For compatibility, an XLFD always chooses a font of the specified
           pixel size (not point size); although this interpretation is not strictly correct, all
           existing applications using XLFDs assumed that one ``point'' was in fact one pixel and
           would display incorrectly (generally larger) if the correct size font were actually
           used.

       [5] option value ?option value ...?
           A properly formed list of option-value pairs that specify the desired attributes of
           the font, in the same format used when defining a named font; see "FONT OPTIONS"
           below.

       When font description font is used, the system attempts to parse the description according
       to each of the above five rules, in the order specified.  Cases [1] and [2] must match the
       name of an existing named font or of a system font.  Cases [3], [4], and [5] are accepted
       on all platforms and the closest available font will be used.  In some situations it may
       not be possible to find any close font (e.g., the font family was a garbage value); in
       that case, some system-dependant default font is chosen.  If the font description does not
       match any of the above patterns, an error is generated.

FONT METRICS

       The following options are used by the metrics/fontMetrics method to query font-specific
       data determined when the font was created.  These properties are for the whole font itself
       and not for individual characters drawn in that font.  In the following definitions, the
       ``baseline'' of a font is the horizontal line where the bottom of most letters line up;
       certain letters, such as lower-case ``g'' stick below the baseline.

       -ascent
           The amount in pixels that the tallest letter sticks up above the baseline of the font,
           plus any extra blank space added by the designer of the font.  ($font->ascent is
           provided for compatibility.)

       -descent
           The largest amount in pixels that any letter sticks down below the baseline of the
           font, plus any extra blank space added by the designer of the font.  ($font->descent
           is provided for compatibility.)

       -linespace
           Returns how far apart vertically in pixels two lines of text using the same font
           should be placed so that none of the characters in one line overlap any of the
           characters in the other line.  This is generally the sum of the ascent above the
           baseline line plus the descent below the baseline.

       -fixed
           Returns a boolean flag that is ``1'' if this is a fixed-width font, where each normal
           character is the the same width as all the other characters, or is ``0'' if this is a
           proportionally-spaced font, where individual characters have different widths.  The
           widths of control characters, tab characters, and other non-printing characters are
           not included when calculating this value.

FONT OPTIONS

       The following options are supported on all platforms, and are used when constructing a
       named font or when specifying a font using style [5] as above:

       -family => name
           The case-insensitive font family name.  Tk guarantees to support the font families
           named Courier (a monospaced ``typewriter'' font), Times (a serifed ``newspaper''
           font), and Helvetica (a sans-serif ``European'' font).  The most closely matching
           native font family will automatically be substituted when one of the above font
           families is used.  The name may also be the name of a native, platform-specific font
           family; in that case it will work as desired on one platform but may not display
           correctly on other platforms.  If the family is unspecified or unrecognized, a
           platform-specific default font will be chosen.

       -size => size
           The desired size of the font.  If the size argument is a positive number, it is
           interpreted as a size in points.  If size is a negative number, its absolute value is
           interpreted as a size in pixels.  If a font cannot be displayed at the specified size,
           a nearby size will be chosen.  If size is unspecified or zero, a platform-dependent
           default size will be chosen.

           The original Tcl/Tk authors believe sizes should normally be specified in points so
           the application will remain the same ruler size on the screen, even when changing
           screen resolutions or moving scripts across platforms. While this is an admirable goal
           it does not work as well in practice as they hoped.  The mapping between points and
           pixels is set when the application starts, based on alleged properties of the
           installed monitor, but it can be overridden by calling the  scaling command. However
           this can be problematic when system has no way of telling if (say) an 11" or 22"
           monitor is attached, also if it can tell then some monitor sizes may result in poorer
           quality scaled fonts being used rather than a "tuned" bitmap font.  In addition
           specifying pixels is useful in certain circumstances such as when a piece of text must
           line up with respect to a fixed-size bitmap.

           At present the Tcl/Tk scheme is used unchanged, with "point" size being returned by
           actual (as an integer), and used internally. Suggestions for work-rounds to
           undesirable behaviour welcome.

       -weight => weight
           The nominal thickness of the characters in the font.  The value normal specifies a
           normal weight font, while bold specifies a bold font.  The closest available weight to
           the one specified will be chosen.  The default weight is normal.

       -slant => slant
           The amount the characters in the font are slanted away from the vertical.  Valid
           values for slant are roman and italic.  A roman font is the normal, upright appearance
           of a font, while an italic font is one that is tilted some number of degrees from
           upright.  The closest available slant to the one specified will be chosen.  The
           default slant is roman.

       -underline => boolean
           The value is a boolean flag that specifies whether characters in this font should be
           underlined.  The default value for underline is false.

       -overstrike => boolean
           The value is a boolean flag that specifies whether a horizontal line should be drawn
           through the middle of characters in this font.  The default value for overstrike is
           false.

PLATFORM-SPECIFIC ISSUES

       The following named system fonts are supported:

       X Windows:
           All valid X font names, including those listed by xlsfonts(1), are available.

       MS Windows:
            system       ansi       device
            systemfixed  ansifixed  oemfixed

       Macintosh:
            system       application

COMPATIBILITY WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS

       In prior versions of perl/Tk the $widget->Font method was a perl wrapper on the original
       "[4] X-font names (XLFD)" style as described above (which was the only form supported by
       versions of core tk prior to version tk8.0).  This module is provided in its original form
       (it has just been renamed) via:

        use Tk::X11Font;
        I<$widget>-E<gt>B<X11Font>(...)

       However the methods of the old scheme have been mimiced as closely as possible with the
       new scheme. It is intended that code should work without modification, except for the case
       of using :

         @names = $font->Name;

       i.e. the Name method in an array/list context. This now returns one element on all
       platforms (as it did on Win32), while previously on X systems it returned a list of fonts
       that matched an under-specified pattern.

       Briefly the methods supported for compatibility are as follows:

       $newfont = $font->Clone(-option=>value, ...>?)
           Returns a new font object $newfont related to the original $font by changing the
           values of the specified -options.

       $font->Family - maps to -family
       $font->Weight - maps to -weight
       $font->Slant - maps to -slant
       $font->Pixel and Point - map to -size

       New code should use $font->configure to achieve same effect as last four items above.

       Foundry, Swidth, Adstyle, Xres, Yres, Space, Avgwidth, Registry, Encoding
           Are all ignored if set, and return '*' if queried.

       $font->Name
           Returns the name of a named font, or a string representation of an unnamed font. Using
           $font in a scalar context does the same. Note this is distinctly different from
           behaviour of X11Font's Name in a list context.

       $font->Pattern
           Returns a XLFD string for the font based on actual values, and some heuristics to map
           Tk's forms to the "standard" X conventions.

SEE ALSO

       Tk::options

       Tk::X11Font

KEYWORDS

       font