Rainmeter Forums

I noticed a discrepancy between how Windows 7 and Windows 10 handles fonts.

Example:
Filename: VT220.ttf
Font name: Glass TTY VT220

In Rainmeter in Windows 10, using VT220 as the FontFace works. In Windows 7, you're required to use the actual font name Glass TTY VT220. Not sure if this is a Rainmeter thing or a Windows thing. This discrepancy caused compatibility issues between users on 7 vs 10.

I may be wrong about this. I have only been able to test on 1 machine using Windows 7.

I don't believe this is the case. Windows, and Rainmeter, whether Win7 or Win10, uses the "family name" of the fonts. The name of the font .ttf or .otf file has nothing to do with it.

I think you are going to find that you have two versions of that font on your system somewhere. One that has a family name of Glass TTY VT220 and one that has a family name of VT220.

Can you zip up and attach the .ttf file in your example?

For me definitely doesn't works as Virginityrocks has described this. I think probably jsmorley is right about:

jsmorley wrote:I think you are going to find that you have two versions of that font on your system somewhere. One that has a family name of Glass TTY VT220 and one that has a family name of VT220.

The best tool I have found for looking at fonts is:

dp4 Font Viewer

A free tool that can really show you everything you ever wanted to know about a font.

As far as family naming, load a font in this tool and under "info" (the tabs at the bottom right) you will see all the identifying fields that are included in the font file.

The best way to use the font in Rainmeter is to use the identifier found in these fields.

Preferred Family Name
Family Name
Font Name

This is the preferred order, so if there isn't any Preferred Family Name identifier, use Family Name, and if there isn't that either (rare) use Font Name.

It gets a bit complex, since fonts are a horrid mess of ancient forms, new more capable forms, and a nightmarish mess of backwards compatibility.

But if you stick with using the names found in those fields, in that order of precedence, it should work pretty well.