Font

Font - Show System Font Palette

You can choose the font family, typeface, size, and other characteristics from the system font palette.

The font selections are used to change normal text on the drawing and annotation text. Font and typeface for normal text may be inspected and changed with the Graphic Details Inspector and this Font panel. Font and typeface for Annotation text must be inspected and changed with this Font panel.

If a text graphic is being edited; changes are applied to the selected range of the text. When not editing a specific text graphic; the changes will apply to all the text of all selected text graphics, text and/or annotations. Undo works in all cases.

This is a system font panel. It will be available in other Apps and present the same functionality. The bottom portion of the panel is an an auxiliary view specific to EazyDraw which provides tools to manage default font, typeface and text colors.

All of the actions possible with the font palette are provided on the Graphic Details Inspector. This approach may be more convenient than opening the full Font Palette as the Graphic Details Inspector will occupy less area of your display screen. The Graphic Details inspector provides access to additional information and characteristics that are not found on the Font Palette.

This panel is accessed from the Font submenu found near the top of the Text main menu.

You may choose the desired font, font size and typeface using the menus and tables found on the System Font Palette. Changes will show on the drawing as they are made on the palette.

A convenience popup menu for selecting font family is provided near the bottom of this panel. This popup menu shows the most recently used font families at the top of the menu.

Use the Set Current as Default button to assign the currently active font family, typeface, and size as the default setting. This means that the any new text graphics will start with these settings. This is persistent when you quit and restart EazyDraw.

Text color is inspected and changed with the color well found lower right on this panel. If text is selected (either a text box, annotation, or selected text in editing mode) this color will is associated with the selected text and changes apply to the target text. If there is no selected target text, then this color well defines a default text color that is applied to new text elements when created.

The Current and Default buttons (lower left of panel) provide the same convenient functionality as found on other EazyDraw parameter palettes. These two buttons manage a master typeface default that applies to all drawings (a text style default with App scope). Basic use is convenient and easy: select some text that has the desired font, font point size, color, and attributes; then click Current. This Current typeface becomes the default typeface for new text that is created. When finished with the typeface click the Default button to return to the permanent default. This behavior applies across all drawings, if a new drawing is started and text is added that text will have the desired font and typeface present when the Current button was clicked.

The Current default font and typeface will reset when EazyDraw is terminated and restarted. Simply clicking the Current button does not change the permanent default text font and typeface. As with all other EazyDraw Current and Default buttons hold down the command key then move the mouse over the button then click to modify or clear the Permanent default.

EazyDraw provides another layer of control for text default management for text. The popup menu on the lower right manages text defaults for a specific drawing and / or a specific layer in a drawing. Select your desired scope (App, Drawing, or Layer) with this popup menu. The Set Current as Default button immediately to the left of the font scope popup is used to set a default typeface for the selected scope. The popup menu (when clicked and opened) shows check mark to indicate when a drawing or layer has a superseding text style set.

The font scope popup menu defines which default will be used. Thus, even if there is a typeface set for a layer and a drawing, if the font scope menu is set to App then the drawing and layer typeface sets are ignored and the master default is used.

The Default button is dual purposed. If draing or layer scope is selected, clicking the Default button will clear the drawing (or layer) and not change the App setting.

The font and typeface default set applies to nearly all the available text attributes, not just font and text color. Attributes such as Underline, or stroked text with outline and fill color are included in the typeface specification set.

Several key configuration settings are found on the small "gear" popup menu, lower left of panel. Notice this element in the figure, top left of this page. If a live preview of the appearance of a font is desired select the Preview setting here. If you do not see this popup menu, enlarge the Font panel using the standard window re-size control at the lower left corner of the panel.

The font Toolbar button, shown top left may be added to the Toolbar using the customize Toolbar menu command found on the main menu.

The top portion of the Font Palette is actually part of your macOS installation. You will find this palette used by most of your macOS applications. The particular form shown here may change in the future as you upgrade your macOS system software. You may find other more extensive documentation on Apple’s web site or other resources on the world wide web.

A separate application called Font Book is provided with your macOS installation. This is found in your applications folder. It is a good tool for reviewing the the fonts available on your system.