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This topic has been in a few posts, so I will try to explain fonts as
I understand them. Errors may exist, but I tested this thoroughly on
my computer, changing various settings back and forth. your
experiences may vary, of course...
Here is a summary, part of which was copied from an earlier post:
1. the font settings in Courier (Mailbox>Properties>Advanced Setting)
are for personal viewing. the helpfiles are fairly explicit on that.
they work well for plain text email. However, you are the only person
who sees that font. Whether in compose or preview, the font is for you
and you alone. The email you send does not use the font. all that is
sent with the font is the character-set id. (see #4 below.)
2. fonts for HTML files are, according to the helpfiles, set each time
in Compose view.
3. there is no default setting for HTML fonts in compose view in
Courier - let's say, I can't find any setting that is repeatable.
4. default alternate fonts per item 1, above will vary, depending on
the character set you picked. This was a design technique going back
to Calypso. You may pick a default personal viewing font for each
character set. (For example, I use "US ASCII" and that defaults to
Arial. If someone sends me an email using a different character set,
such as ISO-8859-1, the default viewing font may vary on my computer,
depending on what selections I made in Mailbox>Properties>Advanced
Setting.)
5. the default reply font for HTML messages is the webpage font
selected in InternetExplorer under
Tools>InternetOptions>General>Fonts>Webpage Font. The default for this
is TimesRoman. Whether your reply uses this font may vary, depending
on placement of the cursor when you begin typing. The Reply separator,
if used, appears to be Arial font. So, if you position your cursor
within it, your reply will be in Arial. If the reply separator is
removed, and your cursor is positioned within the boundry of the
original email, your font will be in the font of the original email.
Whew! I don't mean to imply that the above is how Courier "should"
work, but my tests indicate that this is how it does.
I agree there is a need to set a default HTML font for those who
prefer HTML email. But it's not there yet.
And, if anyone has different info than what I posted here, and is
repeatable with different fonts, I would enjoy hearing of it to
further my grasp of the fonts in Courier. Thanks,
david
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I've been using Courier/Calypso for at least 10 years (I'm guessing since around '95) and have turned several other people on to it as well.
I just read your post above, and the font thing really isn't any clearer than it ever was. I always reply above the separator, and I would like to have Arial 10 as default and sometimes it does, but probably half the time it goes to 12.
Several years ago I gave up trying to figure this out. At any rate, what I would like to know is this: Do most other email programs have such a seemingly random, unpredictable font usage? I have used Outlook a few times in the past 10 years and do not remember this being an issue.
I've been using Courier/Calypso for at least 10 years (I'm guessing since around '95) and have turned several other people on to it as well.
I just read your post above, and the font thing really isn't any clearer than it ever was. I always reply above the separator, and I would like to have Arial 10 as default and sometimes it does, but probably half the time it goes to 12.
Several years ago I gave up trying to figure this out. At any rate, what I would like to know is this: Do most other email programs have such a seemingly random, unpredictable font usage? I have used Outlook a few times in the past 10 years and do not remember this being an issue.
Do you have Arial set as your default in IE? That should cause Arial to be used instead of TimesRoman. As my post mentioned, this cannot be set within Courier. I agree that this isn't a common situation, but it is not uncommon for email clients to use certain Windows defaults. Courier relies on IE for HTML processing; some email clients do this separately. However, this is a known issue and I know it's being considered for a future adjustment. Partly, it's a curiosity issue... My PC always uses TR on responses and I understand why. On rare occasions, depending on how a received HTML message is formatted, my response will be in the font of the originating PC. I made the post because I receive periodic questions on fonts and many people think the font setting options within Courier control HTML fonts, but they do not. My hope was to help and not confuse, but I sometimes just confuse...
I wrote a little while ago "Default HTML works for me.". I retract the entire post.
Oops! Let me clarify... There is no option to *set* a default. Yes, there is a default.... and it works fine for me, too, on those occasions when I use HTML... the default is Arial 10. I should have made that more clear. Thanks for the response.
I wrote a little while ago "Default HTML works for me.". I retract the entire post.
I posted in this space Monday that there is a way to set an HTML font and then I retracted it because I thought I was wrong. Well, after some more thorough testing I am now convinced that the default font for HTML works fine in Courier. I used build 1192 to test.
The default font, size and color only works for a NEW email. When you reply or forward an email then Courier uses the font in the original email. And, of course the recipient must have the font you choose in his/her email client otherwise the default will be the recipient's default font, probably Times New Roman.
To test I used 36 pt Comic Sans MS Italic in maroon color. There would be no way that the recipient would know if the default font worked. I sent mail to Outlook Webmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail and some other clients.
Click on Courier Help and enter HTML for an Index search. Then read "HTML Message Options" and "Composing HTML Mail".
Here is what I did step by step:
1) Click om Mailbox -> Properties -> Character Sets tab.
For Default Character Set I chose ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1 )
I chose the same for Associate Character Set and Font
I clicked on the Change button to the right of Compose view font
I chose Comic Sans MS, 36pt, italic
2) Click on Advanced Settings tab
Click on the color bar to the right of New message text
Choose your color choice and click OK
3) Click on the Compose tab
Tick Compose with rich text (HTML)
Click OK and you're finished
I sent an email to my various email clients.
MS Office 2003 Outlook displayed correctly -- maroon Comic San MS 36pt
Outlook Express displayed correctly.
Courier displayed correctly.
Eudora displayed correctly.
Yahoo classic email using IE7 displayed in black italic 36pt Times New Roman.
Yahoo (new email, I don't know what they call it) displayed the same except the color was maroon.
Yahoo, using Firefox -- both classic and new displayed black Times New Roman 36pt italic
Windows Live Hotmail in both Firefox & IE7 displayed black Times New Roman 36pt italic
Google Gmail displayed the font as Comic Sans MS 36pt but in black with both Firefox & IE7
AOL AIM displayed maroon italic Times New Roman 36pt using both Firefox and IE7
Outlook Webmail using Firefox displayed the email in Times New Roman black 36pt italic. When I clicked on "View as Web Page" it displayed correctly in Comic Sans MS 36pt maroon font.
Outlook Webmail using Internet Explorer 7 displayed correctly
My conclusion is that if you have a real email client on your PC then you will receive the email in the font that was used to send it. All webmail is unreliable when it comes to the font.
I posted in this space Monday that there is a way to set an HTML font and then I retracted it because I thought I was wrong. Well, after some more thorough testing I am now convinced that the default font for HTML works fine in Courier. I used build 1192 to test.
The default font, size and color only works for a NEW email. When you reply or forward an email then Courier uses the font in the original email. And, of course the recipient must have the font you choose in his/her email client otherwise the default will be the recipient's default font, probably Times New Roman.
To test I used 36 pt Comic Sans MS Italic in maroon color. There would be no way that the recipient would know if the default font worked. I sent mail to Outlook Webmail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail and some other clients.
Click on Courier Help and enter HTML for an Index search. Then read "HTML Message Options" and "Composing HTML Mail".
.......<snip>....
This is great news! And I see the error of my ways. I appeciate the dialog because we're getting to the solution of this... Earlier I had been focusing on the reply font and why it varies... but you're correct in this. Part of the problem is that the help you mention does not explain this and never has. I even updated the help file to clarify what it was saying... which was not enough. I assure you that the helpfile will be properly updated. My error was that I often was using US ASCII char set. And you don't need to change your default to ISO-8859. i tried with US ASCII default and a font set in ISO-8859 and it works. Thanks for your help.
I posted in this space Monday that there is a way to set an HTML font and then I retracted it because I thought I was wrong. Well, after some more thorough testing I am now convinced that the default font for HTML works fine in Courier. I used build 1192 to test.
....<snip...>
Thanks to your help, I'm reposting my understanding of Courier's management of HTML.
Okay, so why am I reposting this again? Well, the Helpfile from
Calypso and Courier has never had it right and one of my goals is to
get the Helpfile updated to tell exactly how Courier works. Already
I've made over a hundred corrections/additions to the helpfile, and
getting HTML right is bugging me. I 'think' I've finally got it right,
thanks much to Rockfox's post on the Forum
(http://www.windowsbbs.com/courierforum ) There were several
misstatements in my earlier post and I'm glad to now know more.
Here is a summary:
1. Default font settings for COMPOSING mail are done at
(Mailbox>Properties>CharacterSet). For plain text emails, the selected
font displays only on your computer. For HTML emails, the default font
selected applies to NEW email that you compose. However, setting a
default HTML compose font requires that you set it with a character
set OTHER than US ASCII or AUTO and you should set your default
character set also. (In my earlier post, my error was that I was using
US ASCII, which does NOT apply to HTML messages.
2. VIEWING Mail varies. For plain text mail, the font you see will be
the font you associated with the character set of the incoming email.
For example, maybe your default is ISO-8859-1 and your compose font is
Book Antiqua, but your ISO-8859-2 default is still Arial (because you
never changed it.) If someone sends you a plain text email using the
ISO-8859-2 character set, you will view that email in Arial; not your
default of Book Antiqua. If you want to view all plain text email in a
selected font, you need to make that change to all the character sets
for which you will receive mail... OR... just accept that when it is
in Arial, it is not your normal character set...
For viewing HTML mail, you will see the font as defined by the person
who sent the email, e.g., if they composed in TimesRoman, you will see
it in TimesRoman. Character set does not apply.
3. The REPLY Font varies. For plain text, your reply font will be the
one you set for the character set of the received email. As in the
above example, if you received a message in ISO-8859-2 and your
setting was Arial, then when you click reply and type, the font will
be Arial, not your ISO-8859-1 default of Book Antiqua. Basically, your
reply font will match the incoming font.
For replying to HTML mail, the process is not consistent. All of the
above I can duplicate consistently. Replying to HTML is still a work
in progress. The following still applies:
The default reply font for HTML messages is the webpage font
selected in InternetExplorer under
Tools>InternetOptions>General>Fonts>Webpage Font. The default for this
is TimesRoman. Whether your reply uses this font may vary, depending
on placement of the cursor when you begin typing. The Reply separator,
if used, appears to be Arial font. So, if you position your cursor
within it, your reply will be in Arial. If the reply separator is
removed, and your cursor is positioned within the boundry of the
original email, your font will be in the font of the original email.
Translation: sometimes when I reply to an HTML message, I find myself
using the originator's font. But sometimes I find myself using
TimesRoman. And occasionally - not as often - Arial. And... I received
an HTML message created with an OE stylesheet (or whatever it's
called) and the text was Arial, but when I clicked reply, my text
appeard in MS Sans Serif. That does not match any of my other
observations.
I think I have a good grasp on everything *except* the HTML reply
font. Sometimes it is the IE setting, sometimes Arial, sometimes the
font of the incoming mail and then that weird MS Sans Serif. If anyone
can shed light on this in a repeatable way, I will appreciate it.
thanks for your input and your patience. I'm open to any errors that I can duplicate consistently. This all will make for a better Helpfile.
david
Sweet! I've always been frustrated in replying to HTML messages in that my font defaulted to TNRoman, but once I changed my "Internet Options" default from US Ascii to the aforementioned ISO, it now shows up as my selected Arial 10.
If it doesn't, due to the HTML email received, I just highlight from the "reply" header to the top of the page (the font and size selection goes blank), then select the drop down for font and size which have the current selection at the top (Arial, 10).
I think there is some confusion about fonts in plain text mail vs HTML mail.
In plain text mail there is NO FONT information transmitted with the email. That's why it is called plain text. You can set any font you want for composing puposes but the recipient WILL NOT receive that font. The recipient will view the received email in whatever is his or her default font.
For HTML mail font information is transmitted with the message and if the recipient has that font on his or her computer then it will display in the same font that was used to send it. If the recipient does not have the font that was transmitted then the recipient's computer will choose a font.
And, as David says, the default HTML font is used only in a NEW email. For replies and forwards Courier uses the font that the original email was written in. This is NOT peculiar to Courier. If you modify an MS Word document the font used will be the font originally used unless you change it yourself.
And I have found the US ASCII character set may be used with your default HTML font. It is just has fewer characters then the more moden ones such as ISO-8859-1.
I think there is some confusion about fonts in plain text mail vs HTML mail.
In plain text mail there is NO FONT information transmitted with the email. That's why it is called plain text. You can set any font you want for composing puposes but the recipient WILL NOT receive that font. The recipient will view the received email in whatever is his or her default font.
For HTML mail font information is transmitted with the message and if the recipient has that font on his or her computer then it will display in the same font that was used to send it. If the recipient does not have the font that was transmitted then the recipient's computer will choose a font.
And, as David says, the default HTML font is used only in a NEW email. For replies and forwards Courier uses the font that the original email was written in. This is NOT peculiar to Courier. If you modify an MS Word document the font used will be the font originally used unless you change it yourself.
And I have found the US ASCII character set may be used with your default HTML font. It is just has fewer characters then the more moden ones such as ISO-8859-1.
yes, it's all subtle. for example, for plain text, the recipient will view the message in the recipient's default font - 'for that character set'... Courier allows many default fonts... one for each received character set. important to keep that in mind to prevent misunderstandings. Courier doesn't transmit font info, but it does transmit character set info.. whew!
I've read all of these posts, and find my eyes glazing over in the midst of some of them. I do appreciate, however, the efforts made by all to get a handle on this.
But it's all way, way too complex for me to care about. Which font happens to pop up at any given moment isn't important enough to me to have to spend hours studying why and what to do about it. I have more pressing matters in my life.
I asked in an earlier post, are all email clients this complex when it comes to fonts?
