Text size difference between CA6 & CA7

[Doug Park]

Normally I don't respond to posts on this site as I am very busy trying to make Chief better. Being the one who is responsible for making this change, I thought it would be useful to post some information about why there are text differences between 6 and 7.

The change came about because of numerous complaints about text on screen not looking at all the same as on printouts. This was expensive for users who would at times need to reprint their layouts several times to get the text right. This required numerous adjustments to many text items to get things to line up right on the printer. This was frustrating and costly in time and resources. As you know, large format printing isn't cheap.

In analyzing the way we were sizing text in 6, I discovered some serious errors in the way text sizes and wrapping were calculated. This resulted in very unpredictable behavior when it came to text sizing and printing.

To fix this I put in code that now more accurately calculates text size. The result is predictable results when you print and zoom.

This has one very important caveat.

You must have the font you are using installed on your computer and have your printer setup to use that font without substituting another. The problem with font substitution is that Windows sometimes likes to substitute different fonts at different display sizes. This can really mess up the size calculations as they are currently done.

In addition you need to be using fonts that scale linearly. This is true for the vast majority of fonts. One exception would be older bitmap fonts.

When the above conditions are met, the on screen display of text and the printed text will match very closely. This means that you save time and money by not having to artificially size your text to suit your printer.

I'm not sure how much this affects you when working with existing plans. And I can imagine that if you have a lot of text on a plan that it could take some time to go through and fix it all up. However, once you have it right on screen it will print right as well.

Of the plans that I looked at during my analysis of this problem, usually less than 20% of the text required manual modifications to get it looking good again. This may not be the same in your case.

I can't say for sure that the time savings and cost of bad prints will make up for the time it will take you to convert your old plans. I do know that for working on new plans this is a time and money saver for our customers.

That said, I am willing to look at any plans you have to see if there is anything that can be done for 8 to improve the translation. Forward the 6.0 plans to our support staff and have them forward them to me.

As always it is our desire to make Chief better. Sometimes we run across problems that don't have good solutions. The translation from 6 to 7 of text was one of these. On the one hand we could have left it the same, this would mean that you wouldn't have this translation problem. On the other hand changing it makes things easier for people who are creating new plans.

We gave a lot of thought to the case that you bring up and in the end it was decided that the 6.0 way of doing text was so bad that we needed to dump it entirely and live with the bad press. In the end the majority of our users are better served by making this change.

I hope that you give the new text engine a chance. I really believe that you will be happier working with it than with version 6.

Doug Park
ART Inc.