The system font panel is a very flexible user interface for selecting and managing
collection of fonts. Whenever I demo this to even seasoned Mac OS X users, they
are blown away by the flexibility. All Cocoa applications use the font panel
implicitly and with the Jaguar release, Carbon applications can add it to their
feature set. Here's a series of screen shots that show the flexibility of the
panel.
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This is the font panel in it's "typical"
form. In a simple floating panel, you can browse fonts in collections,
families, type face and size.
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You can also preview fonts as well. Choose 'Show Preview'
in the Extras... popup.
Many people don't realize that you can slide the preview panel up and
down. There's a hot zone near the bottom of the preview. |
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A new feature in Jaguar.
Notice how the selection list and the slider are active at the same time
in this view?
Go to the Extras... menu and choose Edit Sizes'. There, you will find
a check box to enable these controls. |
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The font panel can also be made to be really simple. Simply
by reszing the window, user interface elements will get smaller and when
you reach a certain threshold, the window will simplify itself. For example,
here, the Collections list has been dropped because the width of the window
is reduced. |
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Reduce the height of the window (again, by resizing it) and
notice how the scrolling lists turn magically in to popups! |
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