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Joined: Jun 2004
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Jeroi Offline OP
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Hello, I am still thinking after few years, that why mIRC still uses fixedsys as default font, as it is not unicode support, which includes non suporting Euro (€) letter, and many more letters that are suprted in newer fonts.

A easy feature update would be:

1. Get fixedsys excelsior that is atm 3.01 at this website: http://www.fixedsysexcelsior.com/
2. include that font to mIRC setup
3. Make mIRC use the font as default font after setup, and fontsize: 12

Excelsior is the same font but newer and better support for international languages.

Joined: Oct 2003
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Hoopy frood
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No thanks, but you can gladly add it on your own.

Excelsior is similar but by no means "the same". There are rendering problems with Excelsior under ClearType that make it relatively illegible to those who actually notice their fonts (and have ClearType on).

If you need unicode support, you can add it. That's why mIRC has a font dialog. I don't see a reason to impose a custom font on people. And in any case, with font linking on, you can still view unicode glyphs with default Fixedsys. Not write, only view.. but that makes it good enough to be a default font imho. Anyone who needs to write unicode can happily change their font without affecting those who would rather optimize their IRC experience for maximum legibility.


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Jeroi Offline OP
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yes excelsior font is not the same, but font size 12 is the same font than fixedsys default size in mIRC atm. So why not to include excelsior to mIRC setup?

The rendering problems are with other font sizes in excelsior.

As I said excelsior just adds letters that fixedsys misses when you use fontsize 12. Why to use Fixedsys as a default, when it do not support every possible letters?

To you if you are enlgish or american, you probably dosent need € letter, but I think every European people needs that letter in everyday talk when you compare stuff prices etc. Same goes for other languages that fixedsys dont support.

So when you write negative reply, try think first what rest of the world needs, not just you.

And tbh, 1 € is now 1,5 $. so people needs € as a marker what currency is the worlds leading currency.

In other ways, unicode is defacto standard on letter universally. mIRC using still older format not suporting most languages is not good or is mIRC made only for americans?. The UTF8 should be default on mIRC when we talk what is universal support for other languages than english. Atlest mIRC offers it to world wide web, not for american web. Go figure.

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Hoopy frood
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Firstly realize that many of your assumptions here are false:

Originally Posted By: Jeroi

The rendering problems are with other font sizes in excelsior.


No, the rendering problems exist at the recommended setting. It's a very visible halo (to me), and this is something the author himself admits (it's in the FAQ), though the severity of the issue is subjective.

Originally Posted By: Excelsior FAQ

Even when a font has a perfectly straight line that matches up with screen pixels, CT [ClearType] will create a slight, tiny distortion to its right or left. It becomes more noticeable when the text is brightly colored. This spoils the precision of Fixedsys even though it is a rather minor effect.


He claims it's minor, but I would purport its way too major for me to even use. I know others who feel the same way.

I'd rather mIRC change the default to any *standard* unicode font that is packaged with Windows; not replace Fixedsys with a lower quality variant just to get some unicode characters.

But again, the "default" font isn't very relevant here. Unicode isn't even enabled by default in mIRC, so if anything you should be complaining about that-- not the font that's used. If Excelsior was indeed enabled, it wouldn't matter with unicode off.

Originally Posted By: Jeroi
And tbh, 1 € is now 1,5 $. so people needs € as a marker what currency is the worlds leading currency.


Er, the euro is not the world's leading currency, sorry.

1 Euro = 1.4576 U.S. dollars
1 British pound = 1.9517 U.S. dollars

If anything, it's the pound... and there is a British Pound sign in the relevant ANSI codepages, so once again, problem averted. Of course, this discussion isn't about Unicode vs. ANSI, it's about fonts, so I'll leave that one be.

Originally Posted By: Jeroi

mIRC using still older format not suporting most languages is not good or is mIRC made only for americans?.


#1. mIRC is certainly not made for Americans. Proof: Khaled isn't American.. he's actually far from it. What's more is that Khaled implemented SJIS/JIS conversion (for the Kanji and other Asian fontsets) even before Unicode; a specific implementation for a specific set of languages, that means he does indeed tailor the application to other languages.

#2. If the "older" format you're talking about is using ASCII codepages, then yes, mIRC is still using it. It's still using it because *people* are. This is also a reason you can't just turn on unicode and assume everyone will be happy, because a lot of people are still using single byte encodings.

Again, the conclusion is this:

If you want need to use the euro sign in every day talk when you compare prices, go ahead and change your font / enable unicode. No one is stopping you. Your friends should still be able to see your text without changing their fonts from Fixedsys (again, font linking.) But does your usage justify making it default? Probably not.

Eventually, mIRC will have unicode on by default I would hope. When that is, I don't know-- Khaled might just be working on it right now... But until that day comes, its useless to have a unicode font by default when unicode isn't even on by default. And when that day comes, the font should certainly not be a custom font that renders poorly in the operating system for users with LCD monitors, especially when the rendering can make it completely unusable for many. I'd rather see an ugly font that works for absolutely everyone over a nice font that only works for "most".




- argv[0] on EFnet #mIRC
- "Life is a pointer to an integer without a cast"
Joined: Aug 2007
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Pan-dimensional mouse
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Pan-dimensional mouse
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i think mIRC should use the default theme font


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