> I am using the LabVIEW 6.1 FDS and the Application Builder v. 6.1.with
> TOSHIBA TECRA and Windows XP Professional.
> I have not any problem with the Front Panel quality when running the
> programs, compiled or not in my laptop. However, when I open the
> compiled program in another machine having WINDOWS 98, the buttoms and
> other controls appear distortioned and not aligned.
> The customer�s machine uses 32 bit colour and 14" monitor. I�ve tried
> changing to 16 bit colour but I have got the same results.
The problem is most likely caused by a font difference.
One possible problem is that the W98 machine is set to use large fonts
while the other machines are using normal or small fonts. What this
really does is modify the dpi value the computer uses for the monitor.
There are two measures used for font layout, points or pts and pixels.
Points are 1/72 of an inch, and isn't really supposed to change whether
drawn on a printer or a monitor. Pixels are the dots that the device
produces, and they are all different sizes. Most monitors are somewhere
between 60 and 120 whereas printers are somewhere between 200 and 2400
dots per inch. By dividing by 72, you get dots per point, and this is
how the computer is supposed to keep things the same size when drawn on
screen and printer. The problem is that many monitors don't really know
what their dpi is, particularly when they are multisync. The physical
size of the monitor in inches doesn't change, but the number of dots
does. So the dpi number becomes more of an estimate, and large and
small font settings in windows is there to make the fonts larger
relative to other things by lying about the dpi setting and making the
fonts overly large. Anyway, this makes 2D layout of font based and
nonfont based things really complicated. Some things will grow and
others will not.
A related issue is font substitution. By default, LV builds panels with
the same font that the OS uses, and it adapts when the panel is moved
between computers. This is what most people want, but it obviously can
mess with the panel layout since two fonts of the same point size aren't
necessarily the same pixel size, especially the width. If portability
is more important than looking the same as the OS, you can specify which
font to use for the font in the preferences/ini file and take that along
with your EXE. You can also build the panel to use a specific named
font instead of the dynamic (system, application, and dialog).
By default, your Win 2000 and XP will use a font called Tahoma, and your
older W98 will use Arial.
Anyway, if you keep the fonts and the dpi settings the same, your panel
should stay the same.
Greg McKaskle
