PUB: Explanation of WYSIWYG Issues (104921)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Publisher for Windows 3.0
- Microsoft Publisher for Windows 2.0
- Microsoft Publisher for Windows 2.0a
This article was previously published under Q104921 SUMMARY
This article discusses WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) issues you
may encounter while using Microsoft Publisher. WYSIWYG is a display method
that shows documents and graphic characters on the screen as they appear
when printed. WYSIWYG attempts to duplicate print output as closely as
possible but is not always exact.
MORE INFORMATION
Publisher may display text inaccurately at some zoom levels. Items on the
screen may appear to be aligned or sized incorrectly. This article
discusses why these display anomalies may occur. Most of these problems can
occur in any Windows-based application and are not unique to Publisher.
To do precise positioning of objects and text, choose a high zoom level
(such as 200 percent). WYSIWYG is much more accurate in high zoom modes.
Low Zoom Levels
At low zoom levels (25 percent, 33 percent) there may not be enough pixels
to display text correctly. For example, the baselines of 10-point text at
33 percent zoom need to be 5.3 pixels apart to be displayed accurately.
However, nothing can be displayed at a fraction of a pixel, so the text
baselines can only be drawn at either 5 pixels or 6 pixels apart, neither
one of which looks exactly right when compared to the ruler or the other
objects on the page. This problem can occur in Publisher 3.0 if the default
greeking feature is turned off.
Printer Fonts
If you are using printer fonts, Publisher may have problems displaying text
correctly because there isn't a close enough match between the printer font and
the screen font.
Line Length with TrueType Fonts
If you are using TrueType fonts, you may notice that the length of a line
of text may look different in full page view than it does in actual size
view. This occurs because the TrueType font engine does not scale fonts
linearly. For example, when Publisher requests a 10-point font from the
TrueType font engine, TrueType provides letters that are taller than they are
wide. However, when Publisher requests a 3-point font from the TrueType
font engine, so that it can display a page in full page view, TrueType provides
letters that are about as wide as they are tall. Because the
smaller fonts are disproportionately wide, lines of text may appear to be too
long in full page view. Also, centered text may appear uncentered, and
tabs may look like they are in the wrong place.
Display problems may also occur because Publisher remaps the selected font
to MS Serif if the text displays below a certain point size when zoomed out.
Large Fonts in Banner View
If you are using a 96-dpi screen (with the standard VGA driver) and you are
in the 3 percent banner view, you may notice that text is misaligned on the
screen. The number of screen pixels per logical inch should be 96 x 3 /
100, or 2.88. This problem occurs because Publisher sometimes rounds this
number up to 3 and then multiplies it by a number of inches. This can lead
to significant errors in the placement of text, which is especially noticeable
when it is centered.
NOTE: WYSIWYG in Windows is still just an approximation, and will continue
to be until there are dramatic improvements in video technology.
| Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 8/16/2005 |
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| Keywords: | kbinfo kbusage KB104921 |
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