topic Re: Cross platform using - font problems in Collaboration with other software

Cross platform using - font problems

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 10:09:55 GMT

Hello,

I am dealing with a problem with fonts using ArchiCAD crossplatform mac/win.

Is there any functional solution for companies using both platforms? When we want to have schedules and any other graphics exactly the same on both platforms? The fact is, that win fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri) are not correct for shedules in mac because of they are not fully unicoded and we work with cze font families.

I red about Xreadcfg file, but I wasnt abble to make it funcional? Have anyone any advice? THX a lot.

M.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

zoli79 — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 10:33:27 GMT

This has become a problem for us as well. Our office uses Mac OS and we were testing remote work on a Windows machine. Our typical fonts are Arial Narrow, Trade Gothic. On windows these fonts don't show up as missing but their spacing is larger, resulting in rows blending into each other, longer rows and even cropped out texts.
Doing some google research, I found that webdesigners suggested as a general rule of thumb that if you work on Windows, it should look fine on a Mac, but if you work on Mac it will look crappy on Windows. Great...

I wonder if anyone has a solution for this issue or was this covered in another thread here?

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 19:47:20 GMT

This is just a guess from me.
There is a file called

XReadCfg.txt

in the

C:\Program Files\GRAPHISOFT\ARCHICAD 20 INT\Add-Ons

folder. It is a configuration file for cross-platform font conversion.
Maybe you need to configure this file properly.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

zoli79 — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 14:46:04 GMT

Thanks a lot! I'll look into that file.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Da3dalus — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 22:34:29 GMT

We're having the same problem. Any luck adjusting the configuration file?

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

zoli79 — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 11:23:28 GMT

Not much, but I haven't gone too far with it, because we figured it would be best if my partner bought a Mac Mini for himself and not deal with potential issues like that.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Da3dalus — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:54:05 GMT

We're still having problems with the font conversion, since we're now integrating Windows computers into our Mac office. We use a font called Swis721, which is similar to Arial/Arial Narrow, but much nicer. Even after it's installed in Windows, and the XReadCfg.txt is configured right (I checked it with tech support), it only works sporadically. Some computers, it's great, and sometimes, the fonts are substituted with something close, while others, the font substitution is illegible. All of these machines are identical and set up the same way! I'm a little rusty with Windows, but as far as I can tell, there is no way to control this default substitution in Windows 10.

I hate Microsoft so much. JMHO.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Minh Nguyen — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 13:37:01 GMT

Da3dalus wrote:
We're still having problems with the font conversion, since we're now integrating Windows computers into our Mac office. We use a font called Swis721, which is similar to Arial/Arial Narrow, but much nicer. Even after it's installed in Windows, and the XReadCfg.txt is configured right (I checked it with tech support), it only works sporadically. Some computers, it's great, and sometimes, the fonts are substituted with something close, while others, the font substitution is illegible. All of these machines are identical and set up the same way! I'm a little rusty with Windows, but as far as I can tell, there is no way to control this default substitution in Windows 10.

I hate Microsoft so much. JMHO.

Hi Chuck,

Thank you for reporting the issue here and I am sorry about the experience!

Matching fonts between OS is never an easy task! I have asked our Technical Support team to take a look at this. To have a deeper investigation of finding out the root of the issue, I'm wondering if you could share with us:

- The XReadCfg.txt file from the Add-Ons folder (https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/60740/)
- Screenshot of a font select dropdown in ARCHICAD that shows the Swis721 fonts
- System Information or System Report (https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/95408/)
- Full-screen screenshot of a text selected in the same project in ARCHICAD with the Info Box visible (you may want to drag the Info Box from the workspace to have it as a separate palette on the screen to give a total look)

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Sculptdesign — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 10:25:22 GMT

Hi, I'm having this issue with a font callde 'PX Grotesk', on windows it has two separate font names:
PX Grotesk - Regular / PX Grotesk Bold

On Mac it is one font with a sub-selection for the weight:
PX Grotesk > Regular / Bold

I have a Windows laptop and an iMac in the office so this is a regular issue and I have king of given up changing every time, which is not good.

I am in the process of developing our main template file and this is holding up the process. I've just also installed AC24 and the issue still persists.

Shall I send in the files/screen shots previously mentioned? How do I send them?

Ash.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Minh Nguyen — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 13:14:09 GMT

Hi Ash,

Thank you for the question and I am sorry about the issue!

I have sent you a link via Private Message, with which you can securely forward the file to us for further investigation.

Please let me know once you have finished uploading the file!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

tsturm — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 17:00:10 GMT

i know the push is for folks to be using AC24 now. I have joined an office using AC22. I am Mac based and they are Windows. We are having this issue as well. Their default font is Arial. On the Windows system. The font is coming up as Arial with a sub language of Central European. On my Mac, I see the font as a substitute font being called [Arial Central European].

I see talk about this XReadCfg.txt file. Is there such a file for us Mac users?

See attached image.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 20:47:57 GMT

On Windows, for Archicad 24, this file is located at:

C:\Program Files\GRAPHISOFT\ARCHICAD 24 INT\Add-Ons

So you should find it in the Add-Ons folder of your Archicad version on Mac, too.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 03:42:50 GMT

Did you manage to resolve this?
We are having exactly the same issues, if so, what is the issue?

Cheers
Chris

Da3dalus wrote:
We're still having problems with the font conversion, since we're now integrating Windows computers into our Mac office. We use a font called Swis721, which is similar to Arial/Arial Narrow, but much nicer. Even after it's installed in Windows, and the XReadCfg.txt is configured right (I checked it with tech support), it only works sporadically. Some computers, it's great, and sometimes, the fonts are substituted with something close, while others, the font substitution is illegible. All of these machines are identical and set up the same way! I'm a little rusty with Windows, but as far as I can tell, there is no way to control this default substitution in Windows 10.

I hate Microsoft so much. JMHO.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Sculptdesign — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 14:13:32 GMT

mnguyen wrote:
Hi Ash,

Thank you for the question and I am sorry about the issue!

I have sent you a link via Private Message, with which you can securely forward the file to us for further investigation.

Please let me know once you have finished uploading the file!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Hi Minh, sorry I missed this message and didn't see your private message. I'm still experiencing this problem so please could you send the PM again and I'll send you the font files.

Thanks!

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

tsturm — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 20:59:31 GMT

i cannot say we resolved the issue of the font. What I did do is make sure that on the Windows side of AC that the team there uses the Western version of Arial. This seems to give the best match between using the file on Mac and Windows. On the Mac side you just use Arial. Its the Windows side that you need to make sure the region is set to Western.

Hope this helps some folks out. I had this back using AC 22. Issue carries forward to AC 24.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

Minh Nguyen — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 13:50:59 GMT

Sculptdesign wrote:

Hi Minh, sorry I missed this message and didn't see your private message. I'm still experiencing this problem so please could you send the PM again and I'll send you the font files.

Thanks!

Hello Ash,

I have sent you a link again via Private Message, with which you can securely forward the file to us for further investigation. Please let me know once you have finished uploading the file!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

naomihansen — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 23:19:08 GMT

I found this thread while searching for a solution to this problem... not necessarily cross-platform, but when opening a file on a Mac with different fonts installed. I checked my XReadCfg.txt file, and it seems fine (showing the font Arial listed, which is what I want), however all my fonts got converted to something else when the project was opened on another Mac. Is there a way to bulk-modify all fonts in a file to one specific font? It would take a really long time to modify all objects and bits of text one by one. I see that tech support was helping people privately, which is great, but not very helpful for everybody else.

Re: Cross platform using - font problems

klaus — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 21:31:06 GMT

Hello friends,

well, as I worked on a individual Library (special objects for a customer-use) I have the same issue 😢...
I could not really understand, why GS do not deliver the different, local distributions (GER, AUT, AUS, ...) with the "local matching" Xreadcfg.txt to match the same fonts...

i.e. on MAC Arial is named "Arial" and the same font is named "Arial Westlich" in WIN-AUT-Archicad distribution...
...so why there are not the WIN-MAC "font-name pairs" of the most used fonts (Arial, New Times Romans, Arial Narrow, Swiss721, Tahoma, Verdana, ...) already in the Xreadcfg.txt included. GS do lots of "local adjustments", so why not in this case??

For most of us (users) everything will work fine, if the "SubSet" (Westlich, Grichisch, Hebräisch,...) ist matched to the localisation. so a german, austrian, swiss,.. localisation of Archicad (GER, AUT, CH,..) get "Arial Westlich" for Arial, a user of the greek-localisation (do not know if there is one 😏 ) gets "Arial Griechisch" in the localized Archicad Distributions...

I hope my English is not too weak - so you can understand what I mean...

looking forward to answers and perhaps discussion...

best regards from Viennna

Yours,

Klaus