402343 - Default Hebrew font for form controls is too large / ugly

Status: NEW

(Core :: Widget: Win32, defect, P4)

Description

[Uri Bernstein]

Attachment: screenshot: IE vs. Firefox

The font used by default for Hebrew in form controls (text input, button, select) is an old-fashioned, poorly-designed, and too large for its line spacing, making it uncomfortable to read.
IE uses a different, much better font for form controls.

The attached screenshot shows IE (7, but 6 is the same) and Firefox (2.0, but trunk is the same), side by side.

Comment 1

[Uri Bernstein]

Attachment: screenshot: IE vs. Firefox (not bloated)

Comment 2

[Uri Bernstein]

Apparently, we're using DEFAULT_GUI_FONT [1], which is a Very Bad Thing [2][3].

[1] http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsblame.cgi?file=/mozilla/gfx/src/thebes/nsSystemFontsWin.cpp&rev=1.4&mark=196#183
[2] http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/07/07/436435.aspx
[3] http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2006/04/28/585735.aspx

Comment 3

[Simon Montagu :smontagu]

It's far from clear from those references and the places they link to what we should be doing instead...

Comment 4

[Uri Bernstein]

FWIW, IE seems to be simply using Arial (which I don't think has any special status as a "GUI font" - it's certainly not the font used on system dialogs).

Comment 5

[Simon Montagu :smontagu]

Does IE use the same font on XP and Vista?

Comment 6

[Uri Bernstein]

Attachment: IE/Vista screenshot

Yes, Vista uses the same font (my previous screenshot was from XP).

Comment 7

[Simon Montagu :smontagu]

We should check whether other locales have a similar problem.

Comment 8

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

Not blocking, but would take a safe patch.

Comment 9

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

Same situation as for 1.9.0 -- would take a patch for it, but won't block on it.  I'm not sure I believe the blogs; we use DEFAULT_GUI_FONT for a lot of things, and it looks fine (and looks native).  We could hardcode Arial on some locales, I guess, if needed to fix this.

Comment 10

[Itiel]

Attachment: Testcase

Comment 11

[Itiel]

Attachment: Testcase IE vs. Nightly comparison on Windows 10

Comment 12

[Itiel]

(In reply to ItielMaN from comment #11)
> Created attachment 8829266 [details]
> Testcase IE vs. Nightly comparison on Windows 10

I think IE's looks better, though I'd prefer having the Arial font in the form textbox.

Comment 13

[Itiel]

Attachment: Testcase on Nightly without ClearType