QFontDatabase/QFont question

[Charles]

> I thought the font was inherently variable?

If you download the font from Google Fonts, there are 2 ttf files with
"variable" in the name, these are the variable fonts. There are also a
bunch of ttf files in a "ttf" directory, these are the static fonts. It is
not about how you access the font, it is about which ttf files you install.

> QFontDatabase offers no italic style for Bahnschrift Condensed.  If I
create with QFont(), it is initially condensed.  But if I call
.setItalic(True), it no longer is condensed; it's just plain Bahnschrift.

You need to set both the style name and the stretch. The font name and
style flags do the font matching while the style name limits the matched
fonts. Since there are no matching fonts with the style flags,
obliquefication uses whatever font matched first. If you set the style
name, obliqueficiation is limited to the font with that style.

f = QFont('Bahnschrift', 24)
f.setStyleName('Condensed')
f.setStretch(QFont.Stretch.Condensed)
f.setItalic(True)

On Sat, Jan 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM John Sturtz <john at sturtz.org> wrote:

> ------ Original Message ------
> From "Charles" <peacech at gmail.com>
> To "John Sturtz" <john at sturtz.org>
> Cc "Maurizio Berti" <maurizio.berti at gmail.com>;
> pyqt at riverbankcomputing.com
> Date 1/9/2025 10:55:57 PM
> Subject Re: Re[2]: QFontDatabase/QFont question
>
> > you're getting a named style from the variable font file
>
> You didn't mention that you are using the variable font. I didn't use the
> variable font instead I use the static fonts. I also got the thin oblique
> font with the variable fonts.
>
> I thought the font was inherently variable?  Or is it a matter of how you
> access it?  Use QFontDatabase() (accessing by style name), and you are
> using it as a variable font; use QFont + .setWeight() and .setItalic()
> methods, and you are using it as static (= 'simulated' = 'synthesized').
> Do I understand that correctly?
>
>
> These codes works for me:
>
> 1. f = QFont('Exo', 24, 700, True) # use QFont specifying weight and italic
> 2. f = QFont('Exo', 24); f.setWeight(700); f.setItalic(True)
> 3. f = QFontDatabase('Exo', 'Bold', 24); f.setStyleName('Bold Italic')
>
> Yes, these all work for me as well [the last needs to be QFontDatabase
> .font('Exo', 'Bold', 24)]
>
> Note that italic is part of the style name. If you call setItalic(True)
> there is a mismatch between the style flags and the style name. So if you
> use QFontDatabase and style name always use setStyleName to change the
> style, otherwise use QFont and setWeight and setItalic.
>
> So it seems the moral is not to intermingle QFont (static) and
> QFontDatabase (variable) methods.
>
> But this case still troubles me:
>
> I see the problem with other fonts as well -- Bahnschrift, for example,
> which comes with Windows.  If I create a QFont object with
> QFontDatabase.font():
>
>         f = QFontDatabase.font('Bahnschrift', 'Condensed', 24)
>
> and then apply .setItalic(True) to it, it's italic, but no longer
> Condensed.
>
> And actually, the same thing happens if I create the font with QFont()
> directly:
>
>         f = QFont(
>             'Bahnschrift Condensed',
>             pointSize=24
>         )
>
> Here also, the font is fine initially, but after .setItalic(True) it is
> no longer Condensed.
>
> QFontDatabase offers no italic style for Bahnschrift Condensed.  If I
> create with QFont(), it is initially condensed.  But if I call
> .setItalic(True), it no longer is condensed; it's just plain Bahnschrift.
>
> I'd think this must be a bug?
>
> /John
>
>
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