Re: NSFont & bold

FROM : Jeff Gilbert
DATE : Thu Apr 21 19:44:41 2005

Hi Luc,

On Thursday, April 21, 2005, at 12:17PM, Luc Vandal <<email_removed>> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>It seems that it's not possible to set a font as bold. Is there a way
>to do this or fonts handling is very different compared to Windows?


You need to use NSFontManager to convert a font. You could use convertFont:toHaveTrait: to return a new font with the bold trait. For example, you could use

NSFont* boldHelvetica = [fontManager convertFont:helvetica toHaveTrait:NSBoldFontMask];

However, not all fonts have a Bold variant; they may have a Black or Heavy variant and setting the bold trait will not use these variants, so you are left with the original font. I found the most reliable way is to use the NSFontManager method convertWeight:ofFont: to increase the weight to the next bolder weight, like this:

NSFont* bolderHelvetica = [fontManager convertWeight:YES ofFont:helvetica];

For more information, see the documentation of NSFontManager.

Hope this helps,
Jeff Gilbert