TEST: Fonts, sizes and colors in Opera 9.6.0

Hei,.....

This test has been made during the last days since Opera 9.6.0 has been released. The testreport is also sent to the Opera Forum 'DevOpera' and can be read there as well as eventually replies. If any here also experience some odd behavior, please send reports to the Opera team.
Cheers, Erik Richard

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Testresult of Opera 9.6.0
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I don’t really know what to say or not... I’ve just downloaded the latest ver. 9.6.0 of the until now well renomeed Opera browser. So far, so good... The ver. 9.6.0 is fast as a lightning - even faster than the ver. 9.5.x...

But neither I nor several others are far from satisfied... - If you go to the ’Preferences’ settings, you get the possibilities in the various panes and lists to choose fonts and font sizes - even the choice of putting different colors to the font(s)... !!!

Great! - That was my first thoughts... Now we can get the same possibilities and functions fully implemented like in the various Mozilla browsers - Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, SeaMonkey, etc.... Gladly I then chose my prefered font ’Arial’ and set the minimum size to 14p for body text and dialogs, chose a very dark blue as standard color. Clicked the OK button. Finished the rest of the prefs settings and saved all.

Perfect! - But what? - After a click on the reload button all changes should be implemented and set to my new chosen font settings, font, sizes and colors...??? - but NOTHING - simply NOTHING happens...!!! - Fonts, sizes and colors are one hundred percent the default Opera settings as when I opened the Opera 9.6.0 the very first time.:-(!

This can’t be true... Exit Opera. Relaunched... Still no userdefined fonts, sizes or colors are available...

.....All over once more... - Deleted everything Opera from the users/library/preferences and users/library/applicationsupport... - and of course Opera launched with a brand new and fresh set of default preference settings... went to prefs settings and started all over again with my specific settings - Arial 14p, dark blue color, min. size to 14p etc.etc. - Saved settings and clicked the reload button... The exact same happens. No new font settings, no new size settings, no new color settings. - Everything is still default

This isn’t too smart of the developers behind Opera! - Putting in those preference possibilities are meant to work. - NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE SETTINGS DO WORK AT ALL!

This isn’t smart, since we are quite a lot visually impaired, running Mac OS X set to work in reversed contrast mode (Reverse Mode) using the settings in ’Universal Access’ controlpane. - i.e. with white text on black background. - We are also many visually impaired, who like to use Opera, because of it’s many possibilities and yet fast and simple in use.

For many of us it is a ’must’ to work in reverse mode, because of the type of our sight problems. Here the dark blue text color in the normal mode will give a light yellow in reverse mode (black background), - light yellow text on black background is one of the best combinations for nearly all visually impaired. - The RGB value for black and white is 0/0/255, and for the dark blue it is 0/0/100*). With this yellow+black combination your eyes won’t be ’stressed’ and won’t be that much tired either. - Of course the color combination can be varied individually from person to person - depending on the type of the handicap...

*) Color setting can vary from 0/0/85 to 0/0/125 depending on how yellow you want the color shown in reverse mode.

Another thing that really do irritate me is that you can’t freely chose _which_ font you want to use, but are limited to use the fonts that Opera can recognize from the 3 fonts folders in the Mac oS X system.

I’m often visiting webpages with mixed languages and therefore also different font types like Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai etc.. Therefore I originally wanted to use the ArialUnicode MS (UTF-8 font) instead of the normal Arial. It is impossible to chose ArialUnicode - or any other font, - if this font isn’t installed directly into the system’s fonts folders.

If you - like me - are using a font management application like Linotype Fontexplorer or the older FontReserve X/Classic, none of the fonts handled by any of these fonts management apps are recognized in Opera 9.6.x (also in 9.5.x).

I have only the system installed fonts in the system’s fonts folders, but more than 23.800 fonts installed on my 5 computers - all managed by Fontexplorer on OS X 10.4.x Tiger, 10.5.x Leopard and FontReserve on 10.3.x Panther as well as FontReserve on my last OS 9.2.x Macs.

To have all nearly 24.000 fonts installed in the system will be quite a mess and nearly impossible to handle. Therefore I also have created various sets of fonts for each purpose - as I also can enable and disable one or more fonts temporarely for specific needs. - But i can’t create a set of fonts for use specific with Opera, since the ver. 9.5.x/9.6.x can’t recognize any fonts outside the system’s own font folders. - It simply can’t be true that Opera is ’locked out’ using any font management system and therefore also is restricted to use system installed fonts?

Hardware & Software used for the test
MacPro QuadCore 2,66ghz/5gb RAM, OS X 10.4.11 & 10.5.5
Linotype Fontexplorer X 1.2.3 on both systems.
NOTE. OS X 10.4.11 is a totally clean install except for Fontwcplorer, Opera and SeaMonkey

QuickSilver Dual G4/1,8ghz/1,5gb RAM, OS X 10.4.11 & 10.5.5
Linotpe Fontexplorer X 1.2.3 on both systems
NOTE. OS X 10.4.11 is here the main system, and OS X 10.5.5 is a clean install with only AppleWorks 6.2.9, Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1.12 and Opera 9.6.0
NOTE2. On the QS there also is a non-bootable OS 9.2.2 disk with FontReserve 2.x for font management as well when run in classic mode.

PowerMac MDD Dual G4/1ghz/1gb RAM, OS X 10.3.9, 10.4.11 & 10.5.5 + Os 9.2.2US each system on it's own harddisk.
NOTE. All systems are still clean installs except for adding fonts handled by Fontexplorer X 1.2.3. Fontreserve 2.x not yet installed on the OS 9.2.2 disk, - else fonts are handled by Fontexplorer X 1.2.3. No other applications added except SeaMonkey and Opera.
NOTE2. Fonts on OS X 10.3.9 fonts are handled by Fontreserve X 2.x

PowerMac G3/1133mhzAV/768mb RAM, OS 9.2.2DK
NOTE. All font management handled by FontReserve 2.x Classic.

PowerMac 9600/350mhz/1gb RAM, Os 9.2.2DK.
NOTE. fonts here handled by FontReserve 2.x Classic Server.

NOTE. Of course Opera 9.x can’t run on any classic system, but it can’t see any fonts either, when fonts are managed with a font management application like Fontexplorer or FontReserve or FontReserve Server.

All computers are connected to a local gigabit network.

Rgds. Erik Richard sørensen
Hei,.....

I think this is most to the developers of Opera....

I don’t really know what to say or not... I’ve just downloaded the latest ver. 9.6.0 of the until now well renomeed Opera browser. So far, so good... The ver. 9.6.0 is fast as a lightning - even faster than the ver. 9.5.x...

But neither I nor several others are far from satisfied... - If you go to the ’Preferences’ settings, you get the possibilities in the various panes and lists to choose fonts and font sizes - even the choice of putting different colors to the font(s)... !!!

Great! - That was my first thoughts... Now we can get the same possibilities and functions fully implemented like in the various Mozilla browsers - Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, SeaMonkey, etc.... Gladly I then chose my prefered font ’Arial’ and set the minimum size to 14p for body text and dialogs, chose a very dark blue as standard color. Clicked the OK button. Finished the rest of the prefs settings and saved all.

Perfect! - But what? - After a click on the reload button all changes should be implemented and set to my new chosen font settings, font, sizes and colors...??? - but NOTHING - simply NOTHING happens...!!! - Fonts, sizes and colors are one hundred percent the default Opera settings as when I opened the Opera 9.6.0 the very first time.:-(!

This can’t be true... Exit Opera. Relaunched... Still no userdefined fonts, sizes or colors are available...

.....All over once more... - Deleted everything Opera from the users/library/preferences and users/library/applicationsupport... - and of course Opera launched with a brand new and fresh set of default preference settings... went to prefs settings and started all over again with my specific settings - Arial 14p, dark blue color, min. size to 14p etc.etc. - Saved settings and clicked the reload button... The exact same happens. No new font settings, no new size settings, no new color settings. - Everything is still default

This isn’t too smart of the developers behind Opera! - Putting in those preference possibilities are meant to work. - NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE SETTINGS DO WORK AT ALL!

This isn’t smart, since we are quite a lot visually impaired, running Mac OS X set to work in reversed contrast mode (Reverse Mode) using the settings in ’Universal Access’ controlpane. - i.e. with white text on black background. - We are also many visually impaired, who like to use Opera, because of it’s many possibilities and yet fast and simple in use.

For many of us it is a ’must’ to work in reverse mode, because of the type of our sight problems. Here the dark blue text color in the normal mode will give a light yellow in reverse mode (black background), - light yellow text on black background is one of the best combinations for nearly all visually impaired. - The RGB value for black and white is 0/0/255, and for the dark blue it is 0/0/100*). With this yellow+black combination your eyes won’t be ’stressed’ and won’t be that much tired either. - Of course the color combination can be varied individually from person to person - depending on the type of the handicap...

*) Color setting can vary from 0/0/85 to 0/0/125 depending on how yellow you want the color shown in reverse mode.

Another thing that really do irritate me is that you can’t freely chose _which_ font you want to use, but are limited to use the fonts that Opera can recognize from the 3 fonts folders in the Mac oS X system.

I’m often visiting webpages with mixed languages and therefore also different font types like Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai etc.. Therefore I originally wanted to use the ArialUnicode MS (UTF-8 font) instead of the normal Arial. It is impossible to chose ArialUnicode - or any other font, - if this font isn’t installed directly into the system’s fonts folders.

If you - like me - are using a font management application like Linotype Fontexplorer or the older FontReserve X/Classic, none of the fonts handled by any of these fonts management apps are recognized in Opera 9.6.x (also in 9.5.x).

I have only the system installed fonts in the system’s fonts folders, but more than 23.800 fonts installed on my 5 computers - all managed by Fontexplorer on OS X 10.4.x Tiger, 10.5.x Leopard and FontReserve on 10.3.x Panther as well as FontReserve on my last OS 9.2.x Macs.

To have all nearly 24.000 fonts installed in the system will be quite a mess and nearly impossible to handle. Therefore I also have created various sets of fonts for each purpose - as I also can enable and disable one or more fonts temporarely for specific needs. - But i can’t create a set of fonts for use specific with Opera, since the ver. 9.5.x/9.6.x can’t recognize any fonts outside the system’s own font folders. - It simply can’t be true that Opera is ’locked out’ using any font management system and therefore also is restricted to use system installed fonts?

Hardware & Software used for the test
MacPro QuadCore 2,66ghz/5gb RAM, OS X 10.4.11 & 10.5.5
Linotype Fontexplorer X 1.2.3 on both systems.
NOTE. OS X 10.4.11 is a totally clean install except for Fontwcplorer, Opera and SeaMonkey

QuickSilver Dual G4/1,8ghz/1,5gb RAM, OS X 10.4.11 & 10.5.5
Linotpe Fontexplorer X 1.2.3 on both systems
NOTE. OS X 10.4.11 is here the main system, and OS X 10.5.5 is a clean install with only AppleWorks 6.2.9, Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1.12 and Opera 9.6.0
NOTE2. On the QS there also is a non-bootable OS 9.2.2 disk with FontReserve 2.x for font management as well when run in classic mode.

PowerMac MDD Dual G4/1ghz/1gb RAM, OS X 10.3.9, 10.4.11 & 10.5.5 + Os 9.2.2US each system on it's own harddisk.
NOTE. All systems are still clean installs except for adding fonts handled by Fontexplorer X 1.2.3. Fontreserve 2.x not yet installed on the OS 9.2.2 disk, - else fonts are handled by Fontexplorer X 1.2.3. No other applications added except SeaMonkey and Opera.
NOTE2. Fonts on OS X 10.3.9 fonts are handled by Fontreserve X 2.x

PowerMac G3/1133mhzAV/768mb RAM, OS 9.2.2DK
NOTE. All font management handled by FontReserve 2.x Classic.

PowerMac 9600/350mhz/1gb RAM, Os 9.2.2DK.
NOTE. fonts here handled by FontReserve 2.x Classic Server.

NOTE. Of course Opera 9.x can’t run on any classic system, but it can’t see any fonts either, when fonts are managed with a font management application like Fontexplorer or FontReserve or FontReserve Server.

All computers are connected to a local gigabit network.

Rgds. Erik Richard sørensen
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Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <mac-manNOSP@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com
OpenOffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org
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