Feature request: Cross-platform font support

[Cartroo 3]

I've noticed that fonts set on the native Windows client aren't supported cross-platform (specifically on the iOS and web clients for me). This probably isn't surprising as Windows has more and different fonts installed than many other platforms, but it's a little irritating that the formatting isn't preserved. I've also noticed historic posts on this topic, so I guess it's not a new issue, but it would be great if things could at least be improved.

 

AFAICT there are three potential solutions:

1. Somehow support all fonts on all platforms, with something like Google web fonts or similar. Licensing and technical nightmare I'm sure, probably not too feasible.
2. Restrict font choices to a few main families (serif, sans, monospace and cursive, perhaps) add settings on each client to allow the user to specify which font maps to each family on that platform. Existing users may chafe at the restriction, I guess, but I think this is the "cleanest" solution.
3. As an intermediate measure, still allow each platform a full choice of fonts, but also record an implicit family derived from the font. So, if a chunk of text is "Times New Roman", then also attach "Serif" as a family. On any platform which doesn't have the primary font available, fall back on rendering with the default font for the family and only use an overall default for text with no family listed (presumably edited with an old client, etc.).

Personally I'd be happy with any of the above, but I suspect the first is totally unfeasible and the second is probably enough of a major change to make people nervous of annoying users.

 

The third option to me seems like a reasonable compromise, where users of a single platform see no effective change in functionality, but when notes use (say) Consolas on Windows, when viewed on iOS they'll at least use a monospaced font.

Are any of these, or some other solution I hadn't thought of, likely to happen at any point?

[gazumped 11,667]

Agreed this has been mentioned a couple of times before,  and Evernote have indicated in other posts that they're looking at Editor functions like bullets,  so there's hope that more compatibility between devices will emerge;  but they don't advertise or discuss plans in advance,  so we'll have to wait and see.

 

You can understand why,  across the multiple platforms they support,  it isn't always possible too Comic Sans consistently - capabilities and copyrights probably get in the way a bit.  Even font size and general style (like Heading 1) might be a bit iffy when translated from a 5 inch display to an wide-screen HD display.  The only way to guarantee consistency currently is to generate copy in Word (or your WP of choice) and save as a document or PDF attached to the note.

[Cartroo 3]

Sure, I can understand both the silence policy (it seems to work for Apple!) and the difficulties (impossibility?) of exact fonts cross platform - I mentioned in for completeness, mostly.

My inclination when faced with a tricky problem is to see how it's solved well elsewhere and that's why I suggested the second option was the cleanest - it most closely mirrors how this issue is solved on the web, where people use generic font families instead of specific fonts. At least that's how they should solve it, but actually people often use specific font names with a family used only as a fallback, which is essentially option three (except the client derives the family automatically from the font - hopefully all platforms allow access to enough font metainfo to tell if it's monospace, serif or sans, at least).

Anyway, I shall remain optimistic that there may be a general solution along before too long!