Inconsistencies in Font Size across platforms

[Supez 3]

I use Evernote on my Windows PC, on the web with my Linux machine, on my Android phone and on my MacBook Pro. I set the default font and size to Verdana and Size 14 but the font and sizes are inconsistent across platforms.

• If I write a note on Windows, it will be Verdana Size 18 on OSX and it's bigger on Android than normal.
• If I write a note on OSX, it will be Verdana Size 11 on Windows and fine on Android
• If I write a note on the web app, it actually works fine as Verdana Size 14
• If I write a note on the android app, it sometimes defaults to Helvetica and I have to change it on Windows or OSX to Verdana

How can I get consistent sizing between OS's?

It is now working fine on a test note but some notes I have always change and have different fonts when I try to edit or add something on different devices.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,950]

Hi, @Supez, and welcome to the forums. Sadly, there is no way to achieve consistent formatting across all platforms. This has been a long-standing complaint of many Evernote users. Supposedly, EN is working on achieving greater cross-platform consistency in the editor; hopefully, this will be part of that process; but regrettably, not yet.

[Supez 3]

Ugh, that sucks. This is practically the only reason I'm considering moving to OneNote and staying there. The only reason I didn't stay with OneNote before is because they don't have an edit button on mobile and having a to-do list with checkbox is annoying without that as you always bring up the keyboard by accident.

[CalS 5,280]

18 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Hi, @Supez, and welcome to the forums. Sadly, there is no way to achieve consistent formatting across all platforms. This has been a long-standing complaint of many Evernote users. Supposedly, EN is working on achieving greater cross-platform consistency in the editor; hopefully, this will be part of that process; but regrettably, not yet.

Funny thing is default font on one platform (whatever it might be) does not appear as default font on another platform (whatever it may be).  No easy way to code it I suppose...

[Supez 3]

On 8/28/2018 at 12:19 PM, CalS said:

Funny thing is default font on one platform (whatever it might be) does not appear as default font on another platform (whatever it may be).  No easy way to code it I suppose...

Microsoft's OneNote never had this problem, Apple Notes (Works just the same on a web browser on any device), Google Keep, etc. Evernote is the only note taking app I've ever used where this happens; what's the point of being able to use the product on multiple devices if they don't even appear the same across them and always require constant reformatting. Evernote also isn't free for more than 2 devices and they don't even have a basic feature that other free services provide. Really disappointed as I love Evernote but this bug annoys the hell out of me.

[SUVVV 1]

I'm having the same issue. At least, when I view the note on my computer it looks fine there.

[jefito 5,589]

On 8/28/2018 at 12:19 PM, CalS said:

Funny thing is default font on one platform (whatever it might be) does not appear as default font on another platform (whatever it may be).  No easy way to code it I suppose...

Probably because different OS's ship with different typeface sets, so default font is necessarily OS-specific.

I created a simple text note in Android,, opened in in  the Windows client, and exported it to .enex. When I examined the markup, there were no font specifications in the note at all. Ditto for a simple note that I created in Evernote for Windows. Makes sense: you're going to see the note in the default font for whatever device you're viewing it on. But if you want to force a different font that the default, at least in the Windows application, then you will get a font specification in the markup. In these cases, it's up to the  Evernote application you're viewing it on to try to honor whatever fonts are encoded. Even so, fonts that have the same name on different OS's may have different characteristics, and so may not match up anyways.

Oh, and with respect to font sizes: I seem to recall a discussion somewhere hereabouts about the difference between font sizes specified in points vs pixels. Points have a real-world size, pixels depend on your monitor. Might have been a @kvitekpthing. And my GDI-fu with respect to fonts is a little rusty.

[CalS 5,280]

In my case font size on IOS equates to Windows like this with Roboto as the default on Windows:  Small =10, Medium=14 and Large=18.  Default font on my iPhone appears as 10 pt on Windows. 

Though if you drag text from one note to a new note using Windows you get interesting results.  Example below, first bit is the result of typing a line into a new note, the second is dragging that line into another new note.  A lot of plumbing is added in the process, though no font size.  For whatever reason I expected to see the same ENML in the second note, dragging default to default.  Copy/Paste creates the same ENML in a new note. 

• <en-note><div>This is a line of text in Roboto 10, my default font in Windows.</div></en-note>]]
• <en-note><div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">This is a line of text in Roboto 10, my default font in Windows.</span></div></en-note>]]

I went down this rabbit hole some time back when notes on my iPhone did not have default font after a drag drop.  The image on the right is NOT default anymore.  That's when I started copy/pasting to create workout notes.  Shouldn't need the workaround in my view.  TMI, I suppose...

   

[Kolmir 162]

Hi,

I have also provided a comprehensive description of the issue on the very detailed technical level to Evernote Premium support.

Moreover, I also provided a few suggestions about how to solve the problem or at least have a workaround.

Unfortunately, they do nothing. It's a pity! I'm thinking to cancel my subscription and migrate to MS OneNote.

BR

Piotr

 

[Randy Cain 5]

Same exact problem I've had for months.  It makes your notes on iOS look like garbage.  No fix as of 5/17/19. 

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Interesting thread.

One little question: Where do you set fonts in iOS ?

Fonts, not font sizes !

In iOS in general, not in specific apps like pages !

 

[DTLow 5,736]

11 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Where do you set fonts in iOS ?  Fonts, not font sizes !

Font setting is not available in Evernote/IOS

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Right. iOS is a pretty closed shop regarding fonts.

So what is all this about ?

Claiming that notes are looking one way on one platform, and other on another, when it is not even possible to pick or change fonts. I can pick on iOS - Evernote small, medium or large size, and that is it.

This is similar with markup-editors (in my case iAwriter), that have the same choice of s/m/l without any font picking. The font will be added by the properties of the web site the text is embedded into.

IMHO this is nothing to blame Evernote for anything, and it is nothing to complain about. EN is a note taking tool, not a full fledged editor, and this it does. It does not have to look the same between operating systems and devices, because it was not built to look the same. This even makes it easier to move notes around between clients and devices, because it will always flexibly adapt to the new environment.

if I want to create a document with more formatting control, I export the plain text to pages (or word, or ...), and format it there.

[Randy Cain 5]

I should be more specific with my gripe.  I create a document on my desktop all in the same font size, and it looks very professional.  Then I sync it to iOS and find that in the iOS version there are scattered sentences that have a VERY noticeable difference in font size than the rest of the document.   It's like having one sentence with a font size of 14 followed by the next sentence with a font size of 12.  I look back at the original that I created on my desktop, and it's not like that.  Somehow in the syncing process, Evernote decides to change the font size ONLY IN CERTAIN RANDOM SENTENCES in the iOS document.   

[DTLow 5,736]

29 minutes ago, Randy Cain said:

I create a document on my desktop all in the same font size, and it looks very professional. 

You created a note; use a dedicated app to create documents.

On your desktop,

• you can leave your font and sizes to the default

or

• you can set specific fonts and sizes.  

It sounds like you used a mix

 

[Randy Cain 5]

Yeh, I guess it was a "note."  I don't know if I ever changed the font or size, but in the end, it was all uniformly the same.  So shouldn't it then sync and end up appearing in a uniform font/size in iOS?  Instead of having odd changes in the font size in only parts of the note?  

[DTLow 5,736]

3 hours ago, Randy Cain said:

So shouldn't it then sync and end up appearing in a uniform font/size in iOS? 

That's the problem pointed out in this discussion.  

The specific font sizes remain constant; the default parts switch between platforms.

[Kolmir 162]

9 hours ago, DTLow said:

That's the problem pointed out in this discussion.  

The specific font sizes remain constant; the default parts switch between platforms.

Yes. This is clearly a bug and as far as I know, it will be fixed in some foreseeable future. (I hope ;-))

[ObviousBob 140]

18 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

This is similar with markup-editors (in my case iAwriter), that have the same choice of s/m/l without any font picking. The font will be added by the properties of the web site the text is embedded into.

IMHO this is nothing to blame Evernote for anything, and it is nothing to complain about. EN is a note taking tool, not a full fledged editor, and this it does. It does not have to look the same between operating systems and devices, because it was not built to look the same. This even makes it easier to move notes around between clients and devices, because it will always flexibly adapt to the new environment.

if I want to create a document with more formatting control, I export the plain text to pages (or word, or ...), and format it there.

I want Evernote to act like iA Writer - a note, and its font - looks the same on any platform. Using the Evernote defaults, this is not the case. And if you change fonts - font size on iOS, size and font on MacOS - you get all kinds of weirdness when moving across platforms. Not to mention that the tools for controlling fonts are different on different platforms, not because of platform requirements, but because different coders and different code bases resulted in different capabilities.

As to the idea that Evernote is only for "note taking" or "simple" notes, I've never understood why people say this, except as an excuse for the poor editor. Evernote gives you a whole toolbar full of formatting tools - bullets, italics, bold, etc. This clearly implies more than the simple capabilities of say Simplenote or other simple text editors. I wouldn't write a book using Evernote (though I'm sure someone has), but I expect to write a decent looking document, and for it to look the same on my iPad and my Mac.

My hope is that the rumored current development towards a common code base across platforms will resolve most of these issues. The same fonts available on different platforms, and the same methods for controlling those fonts.

[DTLow 5,736]

32 minutes ago, ObviousBob said:

As to the idea that Evernote is only for "note taking" or "simple" notes, I've never understood why people say this, except as an excuse for the poor editor.

I'm one saying Evernote's editing features are limited, more suited to basic notes.

My objective is to let users know we don't have to be restricted by the Evernote limitations; we can use other editors that are more suited to the requirements.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

The Evernote editor is following the OSes abilities. 

On the Mac, it „borrows“ the font-management from MacOS. This is not a property of Evernote.

With iOS, my iAwriter has exactly the same font editing ability as Evernote: Small, medium, large, and that is it.

Only apps that bring their own fonts along like Pages or Word offer more control.

As long as iOS is Running without an own font module, I doubt that typical apps will start to offer this as a feature. The unevenness of the look of notes in Evernote-iOS is probably a side effect of fonts carried over from the MacOS or even Windows- world. Heavy editing there may have side effects in the iOS client. This is not good, but I think there are many other things to straighten before this one.

[ObviousBob 140]

3 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

The Evernote editor is following the OSes abilities. 

On the Mac, it „borrows“ the font-management from MacOS. This is not a property of Evernote.

With iOS, my iAwriter has exactly the same font editing ability as Evernote: Small, medium, large, and that is it.

Only apps that bring their own fonts along like Pages or Word offer more control.

As long as iOS is Running without an own font module, I doubt that typical apps will start to offer this as a feature. The unevenness of the look of notes in Evernote-iOS is probably a side effect of fonts carried over from the MacOS or even Windows- world. Heavy editing there may have side effects in the iOS client. This is not good, but I think there are many other things to straighten before this one.

I don't really understand what you are saying.. that iOS limits the font sizes that can be used to three? Take a look at 1Writer on iOS, very similar to iA Writer, but lets you set the font and size. Or closer to Evernote, look at Bear or Agenda, which allow you to set either or both the font and font size.

In fact, iOS includes a mechanism to set font size for apps - Dynamic Type, which you can set in iOS Settings. Many iOS apps honor the type size set there. But Evernote doesn't.

As for font consistency and control not being important, well to each his own. One of the primary reasons I use Bear now is because of this issue.

[PinkElephant 8,088]

Anybody can and should use what he likes for his purposes.

Dynamic Type will only change the appearance of the font on the iOS device, not the font itself. The same text will look larger or smaller when displayed, allowing either for better reading or more information on the same screen. The font in itself is not affected - you can test it yourself when altering it, create several documents with several settings (in an app that supports it) and open it on a Mac. One app to try this is Apple notes, which supports dynamic text. Independent from the settings of dynamic text on iOS, the notes look all the same on the Mac.

What would be really nice: If Evernote would support markdown editing, which due to its closeness to HTML should be reasonable to code.