Subject: bug#64780: closed (Re: bug#64780: 30.0.50; set-face-attribute can not set the medium weight of IBM Plex Mono on Windows 10)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2023 08:53:02 +0000

Your bug report

#64780: 30.0.50; set-face-attribute can not set the medium weight of IBM Plex Mono on Windows 10

which was filed against the emacs package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
64780: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=64780
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact [email-masked] with problems

Subject: Re: bug#64780: 30.0.50; set-face-attribute can not set the medium weight of IBM Plex Mono on Windows 10
From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
To: Eason Huang <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2023 11:53:26 +0300
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

> From: Eason Huang <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2023 15:21:46 +0800
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
> >> From: Eason Huang <[email-masked]>
> >> Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2023 09:23:28 +0800
> >>
> >> I tried to use the medium weight of IBM Plex Mono font on Windows 10,
> >> and find that `set-face-attribute` can not make it works as expectd.
> >>
> >> Steps to reproduce:
> >>
> >> 1. Download IBM Plex Mono font by this link:
> >> https://github.com/IBM/plex/releases/download/v6.3.0/TrueType.zip
> >> 2. Unzip the TrueType.zip and install the IBM Plex Mono
> >> 3. Start Emacs with `emacs -Q`
> >> 4. In the `*scratch*` buffer, eval the code below:
> >> ```
> >> (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format
> >> "%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=medium" "IBM Plex Mono" 20))
> >>
> >> ```
> >> 5. `M-x describe-char`, will get info about font as below:
> >>  harfbuzz:-outline-IBM Plex Mono-regular-normal-normal-mono-20-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1 (#x03)
> >>
> >> And you can see the regular weight is used instead.
> >
> > Emacs on MS-Windows doesn't fully support any weights except these 4
> > standard ones: regular, italic, bold, bold-italic.  AFAIU, it is a
> > limitation of the APIs we use on Windows to enumerate font families.
> 
> Thanks for your explanation.
> 
> >> The workaround recently I used:
> >>
> >> ```
> >> (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format
> >> "%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=medium" "IBM Plex Mono Medm" 20))
> >> ```
> >> `M-x describe-char`, will get info about font as below:
> >> harfbuzz:-outline-IBM Plex Mono Medm-medium-normal-normal-mono-20-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1 (#x18)
> >>
> >> But use the `IBM Plex Mono Medm` name is not convenient for me, because
> >> I also want to switch to other weights sometimes, such as:
> >>
> >> ```
> >> (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format "%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=regular" "IBM Plex Mono" 20))
> >> (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format "%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=bold" "IBM Plex Mono" 20))
> >> ```
> >> It would be more consistent If we can use the `IBM Plex Mono` font name
> >> with all font weights.
> >
> > Yes, those are all aspects of the above limitation.  You could
> > configure the other faces (bold, italic, and bold-italic) explicitly
> > to use the specific members of this font's family, like you did with
> > the default face and the medium weight, but the basic problem I
> > explained above will from time to time rear its ugly head and produce
> > some unexpected results, when Emacs mutates a font to produce another
> > weight of the same family.
> 
> Thanks for mention the potential risk.
> So I will just use the regular weight on Windows if encounter issue.

OK, so I don't think we have anything else to do here, and I'm
therefore closing this bug.

Subject: 30.0.50; set-face-attribute can not set the medium weight of IBM Plex Mono on Windows 10
From: Eason Huang <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2023 09:23:28 +0800
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hi Emacs,

I tried to use the medium weight of IBM Plex Mono font on Windows 10,
and find that `set-face-attribute` can not make it works as expectd.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Download IBM Plex Mono font by this link:
https://github.com/IBM/plex/releases/download/v6.3.0/TrueType.zip
2. Unzip the TrueType.zip and install the IBM Plex Mono
3. Start Emacs with `emacs -Q`
4. In the `*scratch*` buffer, eval the code below:
```
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format
"%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=medium" "IBM Plex Mono" 20))

```
5. `M-x describe-char`, will get info about font as below:
 harfbuzz:-outline-IBM Plex Mono-regular-normal-normal-mono-20-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1 (#x03)

And you can see the regular weight is used instead.

expectd: return the medium weight of font.

The workaround recently I used:

```
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format
"%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=medium" "IBM Plex Mono Medm" 20))
```
`M-x describe-char`, will get info about font as below:
harfbuzz:-outline-IBM Plex Mono Medm-medium-normal-normal-mono-20-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1 (#x18)

But use the `IBM Plex Mono Medm` name is not convenient for me, because
I also want to switch to other weights sometimes, such as:

```
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format "%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=regular" "IBM Plex Mono" 20))
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :font (format "%s:pixelsize=%d:weight=bold" "IBM Plex Mono" 20))
```
It would be more consistent If we can use the `IBM Plex Mono` font name
with all font weights.

Meanwhile, I aslo tested `set-face-attribute` on macOS, it works as expected with
the same font setting.

If you need more information, please let me known.

-- 
Best regard, Eason Huang

GNU Emacs 30.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32, git sha1 207cd4c2357) of
2023-07-17

Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.19045
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