4 ms·

>don’t use 9 different fonts. You have ... font size, bold, underline, italics so, what you are calling "fonts" (Arial, Times) are actually called "typefaces"

>don’t use 9 different fonts. You have ... font size, bold, underline, italics so, what you are calling "fonts" (Arial, Times) are actually called "typefaces" every pointsize in a typeface is a new font, and bold and italics the same. so, we don't know if Excel is making the same common/casual error you are, but if their error message is "technically correct (the best kind of correct)", then italics and bold in each pointsize are all separate fonts, and that's what he might have too many of.

skeeter2020 2y ago
you can be very pedantic about it, but Excel has no problem with 8+ variations of font size, color, and formatting, and everyone outside of typeface designers and newspaper men references typefaces as "the font".
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  Excel also has no problem with more than a dozen typefaces, with one size/style of each (I just tested it.) The error message is probably using “fonts” in the technically correct sense for combinations of typeface, size, and style, while the user experiencing the error is probably confused and reporting that they are only using 8 “fonts” using the term to mean typefaces (which is how Excel itself uses the term in the UI, with the typeface selector using the label “Fonts”.) But if you are using 8 typefaces, using multiple sizes and styles of each, you can easily be using over 100 actual fonts.
- fsckboy 2y ago
  you can't attempt to decipher the error message without knowing the distinctions, and listen to you getting all pedantic with the history of newspapermen etc. eyeroll.gif
dragonwriter 2y ago
> so, what you are calling “fonts” (Arial, Times) are actually called “typefaces” Excel (and standard Windows and Office – the two are still slightly different, I think – selector controls call typefaces “Fonts” in the selector control. That doesn’t mean it is using “Fonts” the same way in the error message, but…)
- fsckboy 2y ago
  the reason font menus are called font menus and not typeface menus dates back to when computers used raster fonts and had limited memory. You didn't load typefaces, you loaded the typeface/size/styles that you needed and had memory for, literally the fonts. Since that's the language people learned, that's what's in the UI

skeeter2020 2y ago

you can be very pedantic about it, but Excel has no problem with 8+ variations of font size, color, and formatting, and everyone outside of typeface designers and newspaper men references typefaces as "the font".

dragonwriter 2y ago
Excel also has no problem with more than a dozen typefaces, with one size/style of each (I just tested it.) The error message is probably using “fonts” in the technically correct sense for combinations of typeface, size, and style, while the user experiencing the error is probably confused and reporting that they are only using 8 “fonts” using the term to mean typefaces (which is how Excel itself uses the term in the UI, with the typeface selector using the label “Fonts”.) But if you are using 8 typefaces, using multiple sizes and styles of each, you can easily be using over 100 actual fonts.
fsckboy 2y ago
you can't attempt to decipher the error message without knowing the distinctions, and listen to you getting all pedantic with the history of newspapermen etc. eyeroll.gif

dragonwriter 2y ago

> so, what you are calling “fonts” (Arial, Times) are actually called “typefaces” Excel (and standard Windows and Office – the two are still slightly different, I think – selector controls call typefaces “Fonts” in the selector control. That doesn’t mean it is using “Fonts” the same way in the error message, but…)

fsckboy 2y ago
the reason font menus are called font menus and not typeface menus dates back to when computers used raster fonts and had limited memory. You didn't load typefaces, you loaded the typeface/size/styles that you needed and had memory for, literally the fonts. Since that's the language people learned, that's what's in the UI