Chessbase Lite readability

[Jim Grieve]

First off, I'd like to thank this group for all the great help and
suggestions I have gotten by lurking for a couple of months. I've gotten many
books and some great software on your collective recommendations...

I'm a mac person who finally sees the benefit of the PC world - IN ORDER TO
RUN ALL THESE GREAT CHESS PROGRAMS & TUTORIALS. I've even figured out how to
load in training databases so that I don't have to keep carrying around the
disks...

However, I have a problem. I'm using a work Dell laptop. When I run the
Chessbase Lite the annotation print is almost unreadable, because the fonts
are so crappy. Changing it from blue to any other color doesn't help. I can't
see how to change the font (i.e. to something wider or bigger). This is so
distracting that I end up running my Chessbase tutorials (like ABC Openings,
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, etc). on my macintosh in Virtual PC.

Is there a way to change the annotation font (other than change the color)?
Would buying the full Chessbase program be any better?

I don't think its the computer, its a newer Dell, Windows XP, with 1024x768
16bit resolution...maybe its a font problem? I may have put the Chessbase
Lite in a folder other than My Programs (it is a work computer)...could that
affect the fonts?

I've been enjoying the PC (got Fritz 8, Chessmaster 9000 which I, of course,
only run on the PC - not in mac emulation)...but I can't believe what you
folks put up with... "Refueling" CD's??? Installing software without
directions as to how to keep it on the hard drive....annoying popups...etc.
Please tell me that this crappy font problem isn't a PC 'must-live-with'
thing....Thank God the same program in Virtual PC looks very readable on my
400mz laptop G4 powerbook (or I literally couldn't use these fine tutorials).

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Jim

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[Anders Thulin]

Jim Grieve wrote:

> Is there a way to change the annotation font (other than change the color)?

Yes and no. You need a font that supports the annotation symbols, if you're
going to rely on the annotations.

You can easily change the font -- Status | Font in notation ... -- but unless
the font you select has the right characters in the right places, you'll get
a smattering of copyright and TM-signs and other odd symbols in the text.

Try the other FigurineXxx-fonts -- some of them may work for you. They look
rather amateurish to me -- they're probably not properly hinted for screenwork.
Personally I change everything to a good solid sans serif, typically Lucida
which was designed for use on low-resolution display devices. But I lose the
Informator symbols.

The best way would probably have been to allow any textfont to be used, but use
special Informator fonts for the symbols only. I remember there has been a few
attempts to convince the Unicode people that Informator symbols were worthy of
inclusion -- if that succeeded, there may be Unicode-adapted fonts that would
work better, though it probably wouldn't help ChessBase Light.

> Would buying the full Chessbase program be any better?

Buying a better font would probably be enough. I don't know of any, though --
I don't care much for Informator-style annotations. For screen display, you'd
probably want a sans serif face.

You may find something at http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/fonteng.htm

--
Anders Thulin a...@algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath