Using NSFontPanel in Cocoa

Question

I'm trying to use an NSFontPanel to allow the user to change an application-wide font setting. It's supposed to work something like this: the user clicks a button, a font panel pops up, they choose a font and a size, and their selection is persisted.

The following code shows the panel:

- (IBAction)showFontMenu:(id)sender {
    NSFontManager *fontManager = [NSFontManager sharedFontManager];
    [fontManager setDelegate:self];

    NSFontPanel *fontPanel = [fontManager fontPanel:YES];
    [fontPanel makeKeyAndOrderFront:sender];
}

The documentation seems to suggest that the changeFont:(id)sender method should be called when the font changes; this isn't happening in my case.

- (void)changeFont:(id)sender {
    // blah
}

Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

This issue helped me: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6147305/why-isnt-changefont-being-called-from-my-nsfontpanel — Mark E. Hamilton, Apr 18 '15 at 04:52

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 04 '11 at 20:30

9

include this:

[fontManager setTarget:self];

edited Sep 04 '11 at 20:30

Christian Specht

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answered Sep 03 '11 at 22:00

Snow

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '09 at 17:54

2

The object you've defined -changeFont: on must the first responder or above it in the responder chain. You haven't specified where you've defined the method, but I assume it's on a controller object that is not in the responder chain.

answered Sep 12 '09 at 17:54

kperryua

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The View Controller's view is actually being loaded into another window; adding changeFont: to the parent's ViewController worked. Thanks for your help. – conmulligan Sep 13 '09 at 13:05

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 13 '09 at 02:08

1

NSFontManager's delegate exists primarily to filter the fonts it supplies to the font panel via -fontManager:willIncludeFont:.

As kperryua mentions, -changeFont: is sent up the responder chain. The button that launches the font menu or its enclosing view might be a good place to put a responder for -changeFont:.

You might find the Font Handling guide marginally more useful than the Font Panel guide.

answered Sep 13 '09 at 02:08

Jeremy W. Sherman

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Correct link: [Apple's Font Handling](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/TextFonts/Conceptual/CocoaTextArchitecture/FontHandling/FontHandling.html) – VoodooBoot Jan 21 '21 at 07:56

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 13 '09 at 11:00

1

The core problem is this line:

[fontPanel makeKeyAndOrderFront:sender];

By making the font panel the key window, it's got no idea where to send action messages like -changeFont: to.

answered Sep 13 '09 at 11:00

Mike Abdullah

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I changed it to orderFrontFontPanel:; but the problem was actually with the responder chain. Thanks. – conmulligan Sep 13 '09 at 13:06

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 14 '16 at 13:54

Here is my working implementation. Key point is you should make your object as the first responder where you have implemented - (void)changeFont:(id)sender

NSFontManager *fontManager = [NSFontManager sharedFontManager];

NSFontPanel *panel = [fontManager fontPanel:YES];
[[self window] makeFirstResponder:self];

[panel orderFront:self];

Simple changeFont: implementation Reference - Font Handling

-(void) changeFont:(id)sender
{
    //Here sender would be NSFontManager
    NSFont *oldFont = [self font];
    NSFont *newFont = [sender convertFont:oldFont];
    [self setFont:newFont];
}

Using NSFontPanel in Cocoa

5 Answers5