Font attributes are properties of a font, which can be combined to uniquely specify a font on a given platform. There are some portable attributes which can be used on all platforms; other attributes are platform specific and will be ignored or signal errors when used on the wrong platform.
Font descriptions are externalizable objects which contain a set of font attributes. When using a font description in a font lookup operation, missing attributes are treated as wildcards (as are those with value :wild ) and invalid attributes signal errors. The result of a font lookup contains all the attributes needed to uniquely specify a font on that platform.
Fonts are the objects used in drawing operations. They are made by a font lookup operation on a pane, using a font description as a pattern.
These are the current set of portable font attributes and their portable types:
