PRB: StdFont Rescales When Shared with Printer Object

MORE INFORMATION

When the Printer object gets a new font, it adjusts the scaling factor on the font for the current printer. So if another object is set to the same StdFont, this scaling adjustment will affect it as well. The scaling factor is not exposed to the user, so there is no way to determine that this has happened.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
2. Paste the following code into the module of Form1:

         Private Sub Form_Click()
            Dim MyFont As New StdFont
            Dim outstring As String
   
            MyFont.Name = "Arial"
            MyFont.Size = 12
            MyFont.Bold = False
            MyFont.Italic = False
            Me.Cls
   
            Set Me.Font = MyFont
            outstring = Me.Font.Name & ", " & Me.Font.Size
            Me.Print outstring    ' This prints in normal size
            Set Printer.Font = MyFont
   
            ' Since VB caches the font information, we need to refresh it
            Me.Font.Italic = True ' Change Italic to True for demonstration
   
            Me.Print outstring    ' prints out much larger than the first line
        End Sub
   						

3. Run the project and click on the form. The following line appears twice on the form:

         Arial, 12
   						

   The first line is in a normal 12 point font, but the second line is obviously much larger, even though it reports still being 12 point. This is because the Printer object has changed the font's scaling.

When the code executes "Set Me.Font = MyFont" it is not copying the font into the form's font property, instead it is setting the form's font to the actual instance of the font object. Both the Printer object and the form are referencing the same font object rather than having their own copies. So if one owner changes the object, it changes for both owners.