Question

I have a WinForms user control and I’m trying to obtain the exact horizontal character spacing for the current font, which is expected to be mono-spaced.

Looks like the font’s Size property provides this information but is apparently in points and I’m working in pixels.

var fontWidth = this.Font.Size;   // Returns em-size in points--not pixels

If I create the font myself, I can specify that it uses Pixel units. But in my case the font is set through a property of my user control and I can’t determine how the font is created. Unfortunately, the font’s Unit property is read-only.

How can I make an existing font return metrics in pixels?

Answer 1

Please see this article on MSDN:

How to: Obtain Font Metrics

To get pixels, you use conversion formula.

descentPixel = font.Size * descent / fontFamily.GetEmHeight(FontStyle.Regular);

Also see Get single glyph metrics (.net).