The character "1" appears to be handled differently with the Print statement

[Ben321]

Unlike any other character, including all the other decimal digit characters, is handled weirdly by the Print statement, in what appears to be a bug. If you have the code:

Print "1"; "1"; "1"; "1"
Print "1111"

Those two lines of code SHOULD produce identical outputs. However (at least with VB6's default Font for Form1, which is Arial) the result is that the Print statement with 4 concatenated "1" characters is used the digits are displayed as separated slightly more from each other, compared to when the single string "1111" is displayed via the Print statement. I've tried the other numbers, and even skinny letters like "l", but none of those produce this same discrepancy. So I'm guessing this is a bug.

[OptionBase1]

Can't reproduce. Form font is using the default of MS Sans Serif. Using VB 6.0 SP5 on a VM running Windows 2000 Server w/ SP4.

The code produces "pixelly identical" output, verified in MSPaint at a ridiculous zoom level.

[Eduardo-]

I could reproduce it. Only with Arial normal. It didn't happen with:
Segoe UI
Arial Narrow
MS Sans Serif
Microsoft Sans Serif
Tahoma
Verdana

The VB6 default font for forms is MS Sans Serif, not Arial. Arial is the default font for the Printer object.

[OptionBase1]

I could reproduce it. Only with Arial normal. It didn't happen with:
Segoe UI
Arial Narrow
MS Sans Serif
Microsoft Sans Serif
Tahoma
Verdana

The VB6 default font for forms is MS Sans Serif, not Arial. Arial is the default font for the Printer object.

Whoops, I didn't even catch the mention of Arial in the first post. I changed the font to Arial and was unable to reproduce it. But I'm using an old OS in a very standard "classic" video resolution. I would guess this is somehow related to modern high resolution monitors and DPI scaling.

[Eduardo-]

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Me.Font.Name = "Arial"
    Me.Font.Size = 16
    Me.AutoRedraw = True
    Print "1"; "1"; "1"; "1"
    Print "1111"
    Print
    Print "TwipsPerPixel: " & Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
End Sub

96 DPI (100%):



120 DPI (125%)



Windows 11 22H2

[Ben321]

Whoops, I didn't even catch the mention of Arial in the first post. I changed the font to Arial and was unable to reproduce it. But I'm using an old OS in a very standard "classic" video resolution. I would guess this is somehow related to modern high resolution monitors and DPI scaling.

I'm using Windows 10 (yes VB6 works even on that), and MS Sans Serif isn't even an available font (maybe is obsolete/discontinued on modern versions of Windows), so VB6 must have picked the next best option, Arial. I'm not sure what Windows version you were using to test this.


I don't have a DPI setting (such as 96 DPI) in Windows 10. Instead I have a scale factor (such as 100%). I'm using the default of 100% for the scale factor.

[Eduardo-]

I'm using Windows 10 and MS Sans Serif isn't even an available font

Yes, it is. It is on every Windows version.
Maybe there is a problem with your Windows 10 installation.

I don't have a DPI setting (such as 96 DPI) in Windows 10. Instead I have a scale factor (such as 100%). I'm using the default of 100% for the scale factor.

That is, 100% is 96 DPI.