WW0528: Application Note Discussing Fonts

Last reviewed: May 1, 1997
Article ID: Q83247
3.10 WINDOWS kbfile kbdisplay kbappnote

The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows operating system version 3.1

Microsoft Product Support Services offers an Application Note that talks about fonts in general and Windows 3.1 fonts in particular. It includes information on raster, vector, and TrueType fonts; printer fonts; the Windows 3.1 character map; dot-matrix printer fonts; HPPCL printer fonts; downloadable fonts; and PostScript printer fonts.

You can obtain this Application Note from the following sources:

  • Microsoft's World Wide Web Site on the Internet
  • The Internet (Microsoft anonymous ftp server)
  • Microsoft Download Service (MSDL)
  • Microsoft Product Support Services

For complete information, see the "To Obtain This Application Note" section at the end of this article.

THE TEXT OF WW0528

    Microsoft Product Support Services Application Note (Text File)
                             WW0528: FONTS
                                                   Revision Date: 3/92
                                                      No Disk Included

The following information applies to Microsoft Windows version 3.1.

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INTRODUCTION

There is a good deal of misunderstanding about just what a font is. When most people talk about a font, they are really talking about a typeface. A typeface is a set of characters that share common characteristics such as stroke width and the presence or absence of serifs. For example, Arial and Courier are each typefaces. Frequently, both the typeface and its name are copyrighted by the typeface designer or manufacturer.

A font is the complete set of characters for one style of a specific typeface, including all the letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. For example, Courier New Bold Italic is a font. In Windows, a font family refers to a group of typefaces with similar characteristics. The families that Windows recognizes for font installation and mapping are Roman, Swiss, Modern, Script, and Decorative. For example, Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Bold Italic, Arial Italic, Small Fonts, and MS Sans Serif are all part of the sans serif Swiss font family.

For printing and display on a computer system, each font has its own character set according to ASCII, ANSI, OEM, or other industry standards that defines what character is represented by a specific keystroke. Windows uses the ANSI character set. Many non-Windows applications use the ASCII character set.

The following basic terms are used in Windows to define the appearance of fonts in an application:

  • "Font style" refers to specific characteristics of the font. The four characteristics you can define for fonts in Windows are italic, bold, bold italic, and roman (often called Normal or Regular in font dialog boxes).
  • "Font size" refers to the point size of a font, where a point is about 1/72 of an inch. Typical sizes for fonts in text are 10 points and 12 points.
  • "Font effects" refer to attributes such as underlining, strikethrough, and color that can be applied to text in many applications.

You may also encounter the following terms in descriptions of fonts and typefaces:
  • "Pitch" refers to the type size for fixed-width fonts, specified in characters per inch (cpi), where 10-pitch = 12-point, 12-pitch = 10-point, and 15-pitch = 8-point type.
  • "Serif" and "sans serif" describe specific characteristics of a typeface. Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman or Courier, have projections, or serifs, that extend from the upper and lower strokes of the letters. Sans serif fonts, such as Arial and MS Sans Serif, do not have serifs.
  • "Slant" refers to the angle of a font's characters, which can be italic (slanted) or roman (not slanted).
  • "Spacing" can be either fixed or proportional. In a fixed font such as Courier, every character occupies the same amount of space. In a proportional font such as Arial or Times New Roman, character width varies.
  • "Weight" refers to the heaviness of the stroke for a specific font, such as light, regular, book, demi, heavy, black, and extra bold.
  • "Width" refers to whether the standard typeface has been compressed or extended horizontally. The variations are condensed, normal, and expanded.
  • "X-height" refers to the vertical size of lowercase characters.

WINDOWS 3.1 FONTS

The Windows operating system version 3.1 provides three basic kinds of fonts, which are categorized according to how the fonts are rendered for screen or print output:

  • "Raster fonts" are stored in files as bitmaps and are rendered as an array of dots for displaying on screen and printing on paper. Raster fonts cannot be scaled or rotated.
  • "Vector fonts" are rendered from a mathematical model, where each character is defined as a set of lines drawn between points. Vector fonts can be scaled to any size or aspect ratio.
  • "TrueType(TM) fonts" are outline fonts using new technology available in Windows 3.1. They can be scaled and rotated.

Besides the font-rendering mechanism, Windows fonts are described according to the output device:
  • "Screen fonts" are font descriptions that Windows uses to represent characters on display devices. Windows uses special raster fonts as the system screen font for menus, window captions, messages, and other text. A set of system, fixed, and OEM terminal fonts is shipped with Windows 3.1 to match your system's display capabilities (that is, CGA, EGA, VGA, or 8514 video displays). The default system screen font in Windows 3.1 is System, a proportionally spaced raster font. The installed screen fonts are listed in the [fonts] section of your WIN.INI file.

    Some screen fonts are installed for displaying non-Windows applications when Windows is running in 386 enhanced mode. By default, code page 437 (U.S.) fonts are installed. Other screen font files are included for international language support, identified by the code page number appended to the filename.

  • "Printer fonts" are the font descriptions used by the printer to create a font. Windows applications can use three kinds of printer fonts: device fonts, downloadable soft fonts, and printable screen fonts.

Windows Raster Fonts

Raster fonts are bitmaps supplied in different sizes for specific video display resolutions. The Windows fonts MS Serif, MS Sans Serif, Courier, System, and Terminal are raster fonts. A raster font file contains data that describes all the characters and styles of a typeface for a specific display device. Windows provides several raster font sizes for various display devices. For example, MS Serif comes in point sizes 8, 10, 12, and 14 for CGA, EGA, VGA, and 8514 display devices. Windows can scale raster fonts to even multiples of their supplied sizes. This means that MS Serif can be scaled to 16, 20, or 24 points, and so on. Bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough styles can also be generated from a standard raster font.

Normally, the correct font sets for your display and printer are installed by Windows Setup. Additional raster font sets can be installed with Control Panel. The following is a list of the raster fonts installed in Windows 3.1:

   Font          Filename       Character Set
   ----          --------       -------------

   Courier       COURIER.FON    ANSI
   MS Sans Serif SSERIFx.FON    ANSI
   MS Serif      SERIFx.FON     ANSI
   Small         SMALLx.FON     ANSI
   Symbol        SYMBOLx.FON    SYMBOL

The raster font sets for different display resolutions are distinguished by a letter suffix on the font name (represented as x in the previous table). To determine the file that Windows installs for a given display or printer, refer to the "Font Set" column of the following table and add to the character set filename the letter that identifies the resolution of the raster font. For example, the resource file for MS Serif fonts for VGA is named SERIFE.FON.

                              Horizontal   Vertical     Aspect
   Font Set  Output Device    Resolution   Resolution   Ratio H:V
   --------  -------------    ----------   ----------   ---------
   A         CGA display      96 dpi       48 dpi       2:1
   B         EGA display      96 dpi       72 dpi       1.33:1
   C         Printer          60 dpi       72 dpi       1:83
   D         Printer          120 dpi      72 dpi       1.67:1
   E         VGA display      96 dpi       96 dpi       1:1
   F         8514 display     120 dpi      120 dpi      1:1

Raster fonts can also be printed if their resolution and aspect ratio are close to what your printer requires. If you do not see raster fonts for your printer in a fonts dialog box, check your printer's horizontal and vertical resolution and compare it with the table above. If there is a close match, choose the Fonts icon in the Control Panel window and make sure the appropriate font set is installed. If there is no close match, you will not be able to print the Windows raster fonts on your printer. Some printer drivers cannot print raster fonts, regardless of the aspect ratio.

MS Serif and MS Sans Serif in Windows 3.1 replace the identical raster fonts Tms Rmn and Helv that were installed in earlier versions of Windows. Windows matches MS Serif to Tms Rmn and MS Sans Serif to Helv through the [FontSubstitutes] section of the WIN.INI file.

The new Windows raster font named Small Font was designed for readable, efficient screen display of small fonts. For sizes under 6 points, Small Font is a better choice for screen display than any TrueType font because it's easier to read.

Windows Vector Fonts

Vector fonts are a set of lines drawn between points, like a pen plotter drawing a set of characters. They can be scaled to virtually any size, but generally they do not look as good as raster fonts in the sizes that raster fonts are specifically designed for. Vector fonts are stored in Windows as collections of graphics device interface (GDI) calls and are time-consuming to generate but are useful for plotters and other devices where bitmapped characters can't be used.

Some Windows applications automatically use vector fonts at larger sizes. These applications often allow you to specify at what point size you want to use vector fonts. For example, the "Vector Above" setting in Aldus PageMaker specifies the point size at which PageMaker will switch to vector fonts.

The Windows fonts Roman, Modern, and Script are vector fonts.

TRUETYPE AND WINDOWS 3.1

As mentioned earlier, Windows 3.1 includes a new implementation of outline font technology called TrueType. TrueType has many benefits over other kinds of Windows fonts:

  • True WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) display--what you see is really what you get because Windows uses the same font for both the screen and printer. You don't have to think about whether you have a specific point size for a particular printer or for your display.
  • You can scale and rotate TrueType fonts, and they look good in all sizes and on all output devices that Windows supports.
  • Your document will look the same when printed on different printers, and any printer that uses the Windows 3.1 universal driver can print TrueType fonts.
  • Your document will look the same if you move it across platforms. For example, because the Macintosh uses the same TrueType font technology as IBM-compatible computers, the text you format in Microsoft Word for Windows will look the same if you open the document in Microsoft Word for the Macintosh.
  • Each TrueType typeface requires only an .FOT and a .TTF file to create fonts in all point sizes at all resolutions for all output devices. (Raster fonts need separate files for each point size, resolution, and display device.)
  • TrueType is integrated with the operating environment, so all Windows applications can use TrueType fonts without changes or upgrades, just as they use other Windows raster fonts.

The TrueType fonts installed with Windows 3.1 are Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, and Symbol in regular, bold, bold italic, and italic.

How TrueType Works

TrueType fonts are stored as a collection of points and "hints" that define the character outlines. When a Windows application asks for a font, TrueType uses the outline and the hints to render a bitmap in the size requested. Hints are the algorithms that distort the scaled font outlines to improve how the bitmaps look at specific resolutions.

Each time you run Windows, the first time you select a TrueType font size, TrueType renders a bitmap of the selected characters for display or printing. Because of this, the initial font generation may be slower than with Windows raster fonts. However, Windows stores the rendered bitmaps in a font cache, so each subsequent time the font is used during that Windows session, display or printing will be just as fast as with a Windows raster font.

The Windows universal printer driver supports TrueType. Any printer that works with the universal printer driver will support TrueType automatically.

Using TrueType in Windows Applications

With TrueType, you have more choices for fonts in most Windows applications, plus the same fonts you had in earlier versions of Windows. In many applications, TrueType fonts appear in the fonts dialog box with a "TT" logo beside the typeface name. Typefaces that are device fonts have printer icons beside their names in the list.

You will also notice that you can specify any size you want for TrueType fonts, rather than choosing from a limited list of raster or vector font sizes.

To specify that you want to use TrueType fonts or restrict all choices to TrueType, choose the Fonts icon in the Control Panel window and choose the TrueType button. If you restrict all choices to TrueType, you will ensure that the type styles in your documents will print on any dot-matrix, Hewlett-Packard Printer Control Language (HPPCL), or PostScript printer and that your documents can be moved to other platforms easily.

Windows 3.1 does not automatically change fonts in documents that were produced with earlier font technologies. If you want to update old documents to use TrueType fonts, you must update them manually. You might also contact your application vendor to see if there are new utilities available that will assist in upgrading of documents to use TrueType.

FONT INSTALLATION

In Windows 3.1, fonts can be installed on your system in several ways:

  • Windows installs TrueType and its screen fonts automatically during installation. When you specify a printer and other options in the Printer Setup dialog box, Windows includes information about font cartridges and built-in fonts for your printer.
  • Install more TrueType fonts from disks by choosing the Add Fonts button in the Font Installer dialog box.
  • Install more HPPCL soft fonts on your hard disk by installing the AutoFont Support files and following the instructions for adding scalable printer fonts. Then choose the Add Fonts button in the Font Installer dialog box to install the fonts in Windows.
  • Install other third-party soft fonts on your hard disk by using the utility supplied by the manufacturer. Then choose the Add Fonts button in the Font Installer dialog box to install the fonts in Windows.
  • Install a new font cartridge in your printer, and choose the Printer icon in the Control Panel window. In the Setup dialog box, select a new item from the Cartridge list.

For more information about using the Font Installer, choose the Help button in the Font Installer dialog box.

HOW WINDOWS MATCHES FONTS

When an application asks for characters to print or display, Windows must find the appropriate font among the fonts installed on your system. Finding the font can be complex because, for example, your document may contain fonts that aren't available on the current printer, or there may be more than one font with the same name installed on your system.

The basic rules that Windows uses for finding a font are:

  1. If the font is a TrueType font, then TrueType renders the character, and the result is sent to the display or to the printer.

  2. If the font is not a TrueType font, then Windows uses the font mapping table to determine the most appropriate device font to use.

Before TrueType, when Windows mapped fonts that had the same name, the order of the internal listing of fonts determined which font was chosen. In Windows 3.1, TrueType fonts are always chosen first, then the internal listing order is followed.

When Windows uses the font mapping table to match screen fonts to printer fonts, the characteristics used to find the closest match are, in descending order of importance: the character set, variable versus fixed pitch, family, typeface name, height, width, weight, slant, underline, and strikethrough.

The following table shows which types of Windows fonts can be printed on different kinds of printers:

                    Device    Raster    Vector    TrueType
   Printer Type     Font      Fonts     Fonts     Fonts
   ------------     ------    ------    ------    --------

   Dot matrix       Yes       Yes       No        Yes
   HPPCL            Yes       No        Yes       Yes
   PostScript       Yes       No        Yes       Yes
   Plotter          Yes       No        Yes       No

The following table lists the character sets installed with Windows 3.1:

   Font                Font Type     Spacing      Default Sizes
   ----                ---------    -------     -------------

   Arial Bold Italic   TrueType      Proportional Scalable
   Arial Bold          TrueType      Proportional Scalable
   Arial Italic        TrueType      Proportional Scalable

   Arial               TrueType      Proportional Scalable
   Courier New Bold    TrueType      Fixed        Scalable
      Italic
   Courier New Bold    TrueType      Fixed        Scalable

   Courier New Italic  TrueType      Fixed        Scalable
   Courier New         TrueType      Fixed        Scalable
   Courier             Raster        Fixed        10,12,15

   Modern              Vector        Proportional Scalable
   MS Sans Serif       Raster        Proportional 8,10,12,14,18,24
   MS Serif            Raster        Proportional 8,10,12,14,18,24

   Roman               Vector        Proportional Scalable
   Script              Vector        Proportional 2,4,6
   Symbol*             Raster        Proportional 8,10,12,14,18,24

   Symbol*             TrueType      Proportional Scalable
   System              Raster        Proportional Display-dependent
                                                     size
   Terminal**          Raster        Fixed        Display-dependent
                                                     size

   Times New Roman     TrueType      Proportional Scalable
      Bold Italic
   Times New Roman     TrueType      Proportional Scalable
      Bold
   Times New Roman     TrueType      Proportional Scalable
      Italic
   Times New Roman     TrueType      Proportional Scalable

    * Symbol, rather than ANSI, character set
    **OEM, rather than ANSI, character set


DISK SPACE, MEMORY USE, AND SPEED

You may notice a performance decrease if your document uses many fonts in many sizes. Rendering many fonts requires a large font cache, which might force more swapping to the hard disk. This same problem occurs with other fonts in earlier versions of Windows. With TrueType, less memory is used for the cache than would be required for corresponding raster fonts; this should lead to a net performance gain. The font cache will use more memory with TrueType only if multiple logical fonts have been mapped to the same raster font. Usually, however, any additional swapping to disk is still faster than discarding the rendered bitmaps.

For TrueType fonts, hard disk space is not the problem it can be for a comparative selection of raster fonts. This is because the font information files do not contain actual raster images of the fonts, but only outline and hint information. When you install Windows, however, you will see that more disk space is being used to store fonts. This is because all Windows raster fonts are still shipped for backward compatibility with earlier applications. Any soft fonts you already have on your hard disk will not be affected by the installation of TrueType with Windows 3.1.

TRUETYPE AND EARLIER WINDOWS APPLICATIONS

TrueType uses a different character spacing (called ABC widths) than is used for raster fonts. Applications that use this spacing will be able to space characters more accurately, especially in bold and italic text. However, because of this change in spacing, text can sometimes appear inaccurately in applications written for earlier versions of Windows. For example, the end of a highlighted text line may look odd on screen.

Most applications list font names on menus and in dialog boxes that match the names of fonts that can be printed on the current printer. So the change in font names for Windows 3.1 will probably not affect you. You will only see more choices in most fonts dialog boxes.

  NOTE: Windows 3.1 maps the typefaces Helvetica to Arial, Times to
  Times New Roman, and Courier to Courier New in the [FontSubstitutes]
  section of the WIN.INI file. You can change this section of the
  WIN.INI file to map any font names to other font names.


PRINTER FONTS AND WINDOWS 3.1

A printer font is any font that can be produced on your printer. There are three kinds of printer fonts:

  • Device fonts are fonts that actually reside in the hardware of your printer. They can be built into the printer itself, or can be provided by a font cartridge or font card.
  • Printable screen fonts are Windows screen fonts that can be translated for output to the printer.
  • Downloadable soft fonts are fonts that reside on your hard disk and are sent to the printer when needed.

Not all printers can use all three types of printer fonts. Plotters, for example, cannot use downloadable soft fonts. HPPCL printers cannot print Windows screen fonts.

CHARACTER SETS FOR PRINTER FONTS

Windows uses the ANSI character set. Some printers, such as the IBM Proprietor, use the IBM (OEM) standard for codes above 128. Other printers might use their own proprietary set of extended character codes. To be sure you get the characters you want, consult your printer documentation to determine what character set is supported by the printer.

WINDOWS 3.1 CHARACTER MAP

You can also use the Windows Character Map to select and insert a special character in your document. When you insert a special character in a document to get a specific result in print, the character you see on the screen might not be correct because the character is displayed using the ANSI character set and the best matching screen font for the current printer font. However, the printed document will contain the correct character. Conversely, if you type an ANSI character that appears on screen but is not supported in the fonts your printer uses, some other character, such as a period, will be printed instead.

DOT-MATRIX PRINTER FONTS

Dot-matrix printers support device fonts and printable screen fonts. Usually, a dot-matrix printer includes only a limited range of internal device fonts. Typically, fixed-spacing fonts are supplied in a variety of cpi sizes. Dot-matrix device fonts are conventionally named <typeface xx>CPI, where <typeface> is the typeface name, and <xx> is the number of characters per inch. Distinguishing a device font on a dot-matrix printer is usually as easy as checking for the CPI designation at the end of the font name, such as "Courier CPI 10."

Through the universal printer driver, dot-matrix printers can also support TrueType. When you use TrueType fonts on a dot-matrix printer, Windows sends a rasterized graphics image to the printer. Dot-matrix printers do not provide any landscape device fonts, but vector screen fonts can be printed in any resolution or orientation. Dot-matrix device fonts are faster but less flexible than screen fonts.

Some 24-pin dot-matrix printers, such as Epson and NEC printers, also support font cards or cartridges. You can use these fonts if the Windows driver for your printer supports them.

HPPCL PRINTER FONTS

Printers that use HPPCL can print several different types of fonts. HPPCL printers can use font cartridges, downloadable soft fonts, vector screen fonts, and TrueType fonts. HPPCL printers cannot print Windows raster screen fonts.

When you use TrueType fonts on an HPPCL printer, TrueType performs all the font rendering in the computer and downloads bitmaps of the fonts. TrueType downloads only the specific characters needed in a document, not the entire font.

HPPCL Memory Tracking

If you use an HP LaserJet-compatible printer, be sure to accurately specify the amount of memory installed in your printer. This is important because the Windows HPPCL driver now tracks the available memory in your printer. You may get an out-of-printer-memory error or other errors if the memory is set incorrectly.

DOWNLOADABLE FONTS

You can get HP LaserJet-compatible downloadable soft fonts from a number of sources, including Hewlett-Packard, Bitstream, SoftCraft, and CompuGraphics. Some downloadable font utilities also generate raster screen fonts for Windows. If an exact screen font match is not available, Windows uses one of its own screen fonts.

Hewlett-Packard downloadable fonts are installed with the Font Installer, while third-party HPPCL soft fonts are installed with their own installation utilities. To use the Font Installer, choose the Fonts button in the Printer Setup dialog box.

The Font Installer places soft font entries in the WIN.INI file under a section specific to a driver and port, such as [HPPCL,LPTx] (where x is the port number), as described later in this section. Because soft fonts are installed for a printer on a specific port, the soft fonts will not appear if you change the printer. To copy the soft font listings to another port, choose the Copy Fonts To New Port button in the Font Installer dialog box.

HPPCL fonts can be downloaded on either a temporary or a permanent basis. Temporary fonts are downloaded only when the HPPCL driver encounters a particular font while printing. At the end of the print job, the soft font is discarded from the printer's memory. Printers such as the Apricot Laser and Kyocera F-1010, which require temporary soft fonts to be downloaded only at the start of a print job but not during the job, cannot use soft fonts with the Windows HPPCL driver.

HP PLOTTER PRINTER FONTS

Because plotters are vector devices, they can print only vector fonts. Plotters cannot print any kind of bitmap, including raster screen fonts and TrueType fonts. HP plotters include one internal vector font called Plotter. However, the Windows vector screen fonts Modern, Roman, and Script can be printed on HP plotters.

POSTSCRIPT PRINTER FONTS

All PostScript fonts are scalable outlines that can be printed at any size. PostScript outline fonts can also be rotated to any angle and can be printed in both portrait and landscape modes. However, font size limitations are often imposed by applications. A common PostScript font size limitation in an application is 127 points.

Most PostScript printers include either the standard Apple LaserWriter Plus set of 35 scalable fonts or the earlier Apple LaserWriter set of 17 fonts.

PostScript soft fonts are installed with utilities provided by soft font vendors. Because the fonts are scalable, if there isn't a comparable screen font, mismatches can occur between screen display and printed output.

PostScript printers cannot print Windows raster screen fonts, although they can print vector screen fonts. Printing of Windows screen fonts is not usually necessary due to the large selection of resident fonts in a PostScript printer.

LaserWriter Plus Typefaces

The LaserWriter Plus standard font set includes 11 typefaces, 8 of which are available in roman, bold, italic, and bold italic. The Symbol typeface contains mathematical and scientific symbols, Zapf Chancery is a calligraphic specialty font, and Zapf Dingbats contains decorative bullet characters and embellishments. These typefaces are available only in roman style.

PostScript Printers and TrueType

TrueType fonts are treated as downloadable fonts by the PostScript driver. When you use TrueType fonts on a PostScript printer, scaling and hints are always performed in the computer. Scan conversion can be done in the computer or in the printer, depending on the point size. At smaller point sizes, TrueType performs scan conversion in the computer; at larger point sizes, scan conversion is done in the printer.

You can specify how to send TrueType fonts to your printer--for example, as bitmaps or in Adobe Type 1 format. To do this, in the Advanced Options dialog box of the Printer Setup command, select the method in the Send To Printer As list that you want to use for sending TrueType fonts.

If your PostScript printer supports downloadable fonts, you might want to use printer fonts in place of TrueType fonts to speed up printing and to use less printer memory. To do this, in the Advanced Options dialog box of the Printer Setup command, select the Use Printer Fonts For All TrueType Fonts check box. You can also map a TrueType font to a PostScript font in the [FontSubstitutes] section of the WIN.INI file; this will increase printing speed, but the results on the display may not be exactly the same as the printed output.

If your PostScript printer does not support downloadable fonts, you must use printer fonts to print any TrueType fonts in your documents. There are two ways to do this: allow the PostScript driver to print using the printer fonts that most closely match the TrueType fonts, or edit the Substitution Table to select the printer fonts you want to use, as described in the next section.

PostScript Downloadable Outline Fonts

PostScript printers also accept downloadable outline fonts, which can be scaled to any size and printed in both portrait and landscape orientations. Downloadable PostScript fonts are available from several suppliers, including Adobe and Bitstream. Both Adobe and Bitstream supply utilities that install the fonts and add entries to the WIN.INI file. Because the font installation capability is included with these commercial font products, the Windows PostScript driver does not include a font installation utility.

Although PostScript downloadable outline fonts can be scaled to any size, Windows screen fonts cannot. You must install specific sizes of Windows screen fonts with the Adobe and Bitstream utilities. Install only the sizes you feel you will frequently use. If you specify a PostScript font size that does not have a corresponding screen font, Windows will substitute another screen font. This results in a little loss in display quality but, of course, no loss in print quality.

PostScript Cartridges

To use PostScript cartridges with Windows, you must use the PostScript printer driver. Choose the Printer icon in the Control Panel window and follow the steps for installing a printer, selecting the Apple LaserWriter Plus (PostScript) or another PostScript printer from the list in the Printer Setup dialog box.

PostScript cartridges are not supported directly by the Windows PostScript driver.

Substituting PostScript Fonts

You can edit the Substitution Table to specify which PostScript printer fonts you want to print in place of the TrueType fonts in your documents. The changes you make in the Substitution Table only affect the fonts that are printed. The fonts that appear on the screen will not change; the original TrueType fonts are still used to display TrueType text in your document.

To specify which printer fonts to use, choose the Edit Substitution Table button in the Advanced Options dialog box of the Printer Setup command. Then select the TrueType font you want to replace from the For TrueType Font list in the Substitution dialog box. From the Use Printer Font list, select the PostScript printer font you want to use instead of the selected TrueType font.

If your printer supports downloadable fonts, you can select the Download As Soft Font option. In this case, the selected TrueType fonts will be sent to the printer using the method you specified in the Send To Printer As list in the Advanced Options dialog box. Repeat these steps until you have selected printer fonts to use in place of all the TrueType fonts in your document.

Specifying Virtual Printer Memory

You can change the amount of virtual memory that your PostScript printer has available for storing fonts. The PostScript driver uses a default setting for virtual memory recommended by the printer manufacturer.

To find out how much virtual memory your printer has, print out the TESTPS.TXT file in the WINDOWS directory. To adjust the amount of virtual memory, in the Virtual Memory (KB) box of the Advanced Options dialog box of the Printer Setup command, type the amount of virtual memory you want to use.

PostScript Drivers

In Windows 3.1, most PostScript printers use the universal PostScript driver, PSCRIPT.DRV. If you install a PostScript printer that does not appear in the List Of Printers box in the Printers dialog box, you must install a Windows PostScript Definition (.WPD) file for your printer. To do this, choose the Printers icon in the Control Panel window. Then select Install Unlisted Or Updated Printer from the List of Printers box in the Printer Setup dialog box.

The .WPD file for Windows 3.1 requires a version 3.1 OEMSETUP.INF file. If you have a .WPD file for Windows 3.0, then you do not need a new OEMSETUP.INF file to install the .WPD file.

In Windows 3.1, the PostScript driver can detect certain errors that Print Manager cannot detect. You can specify whether or not to print information about these errors after your document has finished printing. This information may help you or a Product Support Service representative determine what caused the error. To print out PostScript error information, in the Advanced Options dialog box of the Printer Setup command, select the Print PostScript Error Information check box.

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  • Internet (anonymous FTP)

          ftp ftp.microsoft.com
          Change to the Softlib/Mslfiles folder.
          Get WW0528.EXE (size: 25274 bytes) 
    
  • Microsoft Download Service (MSDL)

          Dial (425) 936-6735 to connect to MSDL
          Download WW0528.EXE (size: 25274 bytes) 
    

For additional information about downloading, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q119591
   TITLE     : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online
               Services

  • If you are unable to access the source(s) listed above, you can have this Application Note mailed or faxed to you by calling Microsoft Product Support Services Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pacific time at (425) 637-7098. If you are outside the United States, contact the Microsoft subsidiary for your area.


  • KBCategory: kbfile kbdisplay kbappnote
    KBSubcategory:
    Additional reference words: appnote 3.10 win31
    Keywords : kbappnote kbdisplay kbfile
    Version : 3.10
    Platform : WINDOWS


    THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.

    Last reviewed: May 1, 1997
    © 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.