MORE INFORMATION
Several manufacturers supply font scaling packages for the Windows
3.0. A font scaling package uses a scalable font outline to produce
various sizes of bitmap fonts for the display and/or printer. This is
a major advantage in that it is only necessary to install a single
font outline to produce a wide range of sizes of a given typeface.
Windows screen fonts, the default fonts supplied with the Windows 3.00
package, cover a useful range but are somewhat basic. These include
Times Roman, Helvetica, and Symbol at 8 through 24 point sizes; and
Courier at 10 through 15 points. You may have found instances where
Windows did not have a suitable screen font to correspond to the
printer font you chose. This prevents true WYSIWYG (what you see is
what you get) implementation.
The use of a font scaling package can greatly enhance both your
printed output and the WYSIWYG capability. This is especially useful
when doing heavy word processing or desktop publishing. There are two
major types of font scaling packages:
- The fixed-size font creation package
- The real-time font scaling package
The Fixed-Size Font Creation Package
Examples of this type of package include Bitstream Fontware for
Windows, Hewlett Packard/Compugraphic Type Director, and ZSoft
SoftType. These packages allow you to create fixed-size downloadable
fonts for Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet compatibles, and fixed-size
Windows screen font (.FON) files that may also be used for dot-matrix
or InkJet printing. Both LaserJet downloadables and Windows .FON files
are fixed-size bitmap fonts. Some packages are able to create
PostScript downloadable outline fonts as well, which, like all
PostScript fonts, may be scaled by the printer itself.
When using a fixed-size font creation package, you first install one
or more scalable outline fonts, usually in a format that is
proprietary to the font package manufacturer. You then choose
specific fixed sizes of screen and printer fonts to create. The
package generates the requested bitmap fonts by scaling the outlines
to the appropriate sizes.
In the case of packages that support PostScript printers, the process
is slightly different. First, the proprietary outline font is
converted to a downloadable PostScript outline. Then, you may create
specific fixed sizes of Windows screen fonts to correspond to the
PostScript font.
The fixed-size font creation package is best for situations that
require a small number of additional fonts in specific sizes. If
you create a number of fixed-size downloadable fonts and/or Windows
.FON screen fonts, it's fairly easy to consume a great deal of hard
disk space. Also, downloadable fonts can be difficult to manage in
a network environment. On the plus side, fixed-size fonts are very
fast.
The Real-Time Font Scaling Package
This fairly recent technology is represented by packages such as Adobe
Type Manager, Atech Publisher's Powerpak, Bitstream FaceLift, and
Zenographics SuperPrint. These packages provide true real-time screen
and printer font scaling. They are somewhat slower than the use of
fixed-size fonts, but provide the best WYSIWYG feature across a wide
range of sizes and type styles without consuming much disk space. For
desktop publishing, such a package is quite helpful.
Each real-time font scaling package accepts one or more scalable
outline font formats. At the time that you choose a given font,
the package renders it as a bitmap on the screen in real-time at
whatever size you specified (up to 127 points, a Windows internal
limitation). The same outline font can also be scaled and sent
to the printer, which produces a direct correlation between the
screen and printed output -- true WYSIWYG.
Some printers, such as the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III series and
PostScript compatibles, include printer-resident font scaling
technology. In such cases, it is not necessary to have a software
package provide this functionality. However, real-time scaled
screen fonts are still quite helpful. Some packages can provide
scalable screen fonts that correspond to the resident fonts of
these printers. In this case, the package does not do the printer
font scaling. It allows the printer to scale the printer fonts,
while it scales only for the display. The combination of hardware
print scaling and corresponding scaled screen fonts is an attractive
solution.
Most real-time scaling packages will work with any display, and any
printer that can accept raster (bitmap) input (that is, almost
anything but a plotter). This means you can use your existing copy of
Windows, with any Windows display or printer driver, in combination
with the package to produce a WYSIWYG environment. However, some
real-time scaling packages use their own display and printer drivers.
This is not much of a disadvantage as long as the drivers support your
hardware. Check with the package manufacturer to determine if your
desired printer and display are supported, before you purchase any
package.
The products included here are manufactured by vendors independent of
Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these
products' performance or reliability.