TrueType fonts store individual text characters as mathematical descriptions of lines and curves, rather than as groups of pixels (a bitmap). When a program asks for a character in a particular size, such as 33 points, the computer uses mathematical calculations to enlarge the character’s outline to 33 points and fill in the dots for the monitor or printer output.
Sometimes you’ll still get jagged edges when you print a document, even when you use a TrueType font. In nearly all cases, this is because there isn’t enough memory available to scale the font properly for printing. This may happen, for example, when you’re running several programs at the same time.
Because you don’t need a separate font for each character size in order for your printing to look good (as you do with bitmapped fonts), TrueType font names don’t have numbers in them.
How does a font look? To see what a TrueType or bitmapped font looks like on your screen,
You can also use the Key Caps desk accessory to examine fonts. See the documentation that came with your computer for instructions.
Bitmapped fonts
Bitmapped fonts consist of “pictures” of a typeface at specific sizes. For example, you might have bitmapped fonts at
90Appendix B
