Fonts

What is a Font?

Using Fonts

Strictly speaking, a font refers to a set of printable characters in a particular typeface of a specific size (e.g. 12 point) and style (e.g. roman, bold or bold italic). In computer printing however, this term has been used in a wider context to refer to all sizes and styles of a particular typeface. In printers, fonts may be divided into two basic types: bitmap fonts and scalable (or outline) fonts.

Bitmap fonts are made up of a pattern of dots (at the printer resolution) to form the image of each printable character. These are of a fixed size, and scaling makes them look ragged.

Scalable fonts are stored as a set of mathematical curves. At print time the printer uses the stored curves to make up a bitmap of each character required, at the required size, and in the required style, at the full printer resolution. Such fonts are therefore said to be scalable, and do not appear ragged at enlarged sizes.

The easiest way to select fonts is through your software program. Your software can send a printer command that consists of a set of codes, one for each of the font characteristics. If your software has the appropriate driver, you can specify the font you want, and it will send the necessary commands to the printer. For detailed information on how to select fonts in your software package, refer to your software documentation.

OKIPAGE 8p Fonts

These typefaces are resident in the OKIPAGE 8p:

35 MicroType scalable fonts

10 TrueType scalable font

1 Line Printer bitmap font

OCR A/B

14

OKIPAGE 8p/8w