Chapter 3 Fonts
Bitmap and Scalable Fonts
A font is a set of characters of a particular design. The design is referred to as a typeface. Several characteristics identify a font. These include the font type (bit map or scalable), symbol set, spacing, pitch, height, style, stroke weight, and typeface family.
The printer provides two types of resident fonts: bitmap fonts and scalable (outline) fonts. Also, fonts may be downloaded to the printer’s memory or optional harddisk from a memory card or disk. These fonts are referred to as downloadable or soft fonts. The printer accepts as many downloadable fonts as its user available memory permits.
Bitmap fonts
A bitmap font is made of a fixed bit pattern. This pattern is stored in a special format for use in the printer. Bitmap fonts have a fixed height (size) for each character. Therefore, different font sets are required for different font sizes. For example,
Scalable fonts
Scalable fonts provide the outline of the characters. This outline is scaled according to the scaling information from the computer and filled in for printing. Depending on the capabilities of the software you use, the scalable fonts can be scaled from 0.25 point to 999.75 points in quarter point increments.
