HP Pcl 5 Manual

							ENIntroduction  7-1
7
Fonts
Introduction   
A font is a group of symbols that have similar characteristics. A 
font is described by its symbol set, spacing, height, pitch, 
style, stroke weight, typeface and orientation.
A typical document is printed using several fonts. A large font 
may be used for the title and chapter headings of a document, a 
standard size font may be used for the body of the document, 
and key words or phrases may be highlighted, using a bold or 
italic font.
For example, this text is printed using a Century Schoolbook 
typeface; its height is 10 point, its style is upright, and its 
stroke weight is medium. Examples of different fonts are 
shown in Figure 7-1.
Figure 7-1 Font Samples   
						

							7-2   FontsEN
A font must be selected for printing by the user. One font is selected 
at a time. It is selected by identifying the specific characteristics of the 
font. Font selection commands identify font characteristics to the 
printer (refer to Summary of Font Selection by Characteristic for 
detailed font selection information).      
PCL 5 printers feature scalable fonts. With the addition of this feature, 
the printer has two font formats available: bitmap and scalable. A 
bitmap font is available in its one, defined size only. A scalable font, 
on the other hand, can be selected (scaled) for a range of sizes (refer 
to “Bitmap Fonts and Scalable Typefaces” later in this chapter for 
additional information).
Font Sources     
A number of fonts (and typefaces, as described later) are supplied 
with the printer. These fonts reside in permanent ROM (read only 
memory), and are referred to as internal fonts. Additional fonts can 
be added easily by inserting font car tridges or SIMM modules into the 
printer, or downloading them from the host computer.      
A cartridge font plugs into a font cartridge slot on the printer. 
SIMM font modules plug into a printed circuit board inside the printer. 
These ROM-based fonts are always available (as long as the 
cartridge or SIMM module is installed). A variety of font products 
may be purchased from Hewlett-Packard or other vendors. Refer to 
your Hewlett-Packard Accessories and Supplies Brochure for a list of 
HP’s font products.       
Soft fonts are supplied as files on flexible disk transferred 
(downloaded) into the printer’s user (RAM) memory. Once a soft 
font has been downloaded into the printer’s RAM, it may be selected 
for printing.  
						

							ENSymbol Set 7-3
Symbol Set   
Symbol set identifies the specific collection of symbols provided by a 
font. Each symbol set is defined with a specific application in mind. 
For example, the legal and math symbol sets were designed to 
support legal and scientific applications. The following figure shows 
two common symbol sets, PC-8 and Roman-8. The PC-8 symbol set 
contains some special symbols and line draw characters not included 
in the Roman-8 symbol set, while the Roman-8 set contains 
European characters not contained in the PC-8 symbol set.
NoteUser-defined symbol sets are supported by some HP LaserJet 
printers. See Chapter 10 for more information.
Figure 7-2 Symbol Sets 
						

							7-4   FontsEN
Spacing      
Another characteristic that differentiates fonts is spacing. Fonts have 
either fixed or proportional spacing. Fixed-spaced fonts (Figure 7-3) 
are those in which the inter-character spacing is constant. 
Proportionally-spaced fonts (Figure 7-4) are those in which the 
inter-character spacing varies with the natural shape of a character.
Figure 7-3 Fixed Spacing
Figure 7-4 Proportional Spacing 
						

							ENPitch 7-5
Pitch     
Pitch describes the number of characters printed in a horizontal inch. 
Pitch only applies to fixed-spaced fonts, since the number of 
characters per inch varies for proportional fonts.
Figure 7-5 Pitch
Height      
The height of a font is the measurement of the body of the type in 
PCL points. A PCL point is 1/72 inch in bitmap fonts, and 
approximately 1/72 inch in scalable fonts. The body of the type is 
slightly larger than the distance from the bottom of a descender to the 
top of an unaccented capital letter.
Figure 7-6 Height  
This loose measure from near the bottom of a descender to just 
above the top of an unaccented capital letter is sometimes referred to 
as the “Em.” 
						

							7-6   FontsEN
Style          
Style is defined by three characteristics: posture (upright, italic), width 
(condensed, normal, expanded, etc.), and structure (solid, outline, 
shadow etc.). Examples of upright and italic styles are shown.
Figure 7-7 Style
Stroke Weight      
Stroke weight describes the thickness of the strokes that compose 
characters. Examples of medium and bold stroke weights are shown 
in the figure below.
Figure 7-8 Stroke Weight 
						

							ENTypeface Family 7-7
Typeface Family    
Typeface identifies the design of the symbols of the font. Each 
typeface family has unique and distinguishing design characteristics. 
The following example shows typefaces from various typeface 
families.
Figure 7-9 Typeface 
						

							7-8   FontsEN
Orientation      
Orientation defines the position of the logical page with respect to the 
physical page as shown in Figure 7-10.
Figure 7-10  Orientation  
The HP LaserJet IID, IIP, 2000, and all PCL 5 LaserJet printers 
automatically rotate fonts to the current orientation (all fonts are 
available in all four orientations). (Earlier printers required fonts in 
the orientation which matched the orientation of the page. Thus, 
orientation is not as important as it once was.)    
The orientation of a font is still a consideration when the amount of 
user memory (RAM) is a concern. Internal and other ROM-based 
fonts consume very little user memory. On some printers, 
downloaded fonts, scaled fonts, and rotated fonts are stored entirely 
in RAM. For bitmap fonts, selecting a font with the current logical 
page orientation saves RAM space on some printers. 
						

							ENBitmap Fonts and Scalable Typefaces 7-9
Bitmap Fonts and Scalable Typefaces       
There are two basic formats of fonts used by HP PCL 5 printers: 
bitmap (Figure 7-11) and scalable (Figure 7-12). Earlier HP LaserJet 
printers supported only bitmap fonts. Bitmap fonts have a fixed 
bit-pattern for each character. The size of the character is fixed, 
depending on the bit-pattern. Scalable typefaces, on the other hand, 
provide an “outline” for the characters. This “outline” can be scaled by 
the PCL 5 printers to produce a large range of character sizes.
There is a difference, between a scalable typeface and a scalable 
font. A bound, scalable font is a group of “outline” characters limited 
to one specific symbol set. For a scalable font, the symbol set, 
spacing, style, stroke weight, and typeface characteristics are all 
fixed, and size is variable (since it is scalable). A scalable typeface, 
on the other hand, is a grouping of “outline” characters of a specific 
typeface which can produce multiple symbol sets. For a scalable 
typeface, spacing, style, stroke weight, and typeface characteristics of 
the font are all fixed, symbol set and size are variable.
NoteScalable fonts and scalable typefaces are selected for printing in the 
same manner as bitmap fonts; no additional selection is required 
(refer to Summary of Font Selection by Characteristic for font 
selection information).  
Some scalable typefaces are provided with the printer (for example: 
CG Times and Univers). Additional scalable typefaces can be 
obtained on disk, cartridge or SIMM modules. 
						

							7-10   FontsEN
Figure 7-11  Bitmap Character
Figure 7-12  Scalable Character