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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Russian fonts available
  • Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 19:09:49 +0000 (UTC)

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 cce.zizkov AT volny.cz wrote:

I uploaded

http://www.volny.cz/cce/ptrfonts.tgz

that contains:

- downloadable fonts for HP Laserjet 3 or later


I don't think this will work for my HP Laserjet IIP or the deskjet series, unfortunately. But maybe there is something in here I can use to design my own fonts some day. Thanks. I will look into using my Epson fonts with linux if I can find them and extract from the WP setup.


See below for an explanation of why your Laserjet 3 fonts won't work on a Laserjet IIp or a deskjet.

ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/laser/
I found (from 1988/89): hpril.zip - Russian soft font
and two printer font editors for laserjet: gof10.zip and fntedt57.zip

And at /msdos/undefined/lqchr121.zip to edit Epson printer fonts.

Perhaps I can find some way to import the Turbofonts Cyrillic fonts into this editor. Turbofonts had some mistakes that needed correcting.


Perhaps converting from ascii to ps would be simplest, and graphics is not as slow to print on a deskjet as on a dot-matrix. -------
Hewlett Packard Font Formats

Since the introduction of the original HP LaserJet printer there has
been a demand for additional typefaces to compliment the printers'
resident fonts. The early LaserJet printers prior to the LaserJet III
printer in 1990 had a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) and only
supported fixed size fonts, called PCL bitmap soft fonts. The arrival
of the LaserJet III printer saw the resolution increased to 600 dpi
and the addition of support for Intellifont scaleable soft fonts. Both
formats are detailed below.

Bitmap Fonts

For PCL bitmap fonts a separate font must be created for each
required size. Therefore if a typeface was required to be used at
10, 12 and 14 point and was required in regular and italic weights,
six fonts would need to be produced.

In addition a bitmap font is manufactured at a specific resolution
of usually 300 or 600 dpi and a font can only be used on a printer
with equal or greater resolution than the font. Therefore a 600 dpi
font can not be used on a 300 dpi printer and although a 300 dpi
font can be used on a 600 dpi printer it will produce a below
standard image.

Intellifont Scaleable Fonts

The scaleable font format differs from a bitmap font because the
character data is stored as a mathematical outline. This enables a
single font to be used for all sizes as the outline data can be
scaled to any required size. The other benefit of using a scaleable
outline is that as it does not have a specific resolution, the
printed image is always produced at the maximum resolution of the
printer.

The Intellifont scaleable font format is supported by all HP
LaserJet printers from the HP LaserJet III onwards.

A soft font is the general term given to fonts that can be added to a
printer. Depending on the specific printer and the customers
requirements, soft fonts can be supplied either as downloadable fonts
on diskette or on cartridges, SIMM's or DIMM's which physically plug
in to the printer itself. The options are covered below.

Downloadable fonts

Fonts that are supplied on diskette are usually referred to as
downloadable fonts as they need to be downloaded to the printer
before they can be used. The process of downloading is very simple
if the printer is connected to a PC, in which case the fonts can be
downloaded using the DOS copy command. Once downloaded the fonts
remain resident in the printer until either the printer is switched
off or a command is sent to the printer to delete the downloaded
fonts.

The major advantage to downloadable fonts is one of cost as there
is no printer specific hardware involved. The major disadvantage is
that the fonts need downloading each time the printer is switched
off.

Fonts stored in the printer

Most LaserJet printers have a mechanism by which soft fonts can be
stored on the printer. The early LaserJet printers had a cartridge
slot into which a font cartridge could be plugged and newer
LaserJet printers support either font SIMM's or font DIMM's which
are added inside the printer. Some high end LaserJet printers even
have a hard disk which can be used for storing soft fonts.

All of the these methods of storing fonts on a printer are
non-volatile which means that the fonts are not deleted when the
printer is switched off. The advantage being that the fonts are
always available with no user intervention required.

Once soft fonts have been added to a LaserJet printer they are
accessed by sending an escape sequence which selects the font ready
for use. Data is then sent to the printer as usual and will be printed
using the selected font.

Although TrueType fonts are great for Windows and Apple Mac users, HP
soft fonts are often an ideal solution for companies using other
operating systems such as Unix and DOS.

References

1. http://www.formula.co.uk/index.html




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