It wasn't very long ago that you were a slave of the printer attached to your machine and the fonts it contained. If your printer didn't do what you needed it to do, you had to borrow someone else's machine to get your work done. Networks made more printers available to more people. Now you probably have access to three or four (as a minimum) on the typical network.
Fonts have changed as well. I still remember buying font cartridges for one of my printers and thinking I was lucky to have the additional fonts they provided. Today, it's nothing for a typical user to have a hundred or so fonts at his disposal. One product on my machine gives me well over 500 fonts and makes a special point of telling me so.
All this growth has come at a price. Some people out there still have font cartridges. The older fonts you have to download into a printer before you can use them are still available as well. I see more than a few ATM (Adobe Type Manager) icons on people's screens. Printers have become more flexible and you have access to more of them, but that flexibility has come at a terrific cost in added complexity.
This chapter will help you make some sense out of the confusing mass of available software options. I'm going to show you how to gain access to your printer and make the best use of the fonts on your hard drive. Even more important, I discuss some management techniques everyone should know when using a printer.
Remember the context menu I've been talking about throughout the book? You won't escape it in this chapter either. Windows NT takes a proactive approach when it comes to printing. You can get a document to the printer in a lot of different ways. I usually use the context menu shown in Figure 15.1 because most of my documents go to the same printer if I don't have them open. Of course, you still have the usual Windows defaults for sending a document to the printer, including your application's Print menu.
Figure 15.1. The context menu for a document usually offers the choice of sending the document to the default printer.
Tip: This book has viewed DDE in a variety of ways. The most recent mention was in Chapter 12, "DDE and OLE," where I discussed some of the ways you can use DDE with a document. Chapter 5, "Startup Shortcuts," looked at the way Explorer uses DDE. One additional way to use DDE is to use Explorer to add another menu option to the context menu of your documents if you usually use more than one printer. This will enable you to select something other than the default printer with the context menu. Unfortunately, your application must support DDE in order for this option to work. Use the current Print entry as a basis for creating your advanced Print option.
Another method people use to send documents to the printer is to place a shortcut to the printer on their Desktop. Then, all you need to do to print a document is drag it to the printer you want to use and drop it. Of course, using this technique consumes some valuable Desktop real estate, so you'll want to use it only when required.
With so many new capabilities, it's small wonder that your ability to manage print jobs under Windows NT is improved as well. Gaining access to the print jobs you have running is no problem. Whenever you print, Windows adds a Printer icon to the control area of the Taskbar. Resting your mouse pointer over the Printer icon will tell you how many print jobs are pending (see Figure 15.2). This provides a quick method of monitoring your printer status without opening any new windows.
Figure 15.2. The Printer icon tells you how many print jobs are pending. Right-clicking tells you which printer is being used.
If multiple printers are in use on your workstation at one time, right-clicking the Printer icon will display a menu of available printers (see Figure 15.3). You can choose to open one or all of them. The top menu item will open all active printersthose with print jobs. It doesn't matter if the print job is paused or not.
Figure 15.3. Right-clicking the Printer icon on the Taskbar enables you to choose a new printer.
The following sections describe the management tools Windows provides for printers. I discuss both local and remote printers.
The first type of printer I'll look at is the local printer. All you need to do to open a printer is right-click the Printer icon and select it from the list. As an alternative, double-clicking this icon will display the current print jobs for the default printer. The printer management display is shown in Figure 15.4.
Figure 15.4. Getting to the dialog box needed to manage your print jobs under Windows NT is easily accomplished from the Taskbar.
Note: Windows NT will always default to a printer with an error. If you're having a printing problem, double-clicking the Printer icon will display the problem printer. The Printer icon will also change in appearance to tell you there's a failure. This enables you to track the status of all your print jobs, even if the printer isn't in the same room as you.
Managing jobs is fairly simple. Once you open the printer management display, you can access all the print jobs on an individual basis. The Printer menu contains two options that enable you to control the printer itself: Pause Printing and Purge Print Jobs. The Pause Printing option allows you to stop the printer momentarily and restart it later. You could use this option to stop the printer for a quick ribbon change or to correct a paper jam. Purge Print Jobs clears all the print jobs from the spooler. Use this option with care because you might accidentally remove something you didn't want to.
The Printer menu has several other options as well. The Save As Default option enables you to maintain any configuration changes you make as permanent settings. The Properties option opens the Printer Properties dialog box I discussed earlier in Chapter 14, "Exploiting Your Hardware."
You can access the Document menu in one of two ways. The first method is to select a document and access the menu directly. The second method is faster: Just right-click the document you want to work with and select the option from the context menu. The Document menu has two options. You can pause print jobs using the Pause Printing option. The Cancel Printing option removes the print job from the spooler.
One thing that isn't apparent when you look at this display is the fact that you can select a print job and move it somewhere else in the list. This enables you to change the priority of print jobs by simply moving them around as needed. You can move groups of print jobs with equal ease.
Managing a remote printer under Windows NT is nearly as easy as managing a local one. The only caveat is that the print server must be a Windows 95, Windows NT, NetWare, or other network that supports point and print. Otherwise, remote print jobs won't show up on your display. Once you do establish a connection with the remote printer, you can exercise all the document management capabilities you have with a local printer. (All this assumes that you have the access rights required to perform the task.)
Remote printing does offer one opportunity that local printing doesn't. You can perform what is called an offline print. Essentially, this is a form of pause. The Printer menu contains a special option called Work Offline for remote printers. Figure 15.5 shows a remote printer in the Work Offline mode. Checking the Work Offline selection pauses the printer and stores the print jobs on disk. When you uncheck this entry, all the print jobs get sent to the remote printer.
Figure 15.5. The Work Offline option enables you to work with a printer, even when it isn't connected.
Notice the Printer folder display in Figure 15.5. The printer that's in Work Offline mode is grayed out. Windows NT provides this visual indicator to tell you that you can use the printer but that none of the print jobs will actually go anywhere. Another reminder is the Printer icon on the Taskbar, which will include the error indicator I mentioned earlier. Again, this tells you that one of the printers requires service. In this case, it isn't an unexpected errormerely a feature Windows NT provides.
You need to learn about two different types of fonts when using Windows NT. The raster font provides you with a nonresizeable bitmap form of font that's quick to use. The vector font comes in a variety of forms, but all of them share one common feature: They all represent the font as a series of math equations rather than as a bitmap. This makes the vector font easy to resize. The following sections detail the use of both font types under Windows NT.
Most people don't use raster fonts for printing purposes anymore because they're inconvenient. You can't resize a raster font. That means that you have to keep one copy of each font size you plan to use on disk. In addition, you also have to keep one copy of each style: roman, italic, bold italic, and bold. Because raster fonts represent each character as a bitmap, the size of the file used to hold them also increases in size as the point size of the font increases. A small 6-point font might consume only 4KB, but a 12-point font will consume 8KB or more. It doesn't take very many of these fonts to exceed the 60KB storage most TrueType fonts require.
Problems aside, raster fonts don't require any additional work to use; they are already bitmaps. It's this factor that keeps some forms of raster font around. A raster font is easy to display, so you'll often see it used as a display font. This is especially true for areas in which you need only one or two font sizes at a time, such as the DOS window.
Another advantage to raster fonts is that they tend to produce a better display when used at their specific size than a vector font does. The reason is simple: The vendor can hand tune the appearance of each raster font for a specific size. A vector font has no such capability. Unless the vendor that created the font includes hinting (which I describe later), a raster font will produce the better result in most cases.
Vector fonts are stored as mathematical formulas. These formulas specify how to draw each character in the font. A vector font doesn't contain a bitmap a device can use as output, so it must render (or draw) the font each time it's used. Windows NT reduces the overhead of creating recently used fonts by storing them in the TTFCACHE file in your main Windows directory. This takes care of only one problem with using vector fonts, however.
A vector font's rigid mathematical representation of how the font should look also has problems. Many people have noticed that some vector fonts look good at one point size and others at a different point size. The problem is that even though the font is a perfect representation, the number of pixels used to represent it allow discrepancies to creep in. Usually, a font vendor would hand tune this representation to get rid of the discrepancy or at least fool the eye into thinking that it was gone. Vector fonts have no such luxury.
TrueType and other font types introduced a new idea called hinting. A hint is a way to create an exact representation of the font and then modify that representation slightly to fool the human eye. What you see is a tuned version of the font. It's not as well tuned, in many cases, as a raster equivalent would be; but it's close enough to create the right visual effect.
These problems aside, vector fonts have a great deal to recommend them. Their relatively small size enables you to keep many of them on your hard disk without filling it up. In addition, you can resize a vector font to just about any point size. It even allows you to create fractional-point-size fonts. You can't do this with a raster font.
TrueType is a specific form of vector font. It comes with hinting and other features that mark an advanced font format. The important thing to remember is that TrueType is the native font format supplied with Windows NT (and many previous versions of Windows, for that matter). If you want to use other font formats, you need to install a third-party font manager. In most cases, you won't want to expend the memory to use a third-party manager. All the vendors who used to support alternatives to TrueType have now dropped that support because of the problems with supporting more than one font manager under Windows.
Note: There's a big difference between printer fonts and third-party fonts. Laser printers usually include a number of specialized printer fonts you can download to the printer. You can still use these fonts with ease under Windows NT. In fact, Windows has actually made the process of downloading easier. Contrast this with third-party products such as Adobe Type Manager, which must load as an application under Windows. Trying to use two different font managers at the same time not only wastes time and effort but also seems more than a little counterproductive. Even though such measures were warranted before TrueType font support became widespread, they are no longer necessary under Windows NT.
How can you differentiate between a TrueType font and any other font on your system? You'll see later that Windows NT provides different icons for the two types. Another way to detect the difference is from their extensions. Windows NT provides a number of files with the FON extension. These are either raster or vector fonts originally supplied with Windows 3.x. TrueType fonts are far superior to these fonts in capability and appearance. TrueType fonts normally use the TTF extension.
Tip: Windows 3.x and older versions of Windows NT required that a TrueType font use two files. The first had a FON extension and pointed to the second, which had a TTF extension. The new version of Windows NT no longer requires the first file. As a result, you can erase any FON files on your hard drive without any loss of font data. Make certain, however, that the FON file really is an older Windows 3.x font file. Usually, these files appeared in the Windows \SYSTEM directory.
Hinting is one of the things that differentiates a TrueType font from a standard font. This usually affects the printed output by making characters appear "normal" to the human eye. As I explained in the discussion of vector fonts, storing fonts as a mathematical expression has the undesired effect of introducing small errors at some resolutions. The result is very unappealing. The fonts look normal, but your eye tells you that something isn't quite right.
The newer 4.x version of Windows NT also provides another font feature called anti-aliasing. This feature removes the jagged lines you usually see when a font becomes too large. It can also help small fonts become more readable. All this comes from the way that Windows NT uses the hinting contained in TrueType fonts to display them.
The final benefit of using TrueType fonts is the fact that Windows uses the same font for both screen and printer. Older font technologies used one font for the screen and another for the printer. The reason is fairly obvious with raster fonts. The different resolutions of your display and printer would make the raster font appear much larger on one than the other. The same thing holds true for vector fonts but to a much smaller degree. Using the same font for both screen and printer means that what you see on the screen is what you'll receive from the printer in the form of output.
Just about everyone needs a new font from time to time. Getting ready for a presentation, following a new company policy, differentiating your work from someone else's, or simply wanting a change are all motivations for installing a new font. Under Windows 3.x, it was fairly easy to install a font, but you were never quite sure what you were getting. In addition, you had to use a program that made the whole process seem a little more mysterious than it had to be.
Windows NT actually has two ways to install a font. I'm going to show you both ways. The first method is the one that Microsoft recommends. The second method is the one that I use because it lets me look before I leap.
Note: Some programs, such as CorelDRAW!, include special versions of fonts used to store symbols. You have to use the application's installation program to add these fonts to Windows NT. Otherwise, the program won't recognize that the fonts are available. Simply moving the font from the application's CD to the Windows font directory won't get the job done. Although such programs are few and far between, you do need to know they exist.
The standard method of installing a font is pretty straightforward, but it does prevent you from really seeing the font before you install it. In this way, it shares some of the deficiencies of the older Windows 3.x method. On the other hand, it's safer because it's guaranteed to work every time. With that in mind, I'll show you the first method of font installation.
I prefer a little more control when I install fonts on my machine. For one thing, I like to have a good idea of what they look like. Installing a font just so you can view it seems a little counterintuitive. Windows 3.x didn't offer me much of a choice in this regard; I had to follow the Microsoft way of installing a font. Windows NT 4.x does offer some choices. I found that this particular installation technique is both easy and flexible. Best of all, it allows me to view the fonts before I install them.
Figure 15.10. Windows NT enables you to simply move the fonts you want into the Fonts folder.
That's all there is to it. See how easy that was? This technique works just as well as the more formal technique. I find that it's more flexible, it's faster, and I really know what I'm getting.
Removing fonts is very easy under Windows NT. All you do is open the Fonts foldereither through Explorer or by double-clicking the Fonts applet in the Control Panelselect the fonts you want to remove, and press the Delete key. It's that easy.
You need to observe a few precautions. First and foremost, don't erase any font you're not sure of. Windows NT requires some fonts for system use, and erasing them could cause problems. Second, if you do erase a font, make sure that you don't need it anymore or that you have a copy stored somewhere.
Tip: Instead of deleting a font you no longer require, archive it. All you need to do is move it from the Fonts folder to a floppy disk or a network drive. You can even use the Send To option on the context menu to do it. This technique will save you heartache later when you look for the font you deleted, and it's no longer available.
The interface in the Fonts folder might be Explorer, but the options are different. The View menu contains some unique features you'll want to use to really examine your fonts. I'm referring to the fonts themselves, not the files. I'll show you what I mean.
Open the Control Panel and double-click the Fonts applet. (You can get to the same place using the Explorer technique I talked about earlier.) Open the View menu. You'll notice that Explorer now sports some new View options, as shown in Figure 15.11.
Figure 15.11. The Fonts folder provides font-related view options that will come in handy.
The List Fonts By Similarity option is the one I like. It enables you to see which fonts you could use as a substitute for something else. What if you really like the font you're using for a particular purpose but want a slightly different effect, for example? You could use this option to find the closest match in your directory or on a CD-ROM full of fonts. Figure 15.12 shows this display. Notice the field at the top of the display. This is where you select the name of the font you want to use for comparison purposes.
Figure 15.12. You can quickly find font families on a disk full of fonts using the List Fonts by Similarity To option.
Another handy view selection is the Hide Variations option. You can use it with any of the display formats to hide the different files required to create a complete font family. If you turn on this option, for example, you will see only one Arial font, even though there are four files in the directory. Variations typically include bold, italic, and bold-italic versions of the font. Figure 15.13 shows what this display looks like if you use the large icons format.
Figure 15.13. Use the Hide Variations option to clear some of the clutter that might otherwise obscure a specific font you want to see.
Unlike with Windows 3.x, it's very easy to print a sample of a font. All you need to do is right-click and select Print from the context menu. As an alternative, you can always click the Print button or use the File | Print command when viewing the font. The printout you get will look similar to Figure 15.9.
Windows uses a specific set of criteria to find a replacement font if the one you request isn't available. To get an idea of how this works, use the List Fonts By Similarity option in the Font folder. The results will tell you a lot about how Windows NT implements the rules in the font matching table.
The font matching table isn't actually a table; it's an algorithm Windows NT uses to match fonts. Windows uses the following criteria to find a matching font: the character set, variable versus fixed pitch, family, typeface name, height, width, weight, slant, underline, and strikethrough.
A TrueType font is always replaced with another TrueType font, even if a raster or vector font is a closer match. This enables your application to maintain the flexibility TrueType provides. The negative aspect is that the output might not look even close to what you originally anticipated.
If the font you're trying to use is either a vector or raster font, Windows NT will use some additional methods to obtain a good match. The following list shows, in order, the sources Windows NT will try to tap.
This chapter showed you two different ways to install fonts. Try both methods to see which works best for you. Many graphics programs include additional fonts. You can also download them from CompuServe and many BBSs. Use this exercise to install the set of fonts that will get the job done for you.
Look in your \FONTS folder to see if you can identify the various types of fonts Windows NT supports. How can you tell them apart? What purpose does each kind of font serve?