Specifying font descriptions

You must provide certain font descriptions in your XDC files. Adding font descriptions involves these tasks:

  1. Preparing to add fonts

  2. Add fonts

Note: XDC Editor enables definition of fonts that support any one of these character encodings: ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, Shift-JIS, KSC-5601, GBK, BIG-5, and character-specific. Symbol encodings are used for symbolic fonts, such as Wingdings and ITC Zapf Dingbats.

Preparing to add fonts

The XDC file must specify the typefaces for each printer-resident font that can appear in forms that are printed on that printer, including fonts that are installed in the printer on a device such as a cartridge, SIMM, or DIMM. A typeface is a coordinated set of glyphs that are designed with a stylistic unity.

Here are the general tasks for specifying printer-resident fonts:

  1. Determine which fonts are resident on a printer

  2. Design a form to use printer-resident fonts

  3. Identify escape sequences that specify printer-resident fonts (PCL only)

Note: Your right to use fonts provided by parties other than Adobe is governed by the license agreements provided to you by such parties in connection with those fonts, and is not covered under your license to use Adobe software. Adobe recommends that you review and ensure that you are in compliance with all applicable non-Adobe license agreements before using non-Adobe fonts with Adobe software, particularly with respect to use of fonts in a server environment.

Determine which fonts are resident on a printer

Your printer's technical reference manual should have information about printer-resident fonts. (See Finding documentation for your printer .) If you cannot obtain the manual, you may obtain information from the printer itself:

  • Use the front panel on the printer to print a list of fonts.

  • If the printer has a built-in web server, use your web browser to request the printer to print a list of fonts.

Design a form to use printer-resident fonts

Using Designer, you can specify the name of printer-resident fonts by entering the name in the Font palette. Usually, a font is selected from the drop-down list; however, in Designer, you can enter a font name. The name you enter must be identical to the font name that is identified in Determine which fonts are resident on a printer .

Identify escape sequences that specify printer-resident fonts (PCL only)

PCL printers use escape sequences to specify printer-resident fonts. These codes specify characteristics such as the font name, size, and angle. XDC Editor can usually determine these escape sequences; however, situations may occur where it does not have adequate information, such as in the following situations:

  • The font resides only on the printer, such as magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) fonts.

  • The font uses a symbol set other than those that XDC Editor supports, which include OpenType® and TrueType fonts that support any one of these character encodings: ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, Shift-JIS, KSC-5601, GBK, BIG-5, and character-specific. Symbol encodings are used for symbolic fonts, such as Wingdings and ITC Zapf Dingbats.

If XDC Editor cannot determine the escape sequence for the printer-resident font that a form uses, enter it in the Escape Sequences field. (See Determining PCL font sequences .)

Add fonts

  1. Select and open an XDC file. (See Opening an XDC file .)

  2. At the bottom of the XDC Editor panel, click the Fonts tab.

  3. In the Font panel, click Add.

  4. Select a font to add. If the font resides in the Microsoft® Windows® system folder (Windows/Fonts), create a temporary folder elsewhere on your local hard drive and copy the font into that folder. Windows prevents XDC Editor from accessing fonts in the Windows system folder.

  5. Double-click the font file to add it to the list of fonts in the Font panel.

    If the font you selected in step 4 supports multiple character encodings, XDC Editor displays a dialog box where you can select the encodings to use.

  6. Select the encodings that apply. For each encoding you specify, XDC Editor creates a typeface entry in the Font table. Apply the remaining steps to each of the steps for those typeface entries.

  7. (PCL XDC files) Ensure that Edit Sequence As String is selected, and click Generate Sequence. If XDC Editor recognizes the font, it creates a font sequence for you that omits the printer-specific typeface code for the font. Notice that XDC Editor fills all Font Sequence fields except the Typeface Code field.

  8. (PCL XDC files) If XDC Editor created a font sequence for you, deselect Edit Sequence As String, enter the printer-specific typeface code in the Typeface Code field, and then click Apply.

    For example, the typeface code for Courier is 4099. You can find the typeface codes in your printer manual or in the printer display panel. (See Obtaining information from your printer’s manual and Obtaining information from your printer ).

  9. (PCL XDC files) If XDC Editor did not create a font sequence, supply one in the field under the Edit Sequence as String label (see Determining PCL font sequences ), and then click Apply.

  10. (PostScript and ZPL XDC files) Enter the printer’s name for the font in the Font Sequence field. For PostScript files, the printer’s name for the font is a combination of the typeface name, weight, and angle. For ZPL files, the printer’s name for a font is one or more uppercase letters. You may find these names in these sources:

Remove a font

  1. Select and open an XDC file. (See Opening an XDC file .)

  2. At the bottom of the XDC Editor panel, click the Fonts tab.

  3. In the Font panel, select the font and click Remove.

Font sequences for label printers

For label printers, the font sequences are defined in the XDC files. For example, for a Datamax printer, each of the Datamax fonts have the sequences defined in the XDC file as follows:

<seq id="Datamax0 2.5 point_Normal_Normal_ISO-8859-1">0,0,1,1,0</seq>

Sequence

Meaning

0 (First value)

Indicates the font type. 0: bitmap font; 1: scalable font.

0 (Second value)

Specifies the font number of the printer-resident font.

1 (Third value)

Specifies the font width magnification (applicable for bitmap fonts only).

1 (Fourth value)

Specifies the font height magnification (applicable for bitmap fonts only).

0 (fifth value)

Specifies vertical text offset to be applied.

Note: Baseline shift is not applicable for Toshiba TEC printers.

For the scalable fonts, the width and height magnifications will be automatically calculated depending on the point size. The bitmap fonts have the point size mentioned in their name. Use this point size at the time of designing the form.

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