Working with fonts

Ensure that a font used within a form is available for use on the J2EE application server hosting LiveCycle. For example, consider the following scenario. A form designer adds a font to the font directory that Designer uses and creates a form that uses that font on a separate computer.

In order for the Output service to use the font, place it in the Customer fonts directory. Specify the location of the Customer fonts directory by using Administration Console. If the Customer fonts directory does not exist, create a directory on the J2EE application server hosting LiveCycle. Place the font in the new Customer fonts directory.

The Output service can generate documents that contain resident fonts. XDC files that are available with the Output service have a common list of printer-resident fonts defined. You do not need to edit an XDC file to use these fonts. However, you can modify an XDC file by using LiveCycle XDC Editor. (See XDC Editor Help.)

printer-resident fonts are stored inside a printer, either in a special hardware cartridge or built in the printer's memory. For PostScript printers, only the name of the font is required. For PCL printers, it is necessary to define an escape sequence of characters. printer-resident font names can be obtained from the printer’s front panel or by using the printer's built in web server (if available).

To use printer-resident fonts, you can perform these tasks:

1. Identify the name of the printer-resident font to use.

2. Specify the printer-resident font name in the form design.

3. Locate the most suitable XDC file to use for your printer based on the type of output to render (PostScript or PCL) and make the appropriate changes to the XDC file.

4. Test the output.