Handling fonts

When a font is not downloaded as part of the file, EscapeE will attempt to match the requested fonts to those in its resident library. EscapeE is delivered with a set of definitions which make use of standard Windows fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New. These are in a file called WINFONTS.FIF, but if you save fonts to the resident font library, a file is created which is specific to your system (called RESIDENT.FIF in the PCL Resident Font Library). If there is no exact match with any of the library fonts then the nearest one is chosen, which may result in a some variation in the appearance of the text.

The demonstration version of EscapeE is supplied with a set of fonts that simulate the printer's Courier, Letter Gothic, Univers and Line-printer fonts and also uses the standard Windows fonts Arial, Times New Roman, Symbol and Wingdings from your system. If you find that the appearance of the fixed pitch fonts is not acceptable then you can purchase a fixed pitch font pack from RedTitan by emailing help@redtitan.com. The standard Windows (19U) symbol set is provided, together with the PC symbol set for the standard fixed pitch fonts (10U). EscapeE can create most other symbol sets from the 19U set by remapping.

For matching the built-in fonts on printers such as the HP4 and later models there is a TrueType font pack available for purchase and customized fonts can be supplied to order from RedTitan.

A message on the toolbar will alert you to any problems with font mismatching. You can see the text that uses any fonts that were not completely matched against available downloaded or library fonts by ticking the 'Show substituted fonts in red' option. (If the text of a substitute font is actually red, this option defaults to blue instead.) You can view details of the font, and whether it is a substitute, by right-clicking the text.

If you have problems reading a file after export, it may be because the download fonts were created in a different symbolset when the PCL file was generated. For example, some HP3 printer drivers shift the characters when creating the download fonts, and an IBM mainframe could create EBCDIC fonts. You can try reading the file into EscapeE again and selecting a different symbolset from the 'Symbolset conversion' list. In addition, character recognition codes may be set up using EEfonts, accessible from 'Fonts' menu.

Some printer drivers specify inappropriate point sizes, which can cause problems if font substitution or character recognition are required. EscapeE has an option ("Calculate download font characteristics") that enables more appropriate values for point size, weight and style to be applied instead.

Users may reset the font and image library search paths.