Hoody -

Almost, but not quite.

There are three (3) _different_ ways to print TrueType (or Adobe Type 1,
etc., scalable outline) fonts on an HP compatible. Or two (2) ways, if the
HP or compatible is pre-LaserJet III.

The first, also slowest and most memory-hungry, as you discovered, is to
print the entire page as one HUGE graphic (bitmap), rendering each and every
individual character and image, then sending said bitmap to the printer. Not
fast, not optimal, but, unless you're short on memory, either in the
computer or the printer, guaranteed to work and look exactly the same on all
printers.

The second method is for the printer driver software to take the scalable
outline and render all the characters as a bitmap FONT, then download that
font to the printer. After doing so, it can be used just like any other font
- Select it, send characters to the printer, and they print, in that font,
starting wherever the 'cursor' was.

Only problem with this method is that you are limited to the size at which
you rendered the font, say 10 points. If you need the same typeface at
another size, like 17 or 24 points, you have to render _another_ version of
the font, and send IT to the printer too.

As you can imagine, if you use a lot of different sizes of the same font,
(or a lot of different fonts at the same size) you can very quickly fill up
the printer's memory with the downloaded fonts.

The third method, usable on the HP LJ-3 and later, is to convert the
scalable outline font to the scalable outline font format internally
supported by the printer. (The name of which completely escape me at the
moment.) After downloading the font outlines to the printer, the LJ-3++ can
scale the font to any size you want.

In your printer driver configuration you will see three selections:

 ( ) Print TrueType as graphics
 ( ) Print TrueType as bitmap font
 ( ) Print TrueType as outline font

(If the third option is missing, either the printer doesn't support scalable
outline fonts, or the driver doesn't know that the printer can do so.)

Dave

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