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With the graphic capability of computers and printers today, there are
many fonts to choose from when writing documents.
- Important category that fonts can be divided into are:
-
Monospaced fonts: Monospaced fonts are fonts in which every
character uses the same amount of horizontal space, like this sentence.
- Proportionally spaced fonts: Proportionally spaced fonts (also
called variable pitch fonts) use up only the amount of horizontal space that
is required for the letter. Therefore, the letter W would take up more space
than the letterI. Standard HTML text font, like this sentence (bad example for
those unfortunate lynx users :-), is an example of this kind.
Using these kinds of fonts requires formatting to be done correctly.
Aligning text should never be done by using spaces. Since character
width varies with proportional fonts, assume that it will never line up
correctly using spaces. It is possible that on the screen it looks perfect,
but remember that the resolution a monitor provides is not even close to
the quality that a laser printer can produce. Even if monospaced fonts
are used, spaces should be avoided in the event that the font is changed
to a proportional font later. Instead of using spaces, use tab stops, indentation
markers, and other features to align text.
- Fonts can also be divided into:
- Scaleable: Scaleable fonts, such as the popular TrueType fonts,
are rendered by applying a fancy mathematical algorithm to represent each character.
This allows the fonts to be used at any point size with uniform quality.
These fonts are actually printed as graphics and therefore can be printed
on any printer that can support graphics.
- Printer: Printer fonts are the default
fonts that come already installed with the printer.
- Soft: Other fonts can be used by downloading soft fonts.
If there is the possibility that fonts used in the document are not going to be
available on another printer, techniques such as embedding or substituting can be
used.
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