Different fonts are available in PCL 5/PCL 6 and PostScript 3. Your printer is equipped with resident fonts stored permanently in printer memory. If you plan to use many downloadable bitmapped or scalable fonts or if you plan to use many different sizes of scalable fonts, you may need to purchase additional memory for your printer. There are thousands of different scalable fonts available in these different font formats from numerous font suppliers. PostScript 3 uses Type 1 and TrueType scalable fonts.

PCL 5/PCL 6 uses Intellifont and TrueType scalable fonts. Your printer uses different scalable font formats for downloading fonts to the printer. Scalable fonts provide the flexibility of printing in many different point sizes. These temporary bitmapped fonts are deleted when you turn off or reset the printer. Some families have more variations, as the following illustration for the Helvetica typeface family shows: Most typeface families have four variations: regular, italic (oblique), bold, and bold italic (bold oblique). A group of several weight and style variations of a single typeface is called a typeface family. Some fonts combine several weight and style modifications for example, Helvetica Narrow Bold Oblique. Narrow, condensed, and extended are three common styles that modify the character widths. Italic and oblique are styles where the characters are tilted. Style refers to other typeface modifications, such as tilt or character width. Some words commonly used to describe the weight of a typeface are bold, medium, light, black, and heavy. Thicker lines result in darker characters.

Weight refers to the thickness of the lines that form the characters. The different weights and styles are designed to complement the original typeface. These variations modify the original typeface so you can, for example, emphasize important words in text or highlight book titles. Typefaces are often available in different weights and styles. See ' Resident Fonts' for a listing of all resident fonts. The printer has numerous resident fonts in PCL 5/PCL 6 and PostScript 3. Well-chosen typefaces make a document easier to read. The typefaces you select add personality to a document. The distinct design is called a typeface. A font is a set of characters and symbols created with a distinct design.

Arial font metrics