Postscript printers uses PFA/AFM files for fonts.
What files does PCL printers use ?

As per my current information, they use TFM files (Tex Font Metric ?)
files. Can anyone tell what is the equivalent for PFA files for PCL
printers ?

ie my question can be simply put as follows (fill in place of question
marks)

Postscript - PFA/AFM
PCL        - ???/TFM

Thanks in advance

In article <1130922510.183933.98440@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, 
ratheesh.pai@gmail.com says...

> Postscript printers uses PFA/AFM files for fonts.

Actually, they don't. AFM are 'Adobe Font Metrics', which describe the 
properties of the glyph and are not used at all by the interpreter. PFA 
is 'Printer Font ASCII' and is a format to allow for downloading type 1 
fonts to a printer.

PostScript fonts need not be in this format, and often are not.


> What files does PCL printers use ?

Depends what you mean by 'use' and what you mean by 'PCL printers' There 
are a number of differnet versions of PCL, and a number of different 
implementations of eadch version, many are mutually incompatible.

However, modern PCL printers can use TrueType fonts downloaded as part 
of the print stream, as well as (if I remember correctly) Intellifont 
format which is what the older priners support.
 
> As per my current information, they use TFM files (Tex Font Metric ?)
> files. 

I very muich doubt the printer uses these. These are used by 
(presumably) TeX in order to display the fonts on screen as they will 
print (size, spacing, etc).

> Can anyone tell what is the equivalent for PFA files for PCL
> printers ?

I'm not sure there is one. PostScript printers often have a hard disk 
(particularly the bigger printers), PCL printers usually don't unless 
they also support PostScript. 

It is possible to download soft fonts during the course of a PCL job, 
for use in that job. I'm not certain that its possible to download fonts 
separately and have them available to subsequent jobs.

 
> ie my question can be simply put as follows (fill in place of question
> marks)

Perhaps if you explained why you needed this it might be possible to 
suggest an alternative solution.


				Ken

Hi Ken,

Thanks.

1) My application in *Java* is going to read font and font metrics in
Unix ( TrueType, Type1 fonts, and desirably OpenType fonts also
especially CJK fonts).

The application is going to detect fonts from  System as well as
*Printer*. So this is why I am interested in different types of
printers and printer fonts  (and am not concerned about printing per
se).

2) Let us take only Unix . As per my understanding,

(a) when a person installs a printer in unix , he also installs printer
fonts given by a font vendor (or perhaps some fonts are already in the
printer ROM/cartridge ? - I am not sure now.  )

Postscript printers -  he installs  PFA/AFM files
PCL printers in Unix - he installs  ???/TFM   (Tagged Font Metric  or
Tex Font Metric- not sure)

Thats it. Hope this makes things clear as to why I want to know about
the equivalent of PFA  for TFM.

3) I am searching on google but I am not able to get it. May be it
doesnt exist. Then I am thinking, how does printer draw the actual
characters. (with only the metrics files it should not be possible)

In article <1130941091.231911.167300@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, 
ratheesh.pai@gmail.com says...

> 2) Let us take only Unix . As per my understanding,
> 
> (a) when a person installs a printer in unix , he also installs printer
> fonts given by a font vendor (or perhaps some fonts are already in the
> printer ROM/cartridge ? - I am not sure now.  )

All modern printers contain at least one font, usually more. The vendor 
will normally supply some kind of metrics file, or a TrueType 
equivalent, for use on the OS.

PostScript printers may accept downloaded fonts (outside of a job), or 
may not, it depends. I'm not convinced that printers using other PDLs 
(Page Description Languages) allow for downloading fonts outside of a 
job.

 
> Postscript printers -  he installs  PFA/AFM files

Maybe, but maybe not. The printer might not support downloaded fonts, he 
may have been supplied TrueType fonts, or CIDFonts, or OCF fonts, or CFF 
fonts, or even .PFB (Printer Font Binary) format type 1 fonts. CJK 
family languages can't use a simple type 1 font, os if you are using one 
of those languages then you need to use OCF or CIDFonts (or 
TrueType/TrueType Collection).

AFM files will not be used by the printer under any circumstances, these 
are for use by applications (eg TeX).


> Thats it. Hope this makes things clear as to why I want to know about
> the equivalent of PFA  for TFM.

Well not really. You've said that you are going to read 'fonts' and for 
some reason font metrics (which you don't need if you can read the 
font). You also say you are going to read fonts from the 'printer', whic 
is going to be a challenge, most printers won't let you do that. Even if 
you can, what you get back from a PostScript pritner won't be a PFA 
file, it will be a PostScript dictionary.

You may also consider the PostScript type 3 font format, which is 
basically a PostScript program. The only way to handle that is to hace a 
complete PostScript interpreter.

As far as I'm aware there is no real equivalent for PCL printers to the 
type 1 font format for PostScript. I'm not convinced that you can 
download fonts to a PCL printer outside of a job context (I could easily 
be wrong though).

If you can, then I would expect to download TrueType fonts, this being 
the 21st Century now.

Very old PCL printers might sill only accept Intellifont format fonts, 
which was a format from Agfa I believe. I have a spec for these fonts, 
but its not been generally available for some considerable time. I don't 
believe you will actually find fonts in this format, I certainly don't 
have any.

I seem to remember that old PCL printers could accept an 'expansion 
card' which had a bunch of fonts on it. I still can't recall any 
instance of a PCL printer where you could download a font permanently.

 
> 3) I am searching on google but I am not able to get it. May be it
> doesnt exist. Then I am thinking, how does printer draw the actual
> characters. (with only the metrics files it should not be possible)

The printer has the fonts, so it doesn't need the metrics, the font 
program contains all the information. The metrics are so that 
applications which *don't* have the fonts can display something 
reasonable on screen.

Vendors used to supply 'screen fonts' which never worked well. WIth the 
widespread adoption of TrueType most printer manufacturers adopted the 
standard, and font foundries generally switched to the TrueType font 
format.

Now that OpenType supports both TrueType and CFF outlines the need for 
any other format is moot. Adobe still supplies fonts for PostScript 
printers in Type 1 as well as CIDFont types, as do other major font 
foundries.

I think that before starting on your project you should consider 
carefully which font types you want to support. Handling all of them 
will be a challenge.


				Ken

Hi Ken,

Thanks for all your answers !

Some of my requirements are because of a legacy application (which I am
trying to convert to java) involved which reads the printer font
metrics file (not font file itself). The list of available fonts in
printer in configured in a printer definition file (ppd file for
postscript and hpd file for PCL). The font metrics file (afm, tfm)  lie
in a standard location and the application reads those metrics files.

(So if there is no metrics file for printer font or no entry in ppd
file, I do not have to read it. The reasons why it does this way is
something that I am only beginning to understand (for historical
reasons or anything else) )

Now trying to see default support of java to read different fonts (ie
mainly their metrics).  Java is able to get font metrics of only
TrueType and Type1 fonts. (not able to detect OpenType fonts.  Type3
fonts are not required by application. ).

Thanks again for all your answers  !

In article <1131029072.949264.123730@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, 
ratheesh.pai@gmail.com says...
 
> Thanks again for all your answers  !

No problems, good luck with your app ! :-)