Font Mangement

[emujo]

Anyone familiar with KM Font Management Utility???? I have a customer that is using an old font called "good times"..MFP (BH420) seems squirrley when printing this font...it's not listed as a font when printing out the PS PCL font lists, and of course the chief complaint is "we can't change over to one of the fonts listed because this is what was sent us". Found the font online, but Pagescope Data Admin plugin for font management utility wants the file extension to be ".FMD" to allow the upload... Where do we find additional fonts to upload with this utility?? TIA Emujo

[blackcat4866]

Re: Font Mangement

Short course in fonts:

There are two main print languages (emulations), PCL and PS. Most fonts are available in both emulations.

If you call a font that is not loaded to your machine, the machine will most likely substitute something blocky like Ariel or New Times Roman. It may also just print nothing.

Each font has two versions: The version that is used by the application to call the font, and the version that is used by the printer to print the font. The version for the application is usually a True-Type Font, and is copied to C:\Windows\Fonts. The version for the printer is loaded via the Font Manager Utility to the hard drive of the machine or the machine's RAM. It's preferable to load to the HDD.

The fonts that I have loaded were primarily PCL barcode fonts. With PCL fonts the version for the application is a True Type Font File Type, and the version for the printer is an .SFP file.
With PS fonts the version for the application is a Type 1 Font file, and the version for the printer is an .afm, .pfa, or pfb file.
There are most certainly many other font file types.

So the first thing you need to determine is what emulation you're printing with. Then take a data capture of a job using that font, to determine the escape sequence. The escape sequence is the program's way of identifying the font. Then confirm that you have the printer version of the font in the right emulation. When you load the font with Font Manager the new font will appear in the font list, including the escape sequence. Confirm that the escape sequence matches, otherwise it won't work.

Sounds like fun? It is ... and very frustrating until you've got these basics. Let me know when you get stuck.

Oh wait ... where do you find it? Good f'ing luck finding a single specific old font, in the printer version, right emulation, with the exact correct escape sequence. There are tons of websites that sell fonts, but each font has a unique escape sequence. You know what you can try? Once you get the data capture, Google search the text portion of the escape sequence. You may be surprised.

You'll have much better luck changing the font in your original document. Of course that depends on the file format ... that's a whole different discussion.

Oh, here's some information on the .fmd file type:

http://filext.com/file-extension/FMD

=^..^=

[emujo]

Re: Font Mangement

Thanks for the info...I have found (after futher research) that the customer needs to find, and purchase, the required font, if it's not a Type 1 PS font they must convert it, then we can use the utility to upload the new font to the HDD. Black Cat's info will help greatly when ( and you know it will happen) they do all the things we require and it still doesn't work. Emujo

[blackcat4866]

Re: Font Mangement

... ( and you know it will happen) they do all the things we require and it still doesn't work. Emujo

Wow! don't I know that feeling!

Here's the thing. Even when you know what the escape sequence is, the salesguy at the font website goes: " ... huh? What's that?" How can you sell fonts and know nothing about escape sequences? And there is no mention in any of the product description/detail. Just for fun, when you think you've got the right font, ask the provider what the escape sequence is. If nothing else it's worth a bitter laugh. =^..^=