Book Printing

Printer Vs Screen Fonts

Screen and printer fonts are necessary components for using PostScript fonts in a design project. A very common mistake that designers can make is to provide only the screen fonts when sending a project to a printer. (Some are used to using TrueType fonts which only have one file per font.) Both, however, are absolutely necessary for correctly outputing a job.

Screen fonts, as the name implies, is the file that gives a computer system the information to display a PostScript font accurately on-screen. Screen fonts are sometimes referred to as bitmap fonts because of the type of information they contain — 72dpi renderings of some type sizes of a typeface. Monitors typically display images at 72dpi so this is the resolution that is displayed.

The different screen font files are contained in special folders called suitcases. Suitcases can hold multiple screen fonts of different sizes and from different font families. If one looks within a font suitcase and finds that there's only one size font file, don't worry. One can display many sizes from the information in the screen font that you have. It holds no bearing on printing the typeface. Remember, this screen font contains information for the monitor only.

The printing of a font comes down to the other half of the equation, the printer font. The printer fonts, or outline fonts as they're sometimes called, have nothing to do with what is on-screen. Printer font files contain outline drawings of every character that is part of a particular font. There are seperate printer font files for each font and these files contain outlines that are vector-based. This means that, like vector art produced by a program like Illustrator (which is also PostScript-based), they can be resized to any size and will remain as smooth and clear.

Can one work without the other? No. If a designer only has a printer font installed, they'll find that the font looks jagged on-screen and virtually unrecognizable. This make it nearly impossible to work with the font. If they only have the screen font in their system, the font won't print very well and will look very jagged and unattractive.