Converting from True Type Fonts?

[Linn Kubler]

Hi,

Here is my situation. I have a need to print on multi-part forms, thus I
need to print to a dot-matrix printer. Problem is, is that the software I
have to use is not designed to print to a dot-matrix printer but rather a
laser printer. My best guess is that they are using True Type Fonts.

I've tried printing to my dot-matrix printer and the results are, well,
poor. So, I am wondering if anyone has heard of a utility that will convert
the laser printer output of this application to dot-matrix form? It would
need to do this conversion on the fly so as to be as transperant to the user
as possible.

Has anyone heard of such a thing or even know what I'm talking about?

We are using Windows XP Pro workstations and Windows 2003 Servers.

Thanks in advance,
Linn

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP P/I]]

Not knowing what application you have there, if it allows you to use
whatever printers you have installed in Windows AND if it allows you to
choose the font to use, you should be able to use the resident fonts in the
dot matrix printer. As an example, Windows will allow me to use an old
Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer. If I select this printer in, say, Word and
look at the font list, the resident "hardware" fonts in this printer will
appear in the list.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Linn Kubler]

I see what you are saying and all "normal" Windows applications do work with
this printer. ie. I can print using Word, Excel or Acrobat Reader and the
printer works fine. It is just this one application I'm having a problem
with, it's an industry specific application called HomecareNet.

I have talked to the technical support for this software and they are the
ones who explained that their report was designed to print to a laser
printer. So they have not made their program flexible enough to print to
just any printer, rather they opted to assume one would only use laser
printers and coded their program accordingly. Don't ask me why. There is
also no provisions for selecting fonts within the program.

Let's see if I can remember how he described it... I think he said that the
program prints and image to the printer, which is what a laser printer uses.
Whereas the dot-matrix printer takes a raster(?) input? I'm not sure about
that last sentance, whether it is what he said or not. The printer tech
support person suggested they are using a True Type Font and when you send a
True Type Font to a dot-matrix printer the printer has to try and
interpolate the characters as best they can. Some printers are better at
this than others but it does cost in print quality and performance.

Our problem is that we require this report to print on multi-part paper,
which, to the best of my knowledge doesn't exist for a laser printer.

Wow, sorry if I got carried away here, hopefully it helps everyone
understand the situation better. But this is why I am looking for something
that will translate the True Type fonts to something the dot-matrix printer
can use.

Thanks,
Linn

 

[RobertVA]

A large percentage of late model ink jet printers don't know anything
about Truetype (or much of anything else) either. The print drivers,
running on the computer's CPU, are doing all that work. The data flow
through the printer cable, often USB, would normally be a proprietary
raster format. The printer hardware itself doesn't have the ability to
print out a string of ASCII characters in ANY font.

The Windows drivers for dot matrix printers are pretty much the same
way. The basic difference is the significantly lower resolution. Many
dot matrix printers do have the ability to print out an ASCII text
stream in a small variety of fonts built into the printer's memory but
Windows applications normally don't work that way, as the Windows
operating systems are designed to strongly encourage printer access
through the printer drivers.

Many laser printers have much more memory than other printer types.
Instead of several dozen narrow raster bands across the width of the
page the larger memory allows the entire page to be loaded into the
printer's memory before any of the image is transfered to the imaging
drum. The printer has an ability to accept font definitions from the
computer and generate a page with a mix of raster graphics and ASCII
text streams printed with the downloaded fonts.

Any use of a dot matrix or ink jet printer with an application that is
so determined to use a laser printer would require the replacement of
the normal laser printer driver with a driver that translated the data
intended for the laser printer into the raster format the printer can
understand. This would be a highly specialized use that would probably
have a hard time finding enough of a market to be economically feasible.

About the only current use for dot matrix printers are medical and
dental providers filling out multiple part claims forms. Some install
several dot matrix printers, each with a different form feed multiple
part form. Similar results could be obtained IF their software providers
would catch up with the rest of the world and just print the form
multiple times through the normal Windows print process. The normal
print process is even efficient enough that the printer could be filled
with completely blank paper, allowing the application to print out the
form background along with the custom patient data. Laser printers would
usually be more cost effective than ink jets for such applications.

 

[Linn Kubler]

Thanks for the response Robert.

<*snipped*>

This is sort of what I had in mind.

Any use of a dot matrix or ink jet printer with an application that is so
determined to use a laser printer would require the replacement of the
normal laser printer driver with a driver that translated the data
intended for the laser printer into the raster format the printer can
understand. This would be a highly specialized use that would probably
have a hard time finding enough of a market to be economically feasible.

This is us to a Tee...

About the only current use for dot matrix printers are medical and dental
providers filling out multiple part claims forms. Some install several dot
matrix printers, each with a different form feed multiple part form.

However, the reason we use multi-part forms is that we have to fill in and
initial parts of the form on the fly. Requiring our employees to initial
multiple pages at a time is just not practical so we are stuck with
multi-part forms on impact printers.

I can see how this would be preferrable in some circumstances though.

Similar results could be obtained IF their software providers would catch
up with the rest of the world and just print the form multiple times
through the normal Windows print process. The normal print process is even
efficient enough that the printer could be filled with completely blank
paper, allowing the application to print out the form background along with
the custom patient data. Laser printers would usually be more cost
effective than ink jets for such applications.

Linn