Some Basic Facts About Fonts; What Is A Font; Attributes Of Fonts - Canon IMAGERUNNER C2550 Printer Manual

Some Basic Facts about Fonts

This section summarizes some of the basic facts you should know about fonts.

What Is a Font?

A font is a collection of letters and symbols used when printing a document. In
general, a group of letters and symbols sharing a common design is referred to as
a font. A font consists of the letters A to Z in both upper and lowercase, digits, and
symbols.
The design that distinguishes one font from another is referred to as a "typeface."
Each font has a typeface name, such as Courier, CG Times, Letter Gothic, etc.

Attributes of Fonts

All fonts share some common characteristics, which are called "attributes." The
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typeface is one such attribute. The letters and symbols that are actually printed are
determined by the values of a collection of these attributes.
Typeface
Stroke Weight
Style
Point Size
Pitch (cpi)
Character
Width (Fixed/
PS)
Orientation
Symbol Set
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Some Basic Facts about Fonts

The design of the letters (e.g., Courier, CG Times, Helvetica, or Gothic).
The thickness of the lines with which the letters are drawn (e.g., bold,
medium, or light).
Whether the letters are drawn straight or at an angle (e.g., upright or
italic).
Height of the letters (e.g., 10 point or 5 point).
Number of characters that are printed in one inch (e.g., 10 cpi, 12 cpi, or
Scale).
Indicates whether the character width is set to "Fixed" or "Proportional."
Orientation of the characters on a page ("Portrait" or "Landscape").
The rule that defines the correspondence between the character codes
coming from the host computer, and the letter forms that appear on the
page (e.g., Roman-8).