Working with Fonts

Windows comes with a number of fonts that you can use to enhance your Windows display and your documents. You can add extra fonts as you need them, either by installing software that includes fonts such as Corel WordPerfect Office or Microsoft Office or by installing fonts directly. A font is the name given to a typeface. A typeface is a set of characters. Normally, the characters in a typeface have similar characteristics, so that they look as though they belong together, but this isn’t an absolute requirement.

Understanding Outline Fonts and Raster Fonts

Windows supports two categories of fonts:

Outline fonts Outline fonts are the newest types of fonts. Windows renders outline fonts by using line and curve commands, which means that it can scale them to any size without distorting them and can rotate them. Windows supports three different types of outline fonts: TrueType fonts which Windows has used for many years, OpenType fonts a more recent extension of TrueType, and Type 1 fonts which are created by Adobe Systems for use with PostScript printers and devices. TrueType fonts use the .ttf extension, OpenType fonts use the .otf extension, and Type 1 fonts use the .pfm extensions.

Raster fonts Raster fonts are another older technology that Windows includes for backward compatibility. In a raster font, each character consists of a bitmap image that’s displayed on the screen or printed on paper. Windows includes seven raster fonts: Courier, Modern, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, Roman, Script, and Small Fonts. Like vector fonts, raster fonts use the .fonextension. Some of the TrueType fonts are organized into TrueType collections, which use the .ttc extension.

Displaying the Fonts Window

To work with fonts, display the Fonts window by taking the following steps:

1. Choose Start Control Panel. Windows displays a Control Panel window.

2. Click the Appearance and Personalization link. Windows displays an Appearance and Personalization window.

3. Click the Fonts link. Windows displays the Fonts window.

Rather than having an alphabetical list of fonts, you may want to group the fonts into their different types by using the Font Type column header .

Viewing and Printing a Font

To see what a font looks like, double-click its entry in the Fonts window. Windows displays the font in Font Viewer, which shows information on the font type, its file size, and copyright information, together with various sizes of the canonical sentence involving the quick brown fox and the lazy dog and the full set of numbers. To print the information displayed, click the Print button. Windows displays the Print dialog box. Choose the printer and any options, then click the Print button. Windows closes the Print dialog box and prints the information. To close Font Viewer, click the Close button the  button.

Installing a Font

To install a font, take the following steps from the Fonts window:

1. Right-click blank space in the document area in the Fonts window, and then choose Install New Font from the context menu. Windows displays the Add Fonts dialog box with a font selected for installation.

2.Use the Drives drop-down list and the Folders list box to navigate to the drive and folder that contain the font you want to install. If necessary, click the Network button and use the Map Network Drive dialog box to map a network drive.

3. In the List of Fonts list box, select the font or fonts you want to install. You can click the Select All button to select all the fonts in the List of Fonts list box.

4. Make sure that the Copy Fonts to Fonts Folder check box at the bottom of the Add Fonts dialog box is selected. This option causes Windows to copy the fonts you’re installing to the Fontsfolder, where you can manage them centrally. This is usually the best way to install fonts, especially when you’re installing them from a removable medium such as a CD. But if the fonts you’re installing are already located on your hard drive, and you don’t want to make copies of them in the Fonts folder, you can clear this check box. Windows then creates a pointer to the folder that contains the font.

5. Click the Install button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows installs the font or fonts.

6. Click the Close button. Windows closes the Add Fonts dialog box, returning you to the Fonts window.

Getting More Fonts

Windows includes more than 300 fonts in a wide variety of styles, so you may not need to add any more fonts unless your documents have specific design needs.

If you do need more fonts, you can buy commercial font packages from most major software outlets and from many smaller vendors. But first, go to Microsoft’s website http://www.microsoft.com and see if Microsoft is offering any fonts for free download. Then check out the free fonts that are available from many sites online: You may find a wide enough selection that you don’t need to buy any fonts.

Deleting a Font

To delete a font, right-click it in the Fonts window, choose Delete from the context menu, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Alternatively, select the font and press the Delete key. Windows displays the Delete File dialog box to confirm the deletion. Click the Yes button. Windows closes the dialog box and deletes the font.

Unloading Fonts instead of Deleting Them

If you load your Fonts folder with thousands of fonts, Windows runs more slowly. Loading a huge number of fonts increases the amount of memory Windows needs and generally slows down the speed with which it can handle other tasks.

So it’s a good idea not to load too many fonts at a time. But you don’t have to delete fonts that you temporarily don’t want to load. Instead, you can move them to another folder and store them there until you need them again. At that point, move the fonts back to the Fonts folder, and you can use them again in your programs. If you work with many fonts, consider grouping them into a number of different folders so that you can quickly load the set of fonts you need for a particular type of document. If you work with a huge number of fonts, consider getting a font-management solution such as Extensis Suitcase http://www.extensis.com .

The Bottom Line Understand printing terminology and how printing works in Windows A printer is the hardware device that prints documents. The printer driver is the software used to control the printer. A print job is an item sent to a printer for printing. To print, you typically issue a Print command from a program. The program tells Windows that it needs to print the document. The printer driver receives the information the program is sending and spools it to the printer, saving the information to disk and passing it along to the printer as fast as the printer can handle. Install a printer on your computer Installing a USB printer should be as simple as connecting it to AC power and to your computer. Windows detects the printer automatically and installs the driver for it. If no driver is available, you may need to visit Windows Update or provide a driver on disk. To install a parallel printer, run the Add Printer Wizard manually by clicking the Add a Printer button in the Printers window, and specify the printer make and model. Configure a printer’s behavior to suit your needs To make a printer your default printer, right-click it in the Printers window, and then choose Set as Default Printer from the context menu. To configure other settings for a printer, right-click its entry in the Printers window, choose Properties from the context menu, and then work in the Properties dialog box. The General page of the Properties dialog box has some of the most important options: You can change the printer’s name, add a location so that users know where it is, and add a comment explaining which printer this is and which print jobs it is for. The Advanced page of the Properties dialog box lets you limit the printer’s availability - for example, to prevent users from printing during the night or at other inconvenient times. Print documents and manage print jobs The normal way to print a document is to open the document in the program that created the document, and then issue a Print command. You can also print in Explorer by dragging a document to the printer or a shortcut to the printer. To man- age your print jobs, double-click the printer in the Printers window, or double-click an icon for the printer in the notification area, and then work in the window for the print queue. Learn advanced printing techniques and print to a file If your computer isn’t always connected to your printer, you can put the printer offline by right-clicking it in the Printers window and choosing Use Printer Offline. You can then send print jobs to the printer while offline and have them print when you reconnect to the printer. To print to a file, either select the Print to File check box in the Print dialog box, or set up a printer entry to always print to file. Another option is to print to an XML Paper Specification file, which you can distribute to other Windows Vista users.

View, install, and delete fonts To work with fonts, choose Start Control Panel, click the Appearance and Personalization link, and then click the Fonts link. The Fonts window displays the list of fonts installed on your computer. To install a font, right-click blank space in the document area in the Fonts window, choose Install New Font, and then use the Add Fonts dialog box to add the font. To remove a font, click it, and then press Delete. Instead of deleting a font, you can simply move it to another folder, so that you can restore it if you need it again.