Understanding Font Properties
A font is a set of print characters that are of the same size and style. Examples of fonts include Courier New and Arial. Typically, fonts include variations such as bold and italic. You can use multiple fonts in a single report. Some fonts may be converted to PDF, PostScript, or Printer Control Language (PCL) files; line printers are fairly limited in the types of fonts that they can print. Properties such as alignment and spacing are not considered font variations and can be applied separately to text in the report template.
Fonts are classified as either proportional or nonproportional. Proportional fonts include different pitches (widths) for different characters. In a proportionally spaced font, the letter I is narrower than the letter B. Examples of fonts with proportional spacing are Arial and Times New Roman. While proportionally spaced fonts generally create a more visually pleasing document, they can be difficult to align because of the varying widths of characters.
Nonproportional fonts are fonts in which every character has the same width. Most typewriters and line printers use these fonts. Examples of nonproportional fonts are Courier New and MS Gothic.
The PDF generation, PostScript, and PCL conversion can support any font size. For line printers, you should generate the PDF file with nonproportional fonts and a font size of 10.
This table lists base fonts that RDA supports, along with their valid printer types:
Font Faces |
Postscript |
PCL |
Line |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Courier New |
Y |
N |
Y |
Y |
Courier New - Bold |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
Courier New - Italic |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Courier New - Bold Italic |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Arial |
Y |
Y |
N |
Y |
Arial - Bold |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
Arial - Italic |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Arial - Bold Italic |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Times New Roman |
Y |
Y |
N |
Y |
Times New Roman - Bold |
Y |
N |
N |
Y |
Times New Roman - Italic |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Times New Roman - Bold Italic |
N |
N |
N |
N |
You can change font properties at three levels in the report template:
Field
When you change the font properties for a field, the change affects only that field.
Section
When you change the font properties for a section, the change affects all fields in the section, except for those fields that have been changed individually. To apply the changes to all fields in the section without exception, select the Apply settings to all Objects option.
Report
When you change the font properties for the report, the change affects all fields in all sections of the report, except for the fields in sections that have been changed at the section level and those fields that have been changed individually. To apply the changes to all fields in the report without exception, select the Apply settings to all Objects option.