DELL CONFIDENTIAL – PRELIMINARY 9/13/10 - FOR PROOF ONLY
Understanding Fonts 347
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Understanding Fonts
Typefaces and Fonts
A font is a set of characters and symbols created with a distinct design. The
distinct design is called a typeface. The typefaces you select add personality to a
document. Well-chosen typefaces make a document easier to read.
The printer has numerous resident fonts in PCL 5/PCL 6. See "Resident Fonts"
for a listing of all resident fonts.
Weight and Style
Typefaces are often available in different weights and styles. These variations
modify the original typeface so you can, for example, emphasize important
words in text or highlight book titles. The different weights and styles are
designed to complement the original typeface.
Weight refers to the thickness of the lines that form the characters. Thicker lines
result in darker characters. Some words commonly used to describe the weight
of a typeface are bold, medium, light, black, and heavy.
Style refers to other typeface modifications, such as tilt or character width. Italic
and oblique are styles where the characters are tilted. Narrow, condensed, and
extended are three common styles that modify the character widths.
Some fonts combine several weight and style modifications; for example,
Helvetica BdOb. A group of several weight and style variations of a single
typeface is called a typeface family. Most typeface families have four variations:
regular, italic (oblique), bold, and bold italic (bold oblique). Some families have
more variations, as the following illustration for the Helvetica typeface family
shows:
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General
Weight and Dimensions
