Posted by Brian Levantine on February 14, 2005 at 16:09:53:
In Reply to: Understanding printing posted by Stephen Auerbach on February 14, 2005 at 10:59:53:
Hi Steve. Here's the scoop:
There are 3 pre-defind system fonts: 0-Normal, 1-Compressed, & 2- Expanded. PFontN, PFontC & PFontE all coorespond to the three pre-defined (by Comet) system fonts (stored in COSW.INI). By using the appropriate DES program (configured in your Comet.Ini file), you can choose how you want your printing to appear. Alternatively, you can issue the mnemonic (SelectSysFont = n) from your IB program to select any of the system fonts at runtime. A common problem I see is everyone seems to have their own definition for normal, compressed, & expanded print fonts. To solve this problem (and I'm sure complicate your life) we added a configuration dialog (COSW File menu -> SetPrinterFont) that allows you to define what each font should actually be for the workstation in question. This dialog does allow you to specify your font in the units you desire (CPI/LPI).
Many applications don't care so much about the CPI as they do about Line spacing. In this case you can simply use the (LineSpacing = n) mnemonic to adjust COSP's line spacing to fit your needs. This mnemonic doesn't change the font size but it does change the spacing between lines.
If this isn't good enough then the next step is to select your own font from within your IB program. This is a little more involved but gives you absolute control over the font (providing the system supports it) on any workstation. Although it uses different printing techniques (TextOut instead of simple prints), the demo program cform.ibs demonstrates how to select a font.