2. Macintosh Fonts and PC Fonts Cannot Be Exchanged Easily

Fonts

Producing a document on your own printer allows you to use whatever font appeals to you. A document that looks fine on your own laser printer, however, may not appear in the same way when it is printed professionally. There are a number of reasons for this:

1. Some fonts, such as those used by the computer’s operating system, are not designed for print.

2. Macintosh fonts and PC fonts cannot be exchanged easily.

3. In some software, when you apply an attribute instead of selecting the actual font, the computer creates a faux font that may not print correctly on an image setter.

If you open your Windows font folder within your computer system, you may see a variety of font extensions such as TrueType (.ttf), PostScript (.ps), Open Type (.otf), and System (.fon). Open Type is a combination of both TrueType and PostScript and is becoming the industry standard.

Generally, printers request that you use a PostScript or Open Type font to ensure that your fonts will print as you expect. (System fonts are not designed for print; therefore, they are not a valid selection when designing your document.) Fonts should always come from a quality source, such as Adobe, since fonts purchased as part of a bargain CD may not print well.

The Macintosh computer is the most common platform in the printing industry. In many cases, businesses use PCs. This creates a platform issue particularly when it comes to fonts. Mac fonts and PC fonts cannot be exchanged easily, although each platform has fonts that are quite similar. As a result, if you create your document on a PC and send it to a Mac-only shop, the PC fonts will be replaced by Mac ones. Since every typeface (even those that appear to be alike) have slight differences in spacing and height, the length of a document and its spacing on a page can differ depending upon the font selected.

Fonts are designed and organized into what are called font families. A font family includes the plain (or Roman) style as well as all the different styles for that particular font, such as bold or italic. Each style is stored in a separate file. For example, the Times New Roman font family includes Times New Roman, Times New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Italic, Times New Roman Bold Italic, and others. You are probably accustomed to adding a style (or attribute) such as bold or italic to a font by selecting a section of text and clicking a button on your software’s toolbar. When you do this in programs such as Adobe PageMaker or QuarkXPress, the software links the attribute to the font, and the selected text appears correct on the screen. It probably even looks right when you print it on your laser printer.