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Some Basic Facts about Fonts
7-5
7
Appendix
Character Width (Fixed and PS)
Each character has a different width from all the other characters in a font at a
given point size. For example, "W" is a wider letter than "I." There are two ways to
print letters of different widths: you can print all letters with the same spacing,
regardless of their actual width; or you can change the spacing between letters to
accommodate these different widths. Printing all letters with the same spacing is
called "Fixed spacing," while changing the spacing to accommodate different letter
widths is called "Proportional spacing."
Because the Fixed spacing method prints all letters with the same spacing, the
number of characters which will fit into a given length is a fixed quantity which can
be specified.
If the characters are printed with Proportional spacing, then the number of
characters that will fit into an inch varies depending on the letters printed.
Orientation
Orientation refers to the direction of printing. The printer function can print using
two different paper orientations: portrait and landscape. With portrait orientation,
text is printed across the width of the paper (short edge), and with landscape
orientation, text is printed across the length of the paper (long edge).