Keep the screen font files for one FAMILY together on the same disk, and make sure the lowest point size font is also on that disk.This section describes how to set up a floppy disk set of fonts for distribution. This procedure is useful, for example, if a company chooses to use a range of fonts available from a font-generation utility. One person could generate the fonts and create a disk set of fonts for internal distribution. Then, all the other users could quickly and easily install the pregenerated fonts without having to learn how to use the font-generation utility.
To carry out the following procedure, you must know how to use MS-DOS and a text editor.
The steps are as follows:
1.Install or generate the soft fonts.
Load the fonts onto your computer. You should build a set of screen fonts for each type of display that may be used. Generally, this would be an EGA or a VGA.
When you make changes to the FINSTALL.DIR file (see Step 4), you can
instruct the installer to load different screen fonts depending upon the aspect ratio of the computer receiving the fonts.
2.Build an FINSTALL.DIR file.
Using Windows, select the Printers icon from Control Panel, select the HP LaserJet printer that uses PCL, and then choose the Setup command.
Once inside the driver-specific dialog box, choose the Fonts button to start the Printer Font Installer. The fonts you plan to save should be listed in the left list box. Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT keys while choosing the Exit button. The
installer prompts for a filename and path. Choose OK to accept the name of the FINSTALL.DIR file. Then, quit Windows.
3.Arrange the font files, PFM files, PCM files, screen-font files, and FINSTALL.DIR file onto disks.
If all the files fit on one disk, this is an easy task. If they do not and the number of fonts is great, this may be a major task. For more information about arranging the files, see the section at the end of this procedure list.
4.Edit the FINSTALL.DIR file to add logical drives.
If the files require more than one disk, edit the FINSTALL.DIR file and add logical drives so the installer will know where all the files are. With logical drives properly set up, the installer will prompt the user to switch disks when necessary.
If you loaded screen fonts, add entries in the FINSTALL.DIR file for screen fonts as well. Place the screen fonts in the appropriate FAMILY block for which the screen fonts were made.
5.Test the font-installation process thoroughly.
Make sure that all the fonts are correctly loaded. If you have screen fonts for different aspect ratios, test loading fonts on machines with different screen displays.
Use the advanced Add fonts button to check the syntax of your FINSTALL.DIR file, and verify your screen display type.
Arranging font files onto disks can be an extremely tedious task, especially if you have to set up disks for 360K, 720K (3.5 inch), and 1.2M builds and need to conserve disk space.
Here are some recommendations:
Keep the screen font files for one FAMILY together on the same disk, and make sure the lowest point size font is also on that disk.
Keep each PFM file on the same disk as its corresponding printer-font file.
Conserve disk space by putting the largest fonts on the disk with the smallest fonts.
If you are building the set for different disk densities, build the 360K set first, then put the files from two disks onto each 720K disk, and the files from three disks onto each 1.2M disk.
The easiest way to build the disk set is to place files on the disks in the exact order in which they appear in the FINSTALL.DIR file. That is, the FINSTALL.DIR file goes on first, followed by the screen fonts for the first family listed, followed by the .PFM and font files for that family. Make sure that all the screen-font files for one family go on the same disk, and that at least one printer font (the first one listed in the FAMILY statement) with its PFM file also goes on that disk.
Once the disk set is built and working, reorganize the files to optimize for disk space usage.