5.6.6 Setting Up Fonts on a Network

This section describes how a network administrator can set up fonts to use on a network. To carry out this procedure, you must know how to use MS-DOS and a text editor.

To set up fonts for use on a network, follow these steps:

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 5), you can
instruct the installer to load different screen fonts depending upon the aspect ratio of the machine receiving the fonts.

2.Select permanent fonts.

To use permanently downloaded soft fonts, start the Printer Font Installer
(described in the next step) and select the fonts you want permanently downloaded to the printer. When you exit the installer, it will prompt you
for the download options. Make sure “Download at startup” is checked.

3.Build an FINSTALL.DIR file.

Using Windows, select the Printers icon from Control Panel, select the HP LaserJet printer that uses PCL, and 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.

4.If you are not working from the file server, copy the fonts to the file server.

If you created and installed fonts from the network server, you can skip this step.

Set up a directory on the file server for the fonts and copy all the files to it. Use MS-DOS commands to do this. If you set up permanent fonts, move the files created by the installer from your computer to the network computer, and edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the network to transfer the command line starting the download batch file.

5.Edit the FINSTALL.DIR file to add screen fonts.

If you generated screen fonts, edit the FINSTALL.DIR file to add references to the fonts.

You do not need to add logical drives to the FINSTALL.DIR file if all the font files and PFM files reside in one directory.

6.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 computers 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.

7.Announce the availability of soft fonts to network users.

Instruct your users that the fonts are available. They can load the fonts by running the Printer Font Installer and choosing the Add fonts button. They should indicate the network drive and path to the directory containing the soft fonts. Installing the fonts this way will be much faster than loading from floppy disks.

If you set up permanent soft fonts, then your instructions must list those fonts and their ID numbers for the users. Instruct the users to choose the Edit button and edit each of the permanent fonts, verifying the ID numbers. They must change the ID numbers on any fonts that do not match your list.

Make sure that all the users have assigned the correct IDs to their permanent fonts. This is not as difficult as it seems. There usually are only a few permanent fonts, and the installer resolves ID conflicts. If the user attempts to assign an ID to a font

that is used by another font, the installer will ask the user if the other font should be assigned a new ID. The installer will select the first available ID number when assigning a new ID.