7.1 Building and Distributing WPD Files

To build Windows Printer Description files, a font manufacturer must first build PPD files for each printer and PFM files for the each printer's resident font or soft fonts. The font manufacturer then uses the MKPRN utility to generate the WPD file.

To distribute WPD files, a font manufacturer copies the WPD file to disk along with a OEMSETUP.INF file that describes the external printers the WPD file supports.

Once a WPD file is installed, it defines the following features of the external printer:

Resident fonts

Paper sizes and input trays

Commands that activate sizes and trays

Imageable area of each supported page size (that is, the area on which the printer can actually mark)

The following sections describe the formats of the various files.