Downloadable fonts (also called soft fonts) are the most cost-effective way to distribute additional fonts for a printer device. This approach enables third-party vendors to create and distribute downloadable soft fonts for a device. Downloadable fonts also enable users to access a larger variety of fonts than could be held in their printer's memory. This is possible because the driver selectively downloads the fonts only when needed.
Each downloadable font must have a font file in printer-specific format. This file is in the printer's font-command language. For the Windows printer driver to download the file, it must know where the file resides on the user's hard drive. Many Windows printer drivers use softfont settings in the WIN.INI file to determine the font file locations.