Vector fonts are a set of lines drawn between points, like a pen plotter drawing a set of characters. Vector fonts can be scaled to virtually any size, but generally they do not look as good as raster fonts in the sizes that raster fonts are specifically designed for.
Vector fonts are stored in Windows NT as collections of Graphical Device Interface (GDI) calls and are time-consuming to generate. But these fonts are useful for plotters and other devices where bitmapped characters can't be used. Before TrueType, vector fonts were also used in some applications to create large characters or characters that were rotated or distorted from the baseline.
Some Windows NT-based applications automatically use vector fonts at larger sizes. Some applications allow you to specify at what point size you want to use vector fonts. For example, the Vector Above setting in Aldus® PageMaker® specifies the point size at which PageMaker will switch to vector fonts.
The Windows NT fonts Roman, Modern, and Script are vector fonts. Although the vector fonts use the ANSI character set, they are marked internally as an OEM character set. These fonts are sometimes referred to as plotter fonts because, unlike most other fonts, they can be used on plotters.
Note Third-party, non-TrueType scalable font products that were supported by Windows 3.1 are not supported by Windows NT. These products include Adobe Type Manager® (ATM®), Bitstream® Facelift®, and Atech Publisher's PowerPak.