PC Win: Cannot Control Typeface Printed from Mail

 Last reviewed: November 28, 1994
Article ID: Q123000
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Mail for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 3.2, and 3.2a

SUMMARY

There is no way to control the exact typeface selected when you print from Microsoft Mail for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

When you view message text on your screen, you can switch between two fonts, known as Fixed Font and Normal Font. To change these fonts, you change the FixedFont and NormalFont settings in the [Microsoft Mail] section of the MSMAIL.INI file. For more information about the [Microsoft Mail] section of the MSMAIL.INI file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

   ARTICLE-ID: Q86100
   TITLE     : PC Win: MSMAIL.INI Entries in [Microsoft Mail]
When the message is printed, if Normal Font is the current view, Mail will print a typeface named "Helv," regardless of the Normal Font specified in the MSMAIL.INI file. If Fixed Font is the current view, a typeface named "MSMAIL3" will be printed, regardless of the Fixed Font specified in the MSMAIL.INI file. You can change the size of the printed text by changing the PrintFont setting in the [Microsoft Mail] section of the MSMAIL.INI file.

Messages printed from two different workstations may produce printing that appears to have a different typeface because there is no Helv font installed in Windows version 3.1 or later.

Since Helv does not exist, Windows tries to select a similar typeface. The final typeface selected may vary based on the following criteria:

  • The printer driver installed under Windows
  • Additional fonts installed under Windows
  • Third-party font manager products installed under Windows

With Windows 3.1 and Mail 3.2 installed and no additional fonts or font manager products, messages printed with the Normal Font selected will vary based upon the printer driver. For example, assume that a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III printer with PostScript is installed. If a message is printed using the LaserJet HPCL driver, Univers will be the typeface used. If the same message is printed using the PostScript driver, Helvetica will be used.

If additional fonts are installed onto the system, Windows may find a closer match to Helv, based on information in the font itself. If this happens, output may appear different than Helvetica or Univers. If the characteristics of the selected font are not correct, the printed text may appear drastically different. The only way to prevent this type of problem is to remove the offending font from the system.

If a third-party font manager is installed on the system, it may be able to bypass Windows' own process to select the print typeface. To determine if this is occurring, you need to temporarily deactivate or remove the font manager.

NOTE: You can force a particular typeface to be selected for display by changing settings in the [Font Substitution] section of the WIN.INI file. However, this will not have any effect on the process of selecting a printer typeface.

Additional reference words: typeface 3rd party
KBCategory: kbprint
KBSubcategory: MailPCWin

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Last reviewed: November 28, 1994
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