Windows 95 significantly improves the printing and font capabilities of Windows version 3.x by including the following features.
32-bit printing subsystem with bidirectional communication.
The Windows 95 printing subsystem is compatible with the Windows NT printing subsystem, including monitors that facilitate bidirectional communication with printers.
Quicker "return to application" time.
Background spooling and the use of enhanced metafile (EMF) spooling significantly decreases the time it takes to return control to the application, depending on job content.
Better conflict resolution.
Spooling from MS-DOS – based applications solves conflicts when multiple applications, or applications based on both MS-DOS and Windows, are trying to print at the same time.
Point and Print support.
Point and Print support allows users to automatically install a driver for a network printer and print to a network printer. Point and Print support is available for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Novell® NetWare® printers.
Microsoft Print Services for NetWare.
This feature allows you to direct print jobs from a NetWare server to printers attached to computers running Windows 95.
Image Color Matching.
Image Color Matching (ICM) allows applications to better match the color of images displayed on the screen with those generated by an output device.
Deferred printing support.
Deferred printing allows mobile and other users to generate print jobs when they are not connected to a printer. The print jobs are stored on the computer until a printer becomes available. Windows 95 detects the connection and automatically spools the print jobs as a background process.
Extended capabilities port.
Support for parallel extended capabilities ports (ECP) allows Windows 95 to print at high speeds and work with ECP devices. Even if you do not have an ECP device, using an ECP parallel port will improve I/O performance.
Greater font flexibility.
Because the fonts are stored in the Registry, you can install an unlimited number of TrueType® fonts. In addition, you can print almost 1000 fonts in any document.
Support for raster, vector, and TrueType fonts.
As with earlier versions of Windows, Windows 95 supports raster, vector, and TrueType fonts.
Improved font handling.
Windows 95 handles downloadable soft fonts and font substitutions, and better integrates font handling with the Windows 95 user interface, which is optimized for the 32-bit environment. Windows 95 also includes an enhanced rasterizer for more accurate rendering and generating of TrueType fonts.