Certain Fonts Do Not Print Kerned on HP LaserJet 4 Printers

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SYMPTOMS

When you format certain TrueType fonts with the Kerning For Fonts option selected, the text does not print or display kerned on a Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet Series 4/4M printer. (To locate the Kerning For Fonts option, choose Font from the Format menu and select the Character Spacing tab.)

CAUSE

When you print using the HP LaserJet 4/4M or 4Si/4SiMX printer driver version 1.20, 1.26, or 1.27 (HPPCL5E.DRV) as the default printer, Word does not kern any font for which the printer substitutes a built-in version of the TrueType font. The printer driver does not contain kerning information for these fonts, so Word cannot print them kerned. For example, when you format text for the Times New Roman TrueType font, the printer driver substitutes the built-in version of Times New Roman for which it provides no kerning information. For a list of which fonts do and do not print kerned, see the "More Information" section below in this article.

By contrast, if you switch to the HP LaserJet Series IIIsi printer driver, which uses the Windows TrueType font instead of a built-in printer font, the fonts print and display kerned as expected.

STATUS

Word is operating correctly, using the font information from the printer driver. For Word to print the kerned pairs, the HP printer driver must provide the necessary kerning information. To date, HP has not released an HP LaserJet Series 4 printer driver that prints kerning pairs correctly.

WORKAROUND

Method 1: If you select the Print TrueType As Graphics option in the printer driver Options dialog box, text prints kerned from Word. With this option selected, the fonts display kerned only if you have the appropriate HP font set installed that can render the screen font as a graphic.

Method 2: Switch your default printer to the HP LaserJet Series IIIsi printer driver, which uses the Windows TrueType font instead of a built-in printer font, so the fonts print and display kerned as expected.

MORE INFORMATION

The two lists below include the fonts supplied with Word 6.0 as well as fonts from the Microsoft TrueType Font Pack, Microsoft TrueType Font Pack 2, and HP Font Pack.

Fonts That DO NOT Print Kerned

Albertus Extra Bold
Albertus Medium
Antique Olive
Arial
CG Omega
CG Times
Clarendon Condensed
Garamond
Marigold
Times New Roman
Univers
Univers Condensed 

Fonts That DO Print Kerned

Arial Narrow
Arial Rounded MT Bold
Bell MT
Braggadocio
Centaur
Century Gothic
Colonna MT
Contemporary Brush
Elephant
Footlight MT Light
Gill Sans Ultra Bold
Kino MT
New Century Schlbk
New Caledonia
Parade 

Additional query words: 6.00a kern hp4/4m 31.v1.20 6.00c word6 winword ttf hpiv hp4m hp4si hp4mx hp4ml hplj hplj4 31.v1.26 31.v1.27

Keywords : kbprint kbFont
Version : WINDOWS:6.0,6.0a,6.0c
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :