Windows 95 Printing and Fonts: The Basics

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This chapter describes the Windows 95 printing subsystem and explains how to set up printers with Windows 95. It also presents an overview of font support in Windows 95.

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.

On This Page

Printing and Fonts: The Issues
Windows 95 Printing Support Overview
Installing a Printer
Using Microsoft Print Services for NetWare
Using DEC PrintServer Software for Windows 95
Using the Hewlett-Packard JetAdmin Utility
Using the Microsoft RPC Print Provider
Technical Notes on Windows 95 Printing
Windows 95 Fonts Overview
TrueType Fonts
Windows 95 Raster Fonts
Windows 95 Vector Fonts
Screen and Printer Fonts
Fonts Provided for Compatibility
Font Matching Table
How Fonts Are Matched in Windows 95
Loading Fonts in Windows 95
Installing Additional Fonts
Troubleshooting Printing Problems
Troubleshooting Font Errors

Printing and Fonts: The Issues

Before configuring printers and installing fonts in Windows 95, you should consider the issues summarized in this section.

General Issues

  • With Point and Print, users can install printers over the network if the print server includes drivers specified in the Windows 95 INF files. You need to designate which computers are running Windows 95 and which network servers will function as print servers, and configure them to store Point and Print information.

  • When purchasing new printers, consider those with support for bidirectional communication and ECP ports.

  • ECP ports are not automatically configurable. If your computer includes an ECP, follow the procedure "Enhanced Metafile Spooling Support" later in this chapter to enable ECP support.

  • If your printer uses font cartridges, you will also need to install the fonts on your computer.

NetWare Printers

  • To take advantage of the Win32-based NetWare print service capability, the computer must be running Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks. However, the computer does not need to run File and Printer Sharing services.

  • To use Point and Print with NetWare servers, you must decide which servers will store printer driver files. You can store pointers in the NetWare bindery to the servers that have printer driver files installed on them. For information, see "Installing Remote Printers with Point and Print" later in this chapter.

Shared Printers on Microsoft or NetWare Networks

To share a printer, the computer must be running a 32-bit, protected-mode client, and File and Printer Sharing services must be enabled. For information, see Chapter 11, "Logon, Browsing, and Resource Sharing."

Windows 95 Printing Support Overview

In Windows 3.1, print spooling functionality was handled by Print Manager and supported by code in several different Windows-based components. The Print Manager passed a fixed amount of information to the printer whether the printer was ready to receive it or not, causing what seemed to be jerky processing.

In Windows 95, the print spooler is implemented as a series of 32-bit virtual device drivers and DLLs, and consolidates the spooler functionality into a single architecture. The new spooler provides smooth background printing by using background thread processing. This means that the spooler passes data to the printer only when the printer is ready to receive more information.

The new spooler provides quick return-to-application time and is much more powerful and flexible. It allows you to set printer properties on a per-printer basis instead of requiring global printing properties as in Windows 3.1. For example, each printer can have a different separator page and each can specify whether jobs will be printed directly or to a queue.

The following diagram illustrates how Windows 95 prints documents.

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For information about enhanced metafiles, printer drivers, ECP, and other components of the printing subsystem, see "Technical Notes on Windows 95 Printing" later in this chapter. The following sections describe how to install and share printers and how to use print servers on Windows NT and NetWare networks.

Installing a Printer

Windows 95 uses a new INF format for printer installation. Although the previous OEMSETUP.INF file format is still supported for compatibility with previous versions of Windows, the new format offers added functionality, including support for installing printing subsystem components, such as the printer driver and port monitor, and for installing Plug and Play printers. All information about an installed printer is stored in the Registry.

You can install printers in Windows 95 in the following ways:

  • During or after Setup using the Add Printer wizard

  • With Point and Print

  • With Plug and Play

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Windows, Windows 95 Setup automatically migrates all previously installed printers. If no printer was previously installed, Windows 95 Setup runs the Add Printer wizard to let you install a printer.

Windows 95 provides the Add Printer wizard to simplify installing printers and a central place—the Printers Folder—for running the wizard and for managing printing processes. You can open the Printers Folder in the following ways:

  • From the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Printers

  • In My Computer, double-click the Printers Folder

  • In Control Panel, double-click the Printers icon

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To install a printer with the Add Printer wizard

  • In the Printers folder, double-click the Add Printer icon. The Add Printer wizard leads you though the process of setting up and configuring a printer. The process is simpler than earlier versions of Windows because of Windows 95 Point and Print capability, as described later in this section.

    The only difference between installing a remote printer and a local printer with the Add Printer wizard is that you must specify the path name to the remote printer or browse to find its network location.

Note: You can also start the Add Printer wizard by double-clicking a printer on a print server or on a computer running Windows 95.

Installing Plug and Play Printers

For Plug and Play-compliant printers, all you need to do is plug the printer cable into a port and start Windows 95. The printer reports its device ID to Windows 95, which searches INF files to find the ID that matches the values reported by the printer and then proceeds with installation in the following ways:

  • If an exact match is found, Windows 95 automatically installs the correct printer support.

  • If an exact match is not found, but a compatible driver is found, Windows 95 displays a dialog box showing the device was found and a compatible driver is available. You can then provide a disk containing a Windows 95 driver that is an exact match, ask Windows 95 to install the compatible driver it has found, or ask Windows 95 not to install a driver at all. Windows 95 automatically determines the best driver to use.

Installing Remote Printers with Point and Print

Point and Print allows users to install a printer over a network by providing printer driver information. A user "points" to a print server, that is, opens its print queue by using Network Neighborhood, by typing its path name in the Run dialog box on the Start menu, or by starting the Add Printer wizard. Windows 95 retrieves printer-specific information from the server. The type of information retrieved depends on the type of print server to which you connect, and can include the following:

  • Printer driver files

  • The name of the server on which printer driver files are stored

  • Printer model information, which specifies which printer driver to retrieve from the Windows directory on a local computer or on the network

Windows 95 print server.

A computer running Windows 95 can function as a print server by providing printer drivers and settings (paper size, memory, page orientation, and so on) to another computer running Windows 95. You must share the printer, enabling File and Print Sharing services for either Microsoft networks or NetWare networks. You can apply user-level security to the shared printer. For information, see Chapter 11, "Logon, Browsing, and Resource Sharing"and Chapter 14, "Security."

Windows NT print server.

A computer running Windows 95 can connect to a Windows NT 3.1 or 3.5 server to retrieve Point and Print information. The printer model name on the Windows NT server must have the same printer model name in the Windows 95 INF files. If the printer model names are the same, Windows 95 installs the printer driver files from the directory on the local computer or network location from which Windows 95 was installed. If the names are not the same, Windows 95 prompts you for the printer model. Printer settings are not retrievable on a Windows NT print server, so you need to adjust printer settings such as paper size on the computer running Windows 95.

Notice that a Microsoft Windows NT Client Access License is required if the computer will be connecting to servers running Windows NT Server. For information, see Chapter 8, "Windows 95 on Microsoft Networks" or contact your Microsoft reseller.

NetWare print server.

A computer running Windows 95 can connect to an appropriately configured NetWare server to retrieve printer driver files. You can configure a NetWare print server to store printer driver files in the NetWare bindery or store references in the bindery to other servers that store the printer drivers. To configure the NetWare printer server, you must have Supervisor privileges on the server, and the client computer must be running Client for NetWare Networks.

When requested, the NetWare server automatically copies the printer drivers to the specified path on the computer running Windows 95. Notice that you should specify the driver path before you specify a model name. Because printer settings are not retrievable on a NetWare print server, you need to adjust printer settings, such as paper size, on the computer running Windows 95.

To configure the NetWare server to store Point and Print information

  1. Right-click Network Neighborhood, and then click Find Computer.

  2. In the Find Computer dialog box, type the name of the print server. When it is found, double-click its icon in the name list box.

  3. In the server's dialog box, double-click the icon for the printer. The print queue for that printer appears.

  4. Select the print queue, click the File menu, and then click Point And Print Setup.

  5. In the context menu, click Set Driver Path.

  6. Type the UNC path (in the form \\server\volume\directory) for the driver files. For example:

    7. 



\NOVSVR\SYS\DRIVERS\EPSON24



    

  1. Copy the appropriate files (as specified in MSPRINT.INF) to the printer path.
    

    2. 

  2. In the context menu, click Set Printer Model.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Select dialog box, click the printer manufacturer in the Manufacturers list, and the printer in the Models list. Click OK.
    

    4. 



To use Point and Print to connect to a NetWare printer


    

  1. In Network Neighborhood, double-click the NetWare server icon.
    

    2. 

  2. Drag and drop the print queue from the NetWare server window to your Printer Folders window.
    

    3. 

  3. Follow the online instructions. The Add Printer wizard prompts you to type a name for this printer.
    

    Windows 95 automatically copies the files for the printer driver (including .DRV, .DLL, .HLP, and other files, as needed) to the Windows SYSTEM directory.
    

    4. 



If the print server you're using doesn't support Point and Print, you can use the Add Printer wizard to select the printer driver you want to install.


For information about installing printers using custom setup scripts, see Appendix D, "MSBATCH.INF Parameters."


Note: Some printers take advantage of the built-in bidirectional communication ability (as described in "Bidirectional Communication Support" later in this chapter) and initially configure device driver settings, such as available fonts and the amount of installed memory, without any user intervention.


Printing Documents


In Windows 95 you can print documents in two ways.


To print a document


    

  • If the document is open, from the File menu, click Print.
    

    – Or –
    

    If the document is not open, drag and drop the document onto the printer icon for either a locally installed printer or a network printer. The printer icon can be in the Printers folder or on the desktop.
    

    • 



With the Microsoft protected-mode network clients and networks from other vendors supporting UNC paths, you no longer need a physical redirection to a network printer in order to print.


To print a document to a network printer


    

  1. In Network Neighborhood, double-click a network printer to open its printer queue, or click an icon for a network printer in the Printers Folder.
    

    2. 

  2. Drag and drop a document onto the printer queue or icon.
    

    3. 



Some 16-bit applications do not work with UNC printer names. If you use a network client that does not support UNC connections, or if you need to have a redirected LPT port to support printing from a particular application, you can still make a connection to a printer by using the appropriate network commands (such as net use lpt1: \\server\printer or capture lpt1:). You can also redirect a port in the Add Printer wizard.


Tip You can quickly locate a printer on a particular server by choosing Run from the Start button, and then typing the server name (for example, \\myserver). You will be logged on to the server and prompted for a password, if needed. Then a Windows Explorer window appears so you can select the printer.


To view documents waiting to be printed


    

  • Double-click the icon for the printer.
    

    This shows the print queue and the print jobs it contains.
    

    • 



If you have administrative privileges for the printer, you can use the print queue dialog box to manage the printer queue and print jobs remotely. For example, you can pause and purge printer queues.


Tip You can use WinPopup to receive a message from a printer that a print job is done. For information about how to use WinPopup, see Chapter 12, "Network Technical Discussion."


To change printer settings


    

  • Right-click the printer icon, and then in the context menu, click Properties.
    

    The settings you can change depend on the type of printer you have.
    

    • 



Tip For easy access to a printer, use the right mouse button to drag the printer's icon from the Printers folder to the desktop, and then click Shortcut on the popup menu that appears. Then you can quickly print a document by dragging the document icon onto the printer icon.


Using Microsoft Print Services for NetWare


Windows 95 includes a Win32-based utility called Microsoft Print Services for NetWare (MSPSRV.EXE), which has some of the capabilities of a NetWare PSERVER. This utility allows a NetWare server (version 2.15 or later) to direct print jobs (despool) to computers running Windows 95. The computer running Windows 95 must also be running Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks, but does not need to run File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks.


A NetWare PSERVER must be a dedicated computer unlike a computer running Windows 95 with Microsoft Print Services for NetWare that runs in the background using no resource except for data packet polling at a set interval. This means it won't interfere with other things the user wants to do on that computer.


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Microsoft Print Services for NetWare uses the queue management services (QMS) API for queue services. It can service one queue for printing to a single printer that is locally attached to a computer running Windows 95.


When you enable the service, it logs on to the NetWare print server, attaches to the print queue, and gets a handle. Then it polls the NetWare print server and receives a header that includes information about how to complete the print job. For example, the header might include information about whether to use a banner, how many copies to print, and other information. Next, Microsoft Print Services for NetWare reads data from the job in the queue and uses Win32 calls to print to the printer. When the job is printed, it returns a call to the NetWare print server.


Microsoft Print Services for NetWare is provided on the Windows 95 compact disc in the ADMIN\NETTOOLS\PRTAGENT directory.


To install Microsoft Print Services for NetWare


    

  1. In the Network option in Control Panel, click Add.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, click Service, and then click Add.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Select Network Service dialog box, click Have Disk, and then type the path to the ADMIN\NETTOOLS\PRTAGENT directory.
    

    4. 



To enable the Microsoft Print Server for NetWare


    

  1. Before you set up Microsoft Print Server for NetWare, check the NetWare print server and the computer running MS-DOS and is configured as the PSERVER to make sure they are both working correctly.
    

    If you see the following message, you will know that the NetWare print server is not configured correctly:
    

    2. 



Cannot determine print queue name.



    

  1. In the Printers folder on the computer running Windows 95, right-click the printer to which the NetWare print queue will direct jobs, and then click Properties in the context menu.
    

    2. 

  2. In the print server properties, click Enable Microsoft Print Server For NetWare.
    

    Cc751102.rk23_10(en-us,TechNet.10).gif
    

    3. 

  3. From the list of servers, click the NetWare server on which the queue resides.
    

    Note: You must have access to this server; only those NetWare servers to which you have access are listed. Access is determined by the user account under which you logged on to the network.
    

    When a NetWare server is selected, the available print server appears in the Print Server list.
    

    4. 

  4. Adjust the time interval for polling the print queue, and then click OK.
    

    This setting can be adjusted as high as 15 seconds for maximum print server performance, or as low as three minutes for increased local performance. The default is 30 seconds. Click OK.
    

    Note: Windows 95 supports only three ports for Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks.
    

    5. 



Using DEC PrintServer Software for Windows 95


DEC® PrintServer Software for Windows 95 provides support for printing directly to Digital PrintServer printers from a computer running Windows 95. This software allows extensive bidirectional communication, which allows printers to communicate both job and printer status in real time.


Also, PrintServer Software for Windows 95 lets you choose the best way to print your file. You can select the input and output trays, choose to print either duplex (double-sided) or simplex (single-sided), and print to any PrintServer printer anywhere on the network. PrintServer Software for Windows 95 provides automatic recovery in case of a printer jam so that pages are never lost.


To install PrintServer Software for Windows 95


    

  1. In the Network option in Control Panel, click Add.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, double-click Service.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Select Network Service dialog box, click DEC, and in the Network Services list, click DEC Print Server. Click OK.
    

    4. 



For more information about this product, see the online Help file for PrintServer Software for Windows 95.


Using the Hewlett-Packard JetAdmin Utility


The HP® JetAdmin utility is an administrative tool used to install and configure Hewlett-Packard® printers connected to a network using an HP JetDirect® print server (network interface). The HP JetAdmin utility operates as a Windows utility and can be used for networking when a Novell NetWare server is available or when the NetWare file (peer-to-peer) server is not available.


From the HP JetAdmin main window, you can:


    

  • Set up a new interface and printer or change an existing configuration.
    

    • 

  • Modify printer settings.
    

    • 

  • Filter and sort printers that are shown in the list.
    

    • 



From the New or Modify window, you can:


    

  • Configure the HP JetDirect interface and printer.
    

    • 

  • Add or remove print queues.
    

    • 

  • Select drivers to install and assign Windows 95 drivers to a network printer.
    

    • 

  • Select the printer operating mode and set the printer description.
    

    • 



To install the HP JetAdmin Utility


    

  1. In the Network option in Control Panel, click Add.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, double-click Service.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Select Network Service dialog box, click Hewlett Packard in the Manufacturer's list, and click HP JetAdmin in the Network Services list. Click OK.
    

    4. 



For more information about this product, see the online Help for the HP JetAdmin utility.


Using the Microsoft RPC Print Provider


The Microsoft Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Print Provider enhances network printing and remote administration by providing the full set of Win32 APIs required for a Windows 95 client to administer printer queues on Windows NT servers. Using this print provider, a Windows 95 client can obtain complete accounting and job status information from the Windows NT server. The Microsoft RPC Print Provider is located on the Windows 95 compact disc in the \ADMIN\APPTOOLS\RPCPP directory.


Technical Notes on Windows 95 Printing


This section presents technical information about the following features of the Windows 95 printing subsystem:


    

  • Enhanced metafile spooling
    

    • 

  • Bidirectional communication support
    

    • 

  • Printer driver support
    

    • 

  • Extended capabilities port support
    

    • 

  • Improved printing support for MS-DOS – based applications
    

    • 

  • Support for deferred printing
    

    • 

  • Image Color Matching support
    

    • 



Enhanced Metafile Spooling Support


In Windows 95, all output to a non-PostScript™ printer spools as enhanced metafiles (EMFs) instead of as raw printer data as in Windows 3.1. Programs print more quickly (as much as twice as fast as Windows 3.1), so you can resume work sooner.


The following diagram shows how Windows 95 spools EMFs when printing from Windows-based applications. EMFs include instructions about how the document is to be printed. For example, if a document contains a solid black rectangle, the EMF would contain a command to draw a rectangle with the given dimensions, and then fill it in with a solid color, using the color black.


Cc751102.rk23_02(en-us,TechNet.10).gif


Instead of the raw printer data being generated by the printer driver, EMF information is generated by the Graphical Device Interface (GDI) before spooling. After the EMF is created, control is returned to the user, and the EMF is interpreted in the background on a 32-bit printing subsystem spooler thread and sent to the printer driver. This returns control to the user in significantly less time than waiting for the printer calls to be fully interpreted by the printer driver directly.


Some applications might be able to print only to drivers that generate raw printer data. If this is the case, you should disable EMF spooling.


To disable EMF spooling in the Printers Folder


    

  1. Right-click the printer icon, and then click Properties.
    

    2. 

  2. Click the Detail tab, and then click Spool Settings.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Spool Settings dialog box, select RAW in the Spool Data Format list, and then click OK.
    

    4. 



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Bidirectional Communication Support


Through bidirectional parallel communication, Windows 95 detects Plug and Play-compliant printers that return device ID values (as described in the IEEE 1284 specification). This feature allows applications to query the printer directly to find out about its physical attributes.


Bidirectional communication provides the benefit of configuring device driver settings on the server without user intervention. The printer driver can automatically determine how much memory the printer has, what device fonts are available, and so on.


Bidirectional communication also allows printers to send unsolicited messages to Windows 95 and to applications. For example, the printer might send an "out of paper" or "printer offline" message. Bidirectional communication enables much more detailed status reporting on a wider variety of information, such as low toner conditions, paper jams, maintenance needs, and so on.


To use bidirectional printing, you must have the following:


    

  • A bidirectional printer
    

    • 

  • An IEEE 1284-compliant cable (a cable that has "1284" printed on it)
    

    • 

  • A correctly configured port (some parallel ports are set to AT-compatible mode by default; in this case, you need to set the port to PS/2 mode)
    

    • 



Printer Driver Support


The Windows 95 device driver model includes two parts: a universal driver and a mini-driver. This device driver model makes it easier for printer manufacturers to create drivers for their printers. Windows 95 provides the universal printer driver, which communicates with other parts of the operating system and includes information pertinent to all printers. Printer manufacturers provide mini-drivers to communicate with the universal driver and with the printer itself. The following sections describe the universal driver and the PostScript mini-driver provided in Windows 95.


Note: Mini-drivers written for Windows 95 also work with the Windows NT 3.5 universal printer driver.


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Universal Printer Driver


The Windows 95 universal printer driver supports mainstream page description languages, including HP PCL®, Epson® ESC P/2, Canon® CaPSL, Lexmark PPDS, monochrome HP GL/2, and most of the older dot matrix technologies. Almost all non-PostScript printer drivers provided with Windows 95 are based on universal driver technology.


The universal printer driver has full support for device-resident Intellifont and TrueType scalable device fonts. It also supports downloading of TrueType outlines to PCL printers with TrueType rasterizers. Enhancements offer support for downloading unbound TrueType outlines and of character sets with more than 256 characters.


The universal printer driver includes the following:


    

  • Full 600 dots per inch (dpi) support; changes allow future expandability to higher resolutions
    

    • 

  • Monochrome HP GL/2 support, providing full LaserJet® 4 functionality
    

    • 

  • Generic Text support using TTY.DRV
    

    • 

  • Support for ESC P/2 raster graphics directly through the universal driver, rather than through mini-drivers
    

    • 

  • Easy-to-use properties dialog boxes for configuring printer driver settings
    

    • 



PostScript Mini-Driver


Microsoft worked closely with Adobe Systems to develop a PostScript mini-driver, which offers the following features:


    

  • PostScript Level 2 support. This feature is automatically enabled for printers reporting as Level 2 from their PostScript Printer Description (.PPD) file.
    

    • 

  • Additional support for Image Color Matching (ICM). The PostScript driver allows the server to offload ICM to the PostScript processor to improve performance. This flexibility allows you to take advantage of color raster enhancements on either the printer or the server.
    

    • 

  • Control over output data format. The PostScript mini-driver supports CTRL+D handling, Binary Communications Protocol (BCP) and Tagged Binary Communications Protocol (TBCP), and pure binary (8-bit) channels (AppleTalk®).
    

    • 

  • Support for version 4.2 .PPD files. These are ASCII files in driver-readable format which contain printer model information that drivers and other software retrieve in order to control a printer. These files cannot be edited. For compatibility, Windows Printer Description (.WPD) files are still supported.
    

    • 

  • Support for Simplified Printer Description (.SPD) files. When a printer is installed, Windows 95 reads the .PPD files for each PostScript printer and creates an .SPD file, which is a simplified version of the .PPD file containing only information used by the Windows 95 PostScript mini-driver.
    

    Important: Windows 95 does not support editing of .PPD, .SPD, or .INF files. If you need to change these files, contact Adobe Systems.
    

    • 

  • Tracking of PostScript virtual memory availability in the printer. This allows you to print more complex documents than you could with Windows 3.1. However, if the printer sends a message saying it can't print because it doesn't have enough virtual memory, you can resolve the problem by changing the PostScript options settings from Optimize For Speed to Optimize For Portability.
    

    • 

  • Easy-to-use properties dialog boxes for configuring printer driver settings.
    

    • 

  • Support for installable device options, as described in the .PPD file, through the user interface.
    

    • 



Extended Capabilities Port Support


An ECP provides high-speed printing, and support for ECP and ECP devices is included in Windows 95. If you have an ECP, you can connect either ECP or non-ECP devices to the port. In either case, using an ECP will improve I/O performance, although ECP devices will show the greatest I/O gains.


An ECP can be configured in five different ways (defined in the port's Resources properties), as shown in the following list.











Configuration


Description








Basic Configuration 0


Standard I/O ranges for LPT ports only






Basic Configuration 1


Standard I/O ranges for LPT ports and any IRQ






Basic Configuration 2


Standard I/O ranges for LPT ports, IRQ, and any DMA setting






Basic Configuration 3


Any I/O ranges for LPT ports only






Basic Configuration 4


Any I/O ranges for LPT ports and any IRQ setting







To enable ECP support in Windows 95


    

  1. Consult your computer (or add-in card) manual to determine the IRQ and DMA settings selected for each of the ECP ports you want to use. You'll need this information to enable ECP support.
    

    2. 

  2. In the System option in Control Panel, click the Device Manager tab.
    

    3. 

  3. Click Ports (COM & LPT), and then select the ECP device. (Notice that you will see this device only if an Extended Capabilities port was detected on your computer. If you have multiple ECP ports, repeat steps 6 through 10 to configure each port's DMA and IRQ values.)
    

    4. 

  4. Click Properties, and then click the Resources tab. This dialog box shows an I/O range that has been detected automatically.
    

    5. 

  5. In the Settings Based On field, select Basic Configuration 2. (See the previous table for a description of possible settings for this field.)
    

    6. 

  6. In the Resource Settings list, click Interrupt Request, and then click Change Settings.
    

    7. 

  7. In the Edit Interrupt Request dialog box, type the IRQ value you noted in step 1, and then click OK.
    

    8. 

  8. In the Resources properties, click Direct Memory Access.
    

    9. 

  9. In the Edit Direct Memory Access dialog box, type the DMA value you noted in step 1, and then click OK.
    

    10. 

  10. Shut down and restart the computer so the changes can take effect. After restarting, you can take advantage of fast I/O capabilities offered by the ECP.
    

    11. 



Improved Printing Support for MS-DOS–Based Applications


With Windows 3.1, users printing from MS-DOS – based applications could not take advantage of the Windows-based spooling functionality offered by Print Manager, and encountered device contention issues when trying to print from MS-DOS – based applications and Windows-based applications at the same time.


Windows 95 addresses the printing limitations of Windows 3.1 by incorporating the functionality for an MS-DOS – based application to spool directly to the 32-bit Windows 95 print spooler. This support is integrated into a print spooler virtual device, which takes the output destined for a printer port and first places it in the Windows 95 print spooler before sending the data to the printer. This functionality works with all existing MS-DOS – based applications, and results in quicker return-to-application time through the use of the spooling mechanism.


Although MS-DOS – based applications do not benefit from EMF spooling (which is supported only for printing from Windows-based applications), users won't encounter device contention issues, and will instead experience smoother background printing and improved printing performance in Windows 95. The print spooling support for use with MS-DOS – based applications is automatically installed and configured, requiring no user intervention.


Deferred Printing Support


The Windows 95 printing subsystem features support for deferred printing. This capability allows users not connected to a printer to generate print jobs, which are stored on their local computers for later printing. This feature is available only if a computer is on a network or is a portable computer that has been removed from its docking station. It is useful when working at a remote site, or when a network printer connection is temporarily lost because of network or printer problems. Deferred printing works with print jobs created in Win16-based, Win32-based, or MS-DOS – based applications.


To prepare for deferred print jobs


    

  1. In Control Panel, double-click the Printers folder, and then click a printer.
    

    2. 

  2. On the File menu in the Printers dialog box, click Work Offline. The printer will be dimmed in the Printers folder.
    

    3. 



Image Color Matching Support


Windows 95 includes Image Color Matching (ICM) support, enabling applications to offer better consistency between the color of images displayed on the screen and the color of images generated by an output device. The technology supporting ICM is licensed from Eastman Kodak.


ICM provides consistent, predictable color rendering from input, through monitor preview, to output. Applications that use ICM functionality enable portability of color information across applications, manipulating the graphic information; across users, providing consistent use of colors; and across platforms, allowing color information to easily be moved to different systems where the ICM technology has been implemented.


The key to ICM support is the use of a profile, which represents the color properties of a monitor, printer, or scanner device. The ICM profile, provided by its vendor as part of the software for the particular monitor, printer, or scanner, resides in the Windows SYSTEM\COLOR directory. The profile used by the ICM support in Windows 95 is the result of an industry consortium called InterColor 3.0, made up of many industry hardware vendors (including Kodak, Microsoft, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, and Silicon Graphics, among others) and industry standard-setting bodies. The InterColor group has established a consistent cross-platform color standardization process, including industry-wide standards for defining ICM properties of output and display devices.


Because Windows 95 includes ICM support as part of the operating system, application vendors can integrate ICM functionality into their applications, and thus take advantage of this new system service. To provide support for device-independent color matching, colors used in applications are tied to international (CIE-based) colorimetric standards, rather than in device-dependent form to specific hardware devices. The operating system then performs the appropriate color transformations to map the device-independent color representations to the colors supported by the physical device.


Windows 95 Fonts Overview


Fonts are used to print text, display text on screen, and send text to other output devices. Windows 95 provides a set of Win32-based functions that developers can use to install, select, and query different fonts.


Windows 95 provides three basic kinds of fonts, which are categorized according to how the fonts are rendered for screen or print output:


    

  • TrueType fonts are stored as mathematical models that define the outline of each character. They are much easier to work with than vector fonts because they appear the same on the screen as they do on the printed page. TrueType fonts can be scaled and rotated.
    

    • 

  • Raster fonts are stored in files as bitmaps and are rendered as an array of dots for displaying on the screen and printing on paper. Raster fonts cannot be cleanly scaled or rotated.
    

    • 

  • Vector fonts are rendered from a mathematical model, in which each character is defined as a set of lines drawn between points. Vector fonts can be scaled to any size or aspect ratio, but are much more limited than TrueType fonts. Windows 95 provides one vector font (MODERN.FON) to ensure backward compatibility with plotter devices. It is installed in the Windows SYSTEM\COLOR subdirectory.
    

    • 



Raster and vector font files have .FON filename extensions. TrueType font files have .TTF filename extensions.


Note: In Windows 95, information in the Registry points to a single .TTF file for TrueType fonts as described in "Loading Fonts in Windows 95" later in this chapter. In addition, Windows 95 includes a hidden file named TTFCACHE that contains FOT type data for TrueType fonts to ensure backward compatibility with Windows 3.1. For TrueType fonts in Windows 3.1, there are two files for each font: the .FOT file contains a relatively short header with pointer information, and the .TTF file contains the actual font data.


TrueType Fonts


TrueType fonts are shapes that are described by their outlines. Instead of being composed of bitmaps (as raster fonts are) or lines (as vector fonts are), TrueType fonts consist of a series of contours.


The TrueType downloadable fonts included with Windows 95 support the Arial®, Courier, Symbol, and Times New Roman® font families. The following table shows TrueType files included with Windows 95.














Font name


Normal


Bold


Bold/Italic


Italic








Arial


ARIAL.TTF


ARIALBD.TTF


ARIALBI.TTF


ARIALI.TTF






Courier New


COUR.TTF


COURBD.TTF


COURBI.TTF


COURI.TTF






Times New Roman


TIMES.TTF


TIMESBD.TTF


TIMESBI.TTF


TIMESI.TTF






Symbol


SYMBOL.TTF


N/A


N/A


N/A






Wingding


WINGDING.TTF


N/A


N/A


N/A







Note: The Courier New TrueType Font also ships with the OEM character set to support use of Courier New TrueType fonts in MS-DOS – based applications.


TrueType fonts have many benefits over other kinds of Windows 95 fonts:


    

  • What you see is really what you get, because Windows 95 uses the same font for both screen and printer. You don't have to think about whether you have a specific point size for a particular printer or for your display.
    

    • 

  • You can scale and rotate TrueType fonts, and their resolution is clear in all sizes and on all output devices that Windows 95 supports.
    

    • 

  • Your document will look the same when printed on different printers. And any printer that uses a Windows 95 universal driver can print TrueType fonts.
    

    • 

  • Your document will look the same if you move it across platforms. For example, the text you format in Microsoft Word for Windows 95 will look the same if you open the same document in Word for the Macintosh®.
    

    • 

  • Each TrueType typeface requires only a .TTF file to create fonts in all point sizes at all resolutions for all output devices. (Raster fonts need separate files for each point size, resolution, and display device.)
    

    • 

  • TrueType fonts are integrated with the operating environment, so all applications created for Windows 95 can use TrueType fonts in the same ways as they do other Windows 95 raster fonts without changes or upgrades.
    

    • 



In many applications, TrueType fonts appear in the Fonts dialog box with a "TT" logo beside the typeface name. Typefaces that are device fonts have a printer icon beside their names in the list.


TrueType fonts are stored as a collection of points and "hints" that define the character outlines. When an application created for Windows 95 requests a font, TrueType uses the outline and the hints to render a bitmap in the size requested. Hints are the algorithms that distort the scaled font outlines to improve how the bitmaps appear at specific resolutions.


After system startup, the first time you select a TrueType font size, TrueType renders a bitmap of the selected characters for display or printing. Because of this, the initial font generation may be slower than with Windows 95 raster fonts. However, Windows 95 stores the rendered bitmaps in a font cache, so each subsequent time the font is used during that Windows 95 session, display or printing will be just as fast as for a Windows 95 raster font.


Windows 95 users can choose any of the following methods for printing TrueType fonts on PCL printers.


Download TrueType as outline soft fonts.


Windows 95 downloads the TrueType font as a scalable outline font. The printer performs all rasterization. This option is available only on PCL printers which can rasterize TrueType fonts; for example, HP LaserJet 4 printers.


Download TrueType as bitmap soft fonts.


Windows 95 downloads the TrueType font as a bitmap soft font. Each set of characters for each font size used is rasterized by Windows 95, then sent to the printer as a separate bitmap font. This is the default method used for PCL printers that cannot rasterize TrueType fonts; for example, HP LaserJet II and III series printers.


Print TrueType as graphics.


Windows 95 rasterizes a whole page of TrueType fonts as a graphic before sending it to the printer. This option is used for PCL printers which cannot accept the format used for downloading TrueType as bitmap soft fonts; for example, the original HP LaserJet and LaserJet Plus printers. This option is also sometimes used for troubleshooting printing problems.


Windows 95 Raster Fonts


Raster fonts are bitmaps supplied in different sizes for specific video display resolutions. The Windows 95 fonts MS Serif, MS Sans Serif, Courier, System, and Terminal are raster fonts.


A raster font file contains data that describes all the characters and style of a typeface for a specific display device. Windows 95 provides several raster font sizes for various display devices. For example, MS Serif comes in point sizes 8, 10, 12, and 14 for CGA, EGA, VGA, and 8514 display devices.


Windows 95 can scale raster fonts to even multiples of the sizes supplied. For example, MS Serif can be scaled to 16, 20, 24, and so on. Bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough styles can also be generated from a standard raster font, but if you try to scale them too far from their original size or style, they appear jagged.


Six resolutions of raster screen fonts are provided with Windows 95. If used for printing, raster fonts print text and graphics as bitmaps or raster lines. The resolutions are identified by a letter appended to the filename of the font, as described in the following table.


Raster Font Files














Letter


Output device


Resolution


x size 1


y size 1








B2


EGA display


1.33:1


96


72






C2


Printer


1:1.2


60


72






D2


Printer


1.66:1


120


72






E


VGA display


1:1


96


96






F


8514 display


1:1


120


120







1 x,y indicates the height/width aspect ratio, in pixels per inch.


2 These fonts are not included on the Windows 95 installation disks.


The letter that identifies the resolution is appended to the raster font filenames. For example, the files for the 8514 raster fonts are COURF.FON, SSERIFF.FON, SERIFF.FON, SMALLF.FON, and SYMBOLF.FON, as shown in the following table.













Font


Filename


Character set


Font description








Courier


COURx.FON


ANSI


Fixed-width serif






MS Sans Serif


SSERIFx.FON


ANSI


Proportional-width sans serif






MS Serif


SERIFx.FON


ANSI


Proportional-width serif






Small


SMALLx.FON


ANSI


Proportional small size






Symbol


SYMBOLx.FON


Symbol


Math symbols







Raster fonts can also be printed if their resolution and aspect ratio are close to what your printer requires. If you do not see raster fonts for a printer in an application's Fonts dialog box, check your printer's horizontal and vertical resolution and compare it with the preceding table. If there is a close match, choose the Fonts icon in Control Panel and make sure the appropriate font set is installed. If there is no close match, you cannot print the Windows 95 raster fonts on your printer. You might be able to print raster fonts in a different resolution, if the other resolution has an aspect ratio that matches your printer. Some printer drivers cannot print raster fonts, regardless of the aspect ratio.


You can also purchase from other vendors raster fonts that work with Windows 95 as both screen and printer fonts, such as Adobe™ Type Manager, Bitstream® FaceLift™, Hewlett-Packard Type Director, and SoftCraft WYSI fonts!®.


Windows 95 Vector Fonts


Vector fonts are a set of lines drawn between points, similar to a pen plotter drawing a set of characters. They can be scaled to virtually any size, but generally they are not as clear as raster fonts in the sizes that raster fonts are specifically designed for.


Windows 95 provides one vector font, MODERN.FON, for compatibility with earlier applications. It is stored in the Windows SYSTEM\COLOR subdirectory. Although MODERN.FON uses the ANSI character set, it is marked internally as an OEM character set.


Vector fonts are stored as a collection of GDI calls that are time-consuming to generate. However, this font is useful for plotters and other devices with which bitmapped characters cannot be used. Before TrueType, vector fonts were also used in some applications to create large characters or characters that are rotated or distorted from the baseline.


Some applications created for Windows 95 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.


Screen and Printer Fonts


Besides the font-rendering mechanism (that is, raster, vector, or TrueType), Windows 95 fonts are described according to the output device:


    

  • Screen fonts are font descriptions that Windows 95 uses to represent characters on the display devices. (TrueType fonts, as listed on the following screen display, act as both screen and device fonts.)
    

    • 

  • Printer fonts are the font descriptions used by the printer to create a font.
    

    • 



Cc751102.rk23_19(en-us,TechNet.10).gif


Applications created for Windows 95 can use three kinds of printer fonts:


    

  • Device fonts that reside in the hardware of your printer. They can be built into the printer itself or can be provided by a font cartridge or font card.
    

    • 

  • Printable screen fonts are Windows 95 screen fonts that can be translated for output to the printer.
    

    • 

  • Downloadable soft fonts that reside on your hard disk and are sent to the printer when needed.
    

    • 



Not all printers can use all three types of printer fonts. Plotters, for example, cannot use downloadable soft fonts.


Fonts Provided for Compatibility


The user interface in Windows 95 relies on TrueType fonts. However, three fonts — System, Fixed, and OEM (or Terminal) — are installed to support display and output devices to support other applications that may require these fonts. Each of these fonts supports two display types — 8514/a (1024x768) resolution and VGA (640x480) resolution.


    

  • System is a proportional font used by default to draw menus, dialog box controls, and other text in Windows 95.
    

    • 

  • Fixed is a fixed-width font used in Windows 2.x and earlier versions as the system font (for menus and dialog boxes).
    

    • 

  • OEM font (also known as the Terminal font for United States and Europe) is a fixed-width font used, for example, to display the OEM text in the Windows 95 ClipBook Viewer. The OEM font also provides an OEM character set used by some Windows-based applications.
    

    • 



The filenames of the System, Fixed, and OEM fonts provided with Windows 95 are listed in the following table arranged by display type.












Font name


8514/a


VGA








System


8514SYS.FON


VGASYS.FON






Fixed


8514FIX.FON


VGAFIX.FON






OEM


8514OEM.FON


VGAOEM.FON







Windows 95 also provides a set of fonts for displaying MS-DOS – based applications running in a window.


By default, code page 437 (U.S.) fonts are installed. Other font files are included for international language support and are identified by the code page number appended to the filename.


The following font files are provided with the associated code page translation table files.












Font file(s)


Code page


Configuration








CGA40WOA.FON, CGA80WOA.FON, DOSAPP.FON, EGA40WOA.FON, EGA80WOA.FON


437


U.S.






APP850.FON


850


U.S.






CGA40850.FON, CGA80850.FON, EGA40850.FON, EGA80850.FON, VGA850.FON


850


Multilingual






VGA860.FON


860


Portuguese






VGA861.FON


861


Icelandic






VGA863.FON


863


French Canadian






VGA865.FON


865


Norwegian/Danish







Note: The TrueType fonts included on the Windows 95 compact disc contain approximately 650 characters that cover all the European languages. For more information about installing multilanguage support in Windows 95, see Chapter 34, "International Windows 95."


Font Matching Table


When Windows 95 uses the font mapping table to match screen fonts to printer fonts, the characteristics used to find the closest match are, in descending order of importance: the character set, the pitch (variable versus fixed), family, typeface name, height, width, weight, slant, underline, and strikethrough. The Windows 95 search algorithm for finding fonts is the same as the one in Windows 3.1. If the necessary size and bitmap are available, the algorithm proceeds in the following sequence:


    

  1. Use the font found in the printer's ROM.
    

    2. 

  2. Use the font found in the printer's cartridge slot.
    

    3. 

  3. Use the downloadable soft font.
    

    4. 

  4. Use the TrueType font.
    

    5. 



Windows 95 also includes PANOSE (panose.bin), a font matching system created by ElseWare, Inc., that is based on a numeric classification of fonts according to visual characteristics. PANOSE classifies fonts by the following:


    

  • Serif
    

    • 

  • Proportion
    

    • 

  • Contrast
    

    • 

  • Stroke Variation and Arm Type
    

    • 

  • Letterform
    

    • 

  • Midline
    

    • 

  • X-height
    

    • 



Applications use PANOSE to substitute the most appropriate available font in publications. The application searches the PANOSE database of the font numbers for the font that most closely matches the requested font.


How Fonts Are Matched in Windows 95


When an application requests characters to print or display, Windows 95 must find the appropriate font to use from among the fonts installed on your computer. Finding the font can be complex. For example, a document might contain fonts that aren't available on the current printer, or there may be more than one font with the same name installed on the computer.


Windows 95 uses the following basic rules for matching a font:


    

  • If the font is a TrueType font, then TrueType renders the character, and the result is sent to the display or to the printer.
    

    • 

  • If the font is not a TrueType font, then Windows 95 uses the font mapping table to determine the most appropriate device font to use.
    

    • 



You can also choose from among fonts by comparing similar ones in the Fonts folder.


To manually match fonts


    

  1. In Control Panel, double-click the Fonts folder.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Fonts folder, click the View menu, and then click List Fonts By Similarity.
    

    In general, if you choose a TrueType font, Windows 95 sorts the list of fonts in descending order with the least similar font listed last.
    

    3. 



The following table shows the types of Windows 95 fonts that can be printed on different kinds of printers.














Printer type


Device fonts


Raster fonts


Vector fonts


TrueType fonts








Dot matrix


X


X


–


X






HP PCL


X


–


X


X






PostScript


X


–


X


X






Plotter


X


–


X


–







Loading Fonts in Windows 95


Windows 95 no longer checks the [fonts] section in WIN.INI to load fonts. The locations for all fonts are stored only in the Registry and are automatically moved when an application created for an earlier version of Windows installs a new font in the [fonts] section of WIN.INI.


When Windows 95 starts, it loads both the raster fonts and the TrueType fonts listed in the Registry.


    

  • The raster fonts are resolution-dependent and are listed in the Registry key named Hkey_Current_Config \Display \Fonts. (This supports multiple docking scenarios for portable computers in which there can be a different resolution on the LCD screen from the one on the docking station.) The master list of all possible resolutions for raster fonts is stored in the Registry under the following key:
    

    • 



Hkey_Local_Machine \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Fontsize



    

  • The TrueType fonts are loaded from the location specified in the key:
    

    • 



Hkey_Local_Machine \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Fonts



Printer drivers, which are loaded later in the startup process, look in WIN.INI to load any available soft fonts. These fonts appear within an application's list of available fonts.


Notes: Because fonts are stored in the Registry, there is no limit to the number of TrueType fonts that can be installed. In addition, almost 1000 fonts can be used simultaneously, and the same number can be printed in the same document.


In Windows 95, the Enable TrueType Fonts option is no longer available, because the user interface depends heavily upon TrueType. Also, there is no longer a separate Font Installer. You install new fonts by adding them to the Fonts Folder.


Installing Additional Fonts


In Windows 95, fonts can be installed in your computer in several ways:


    

  • Windows 95 automatically installs TrueType and its screen fonts during Setup. When you specify a printer and other options in the Printer Setup dialog box, Windows 95 includes information about font cartridges and built-in fonts for your printer.
    

    • 

  • Install more TrueType fonts from disks. After you install TrueType fonts, you do not need to use the Fonts option in Control Panel to install them again.
    

    • 

  • Install soft fonts from other vendors on your hard disk by using the utility supplied by the manufacturer. Then use the Fonts option in Control Panel to install the fonts for Windows 95.
    

    • 

  • Install a new font cartridge in your printer.
    

    • 



For more information about adding fonts, see online Help.


Note: If a TrueType font becomes corrupted, Windows 95 detects this and marks that font as unavailable during the remainder of that Windows session and prevents it from being rendered any longer. You can choose to uninstall the font at that point.


To install cartridge fonts available to Windows-based applications


    

  • Use the installation program that came with the cartridge.
    

    – Or –
    

    • 




    

  1. If you are using an HP LaserJet or DeskJet® PCL printer, right-click the printer's icon, and in the context menu, click Properties.
    

    2. 

  2. From the printer's Fonts properties, click the Install Printer Fonts button.
    

    3. 

  3. In the HP Font Installer dialog box, select the cartridge fonts you want to install, and then click Exit. Click OK.
    

    4. 



If you use the Install Printer Fonts button to install fonts, they appear in the Cartridge list in the printer's Fonts properties. If you use another installation program, the fonts will not appear in this list, but are still available for use with Windows-based applications.


To make installed cartridge fonts available to Windows-based applications


    

  1. Make sure that the font cartridge is inserted properly in the printer.
    

    2. 

  2. Right-click the printer's icon, and in the context menu, click Properties.
    

    3. 

  3. From the printer's Fonts properties, select the cartridge fonts you want to use.
    

    4. 



Troubleshooting Printing Problems


This section describes how to identify and resolve printing problems.


Using the Online Print Troubleshooter


Windows 95 provides a Print Troubleshooter in online Help, which you should use first to resolve printing problems. If you cannot resolve the problem by using the Print Troubleshooter or other print topics in Help, check the troubleshooting procedures in this section.


Correcting Problems with Printer Installation


This section describes conditions that may interfere with installing a printer, and explains how to fix them.


No printers are listed in the Print dialog box.


If you cannot select a specific model because no list appears, verify that the printer INF file exists. The PRTUPD.INF file in the Windows INF directory stores the information displayed in the Manufacturer and Model lists.


Setup is unable to find printer driver files.


If the Add Printer wizard cannot find or access the needed printer driver files, it checks the installation drive and directory. If it cannot locate needed files, a dialog box prompts you to specify the path to the required printer driver files. You can either type the location of the printer driver files (installation source directory) or click Browse to search for the drive and directory location.


File/copy error occurs during printer installation.


If an error occurs with a file-copy operation during the installation process, the Add Printer wizard displays the specific error information, including the source and destination paths and filenames it was trying to copy when the error occurred. To continue, verify the location of the specified files, and then retry the installation.


Correcting Specific Printing Problems


This section describes problems or errors that might occur when printing, and explains how to fix them.


You cannot print to a local or network printer.


    

  • Clear the print buffer. Turn the printer's power off, wait about five seconds, then turn the printer on, and try printing again.
    

    • 

  • Try printing a test page.
    

    • 

  • Verify that there is paper in the printer, that the printer is not jammed, and that there are no problems with the printer cartridge or toner.
    

    • 

  • Trying printing to a file.
    

    • 

  • If you can print to a file, try copying the file to the printer port (for local printers).
    

    • 



To copy a file to a printer port


    

  • At the MS-DOS prompt, type
    

    • 



copy /b filename lpt1:



The switch **/b** directs the system to print a binary file.



If copying the file to the printer port prints the document correctly, the problem is in the communication between Windows 95 and the printer. Check the following (and consult your printer's documentation as needed for further information):


    

  • Check the printer, making sure it is plugged in, turned on, and online.
    

    • 

  • Check the printer's self-test program.
    

    • 

  • Check the printer connection and printer cable.
    

    • 

  • Check the printer configuration.
    

    • 



You cannot print because of a network-specific printing problem.


    

  • Make sure other network resources are available.
    

    • 

  • Try connecting over the network to the print server.
    

    • 

  • Try removing and adding network protocols.
    

    • 



If you still cannot print, the printer driver might not be working correctly.


You cannot print because of a printer driver.


To check the printer driver in the Printers Folder


    

  1. Right-click the printer's icon, click Properties, and then click Details.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Details properties, verify that the driver name is correct.
    

    Click the Paper tab, and then click the About button. Verify that the driver version is the same as the one listed in the manual from the printer manufacturer.
    

      

    • Try printing using another printer driver. For example, use the Generic/Text Only or Generic Laser Printer driver. If this works, check the driver version, and either reinstall or upgrade the driver.
      

      • 

    • Try printing from the MS-DOS command prompt to determine whether the description for the printer driver in the Registry is invalid.
      

      • 

    

    3. 



To fix the Registry description for the printer driver


    

  • Remove the current printer driver and reinstall it.
    • 



If you still cannot print, an application might be conflicting with the printer driver.


You cannot print because of an application conflict.


    

  1. Try printing from a different application.
    

    2. 

  2. If successful, check the failing application's configuration, and reinstall the application if needed.
    

    3. 



If you still cannot print, determine whether you have a spooling problem.


You cannot print because of spooler problems.


To disable all spooling and print directly to the port


    

  1. In the Printers Folder, right-click the printer's icon, click Properties, and then click Details.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Details properties, click Spool Settings.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Spool Settings dialog box, click Print Directly To The Printer.
    

    4. 



If you can print, there is a spooling problem; do the following to correct it:


    

  • Use scandisk to check disk integrity and disk space.
    

    • 

  • Disable EMF spooling and enable RAW spooling, as described in "Enhanced Metafile Spooling Support" earlier in this chapter, and then retry printing. EMF spooling is enabled by default for all non-PostScript printers.
    

    • 



You cannot print to a printer shared using a server from a network vendor other than Microsoft.


Redirect LPT1 to the shared printer, and then run the Add Printer wizard to set up the printer on LPT1. For example, if a network printer is connected to LPT1, type the following at the MS-DOS prompt:


netuse lpt1: \\servername\sharename 



This command depends on the network you are using; consult network documentation to find out how to redirect an LPT port, and then use the Add Printer wizard in Control Panel to set up the printer on the LPT port.


You cannot access remote NetWare servers when making a dial-up connection.


This problem occurs when the computer making the remote connection is also running File and Print Sharing for NetWare Networks. In this case, the File and Printer Sharing service automatically becomes the default server, but it cannot receive the information needed to find the remote servers. To avoid this problem, disable File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks before you make the dial-up connection.


You cannot print because of a bidirectional printer problem.


To disable bidirectional printing support in the Printers folder


    

  1. Double-click a printer's icon, click Properties, and then click Details.
    

    2. 

  2. In the Details properties, click Spool Settings.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Spool Settings dialog box, click Disable Bi-Directional Support For This Printer.
    

    4. 



If you can now print successfully, make sure you have a 1284-compliant printer cable.


Graphic images don't print correctly or output is garbled.


    

  • Start the computer in Safe Mode, and then retry printing.
    

    • 

  • Disable Enhanced Metafile spooling.
    

    • 

  • Print with a PostScript driver, if supported by the printer. If this prints, then the problem is a UNIDRV.DLL error.
    

    • 

  • If PostScript fails, there's either a problem with the GDI or with the application. To verify that it is an application problem try printing another file or try printing from another application.
    

    • 

  • Try printing shorter jobs or fewer jobs at a time. If you are printing a long document or several documents, the spooler may be printing one page over another.
    

    • 

  • If the graphic is in PostScript (EPS) format, try copying the PostScript file to the printer.
    

    • 

  • For a PostScript printer, try changing from vector-graphics to raster-graphics mode. Raster-graphics mode uses less memory.
    

    • 



The printer partially prints pages.


    

  • If the printed page is missing part of a graphic image, this may mean that the printer has insufficient memory. To check for insufficient printer memory, try reducing print resolution.
    

    • 

  • Try printing the same graphic image from a different document and application.
    

    • 

  • Check the printable region by running a print test from the printer.
    

    • 

  • If the printed page is missing a section of text, check the font that is used, and verify that the font is valid and correctly installed (check the Fonts folder).
    

    • 

  • Try printing from a different document with the same font.
    

    • 

  • Try printing from the same document with a different font.
    

    • 

  • Try enabling Print TrueType As Graphics.
    

    • 

  • Try simplifying the page by reducing the number of objects, such as lines, or reduce the number of fonts.
    

    • 



Printing is slower than normal.


    

  • Start the computer in Safe Mode, and then retry printing.
    

    • 

  • Verify that EMF spooling is enabled.
    

    • 



You can also try the following:


    

  • Use the Disk Defragmenter utility to check for excessive hard disk fragmentation, and defragment the hard disk drive.
    

    • 

  • Check for available disk space for temporary files.
    

    • 

  • Check for available system resources.
    

    • 

  • Check the printer driver and reinstall it, if necessary.
    

    • 

  • Disable the option to send TrueType fonts as bitmaps, as described in the following procedure.
    

    • 



To disable printing TrueType fonts as bitmaps


    

  1. Right-click the printer's icon, and then click Properties.
    

    2. 

  2. Click Fonts, and then click Send Fonts As.
    

    3. 

  3. In the Send Fonts As dialog box, click Outlines, and then click OK.
    

    4. 



The computer stalls while printing.


To troubleshoot a computer that stalls while printing to a local printer


    

  1. Start the computer in Safe Mode, and then retry printing.
    

    2. 

  2. Check the printer driver version and reinstall the printer driver if needed.
    

    3. 

  3. Check the video driver, and reinstall the video driver if needed.
    

    4. 

  4. Check for adequate free disk space on the TEMP drive.
    

    5. 

  5. Delete residual spool files, and then retry printing. (See the procedure named "To Clear Residual Spool Files" later in this section.)
    

    6. 



To troubleshoot a computer that stalls while printing to a network printer


    

  1. Start the computer in Safe Mode with network support.
    

    2. 

  2. Try all but the first task in the preceding procedure.
    

    3. 



You send a document to the printer, but nothing is printed.


    

  • Check that the system has enough free hard disk space.
    

    • 

  • You may need to disable Enhanced Metafile spooling.
    

    • 

  • Check that the spooler has cleared the unprinted spool file.
    

    • 



To clear residual spool files


    

  1. Delete spool jobs by deleting .SPL files in the Windows SYSTEM\SPOOL\PRINTERS directory.
    

    For RAW print jobs, .SPL files contain the actual printer data. For EMF print jobs, the .SPL files contain a list of EMFs that reside in the TEMP directory.
    

    2. 

  2. Check the TEMP directory and delete all .TMP files. All EMFs have filenames similar to EMFxxxxx.TMP.
    

    3. 

  3. Shut down and restart the computer, and then try printing again. Windows 95 cleans up corrupted .SPL files and their corresponding EMFs when you restart the computer.
    

    4. 



Note: An error message may appear, although it may be hidden behind other windows, when you print from a Win32-based application in Windows 95. Press ALT+TAB to bring this message box to the foreground of your desktop.


Troubleshooting Font Errors


This section describes problems with fonts that may occur and explains how to fix them.


Fonts do not print correctly.


To ensure that fonts are installed correctly


    

  1. Double-click the Fonts icon in Control Panel, and make sure the fonts are installed.
    

    2. 

  2. Double-click the font's icon, and then click Print.
    

    3. 



You can also try the following:


    

  • Print using a different font.
    

    • 

  • Print a different document using the same font.
    

    • 

  • Print with a different application using the same font.
    

    • 

  • Print to a different printer using the same font.
    

    • 

  • Verify the printer driver version, size, and date.
    

    • 

  • Try using a printer-resident font.
    

    • 

  • Print to a file, and then copy the file to a port to see if the driver or the spooler is causing the problem. For example:
    

    • 



copy test.prn /b lpt1:



(where test.prn is the filename)



    

  • If the printer supports PostScript and PCL, try printing in each format.
    

    • 

  • If it is a TrueType font, enable Print TrueType As Graphics.
    

    • 

  • Print with a different mini-driver, such as the Generic/TTY.
    

    • 



When printed, fonts appear distorted or unreadable.


    

  • In the application, change to Print Preview mode to see if the fonts appear correct on-screen.
    

    • 

  • Change the font size to see if the problem recurs with a larger or smaller font.
    

    • 

  • Use a different font to see if the original font is corrupted.
    

    • 

  • Check printer resolution. Most non-TrueType fonts are optimized for 300 dpi or greater.
    

    • 

  • Cut and paste the formatted text into another application and print it. If the font errors still occur, the problem may be related to the specific font.
    

    • 

  • Load a PostScript driver and select Download As TrueType. If the job prints correctly, the problem was with the printer driver or UNIDRV.DLL. Otherwise, the problem is probably in the GDI.
    

    • 

  • Check printer memory. If the image is large, you may need more memory.
    

    • 

  • For a laser printer, enable the option named Send Font As to print TrueType fonts as bitmaps.
    

    • 



When printed, fonts overlap.


    

  • Try different resolutions, using the same printer. If a higher or lower print resolution works, the printer driver is probably at fault. Try using another printer driver.
    

    Note: If the problem persists with more than one printer driver, the problem is likely to be at the GDI level.
    

    • 

  • For a laser printer, enable the option named Send Font As to print TrueType fonts as bitmaps, as described earlier.
    

    • 

  • Try printing the same information with a different font.
    

    • 



Fonts do not print properly when underlined or strikethrough text is selected.


    

  • Try a different application with the same font.
    

    • 

  • Print in a different orientation (that is, if portrait, change to landscape).
    

    • 

  • For a laser printer, enable the option named Send Font As to print TrueType fonts as bitmaps, as described earlier.
    

    • 



You cannot convert Type1 fonts to TrueType fonts in the Fonts folder.


Windows 95 does not support this capability. Type1 fonts will work with Windows 95, but you need to install ATM ™ to manage them on the screen and install them for a printer.


Fonts are clipped when printed.


    

  • Recheck the printable region by running a print test from the printer. (Usually, there is a test button on the printer; press this to run a test.) Adjust the paper orientation if you can.
    

    • 

  • For a laser printer, enable the option named Send Font As to print TrueType fonts as bitmaps, as described earlier.
    

    • 

  • Check the printer memory settings for the driver and printer. If you are printing large images, the printer memory may be insufficient; try printing small images.
    

    • 



Some parts of a TrueType font are rotated, but other parts are not.


    

  • If this occurs because the printer can only print 180-degree and 90-degree rotation (not odd-degree rotations), redefine the degrees of rotation for the image.
    

    • 

  • For a laser printer, enable the option named Send Font As to print TrueType fonts as bitmaps, as described earlier.
    

    • 

  • If the problem is font-related, try using another character set, or download TrueType fonts to the printer, and then try again.
    

    • 



TrueType fonts do not display in an MS-DOS window.


Sometimes changing the displayed font to a TrueType font in an MS-DOS window does not change the font on the screen. TrueType fonts cannot be displayed in an MS-DOS window if the MS-DOS–based application is running in graphics mode. To work around this problem, run the MS-DOS–based application in text mode and use bitmap fonts in the MS-DOS window.


To change the font used in an MS-DOS window


    

  1. In the MS-DOS window, click the MS-DOS icon in the upper-left corner of the window (or press ALT + SPACEBAR).
    

    2. 

  2. Click Properties, and then click the Font tab.
    

    3. 

  3. Under Available types, click Both Font Types.
    

    4. 

  4. Click the Font size you want to display, and then click OK.
    

    5. 



You can distinguish TrueType fonts by the "TT" designation; fonts without this designation are bitmap fonts.


Tip If you print a document to a file, you can change it to print to a printer. At the MS-DOS prompt, type copy filename.ext /b prn