Hi all! Thanks in advance for any advice you can throw at me.
The company I work for uses an old DOS based program on a Win2k3 server, printing data from various network printers and local printers around all of their offices. A bank that they do business has requested the font type and size that their checks are printed in, however the folks who actually support this DOS based program are no help what-so-ever and say that it's decided by the printer...
At first I thought, "uh... yah...sure thing boss *snicker*" but then I started thinking, "well... maybe there's just some sort of random setting that I haven't had to tweak in years and years and he is right in a way." Needless to say, I have yet to find anything that proves that when you print from a DOS application the font is decided by the printer, however I just want to make sure. IS there a way to setup a printer that's only using the manufacturer's driver to override the font? Even if there is, wouldn't there be an easier way to set that up within' DOS? Not to mention... how on earth could I setup a printer with basic drivers to automatically switch from using one font for a certain app to using another font for a different app? Obviously I don't want to use Courier 10pt font for everything I print!
Anyways, any help would be lovely. We've been battling it out with these guys for years now and I've always been annoyed at their ability to be absolutely sure about what the issue is, and yet have no idea how to actually resolve it. As a technician of any caliber that would make me pretty ashamed.
"Sean.May" <Sean.May.3bulge@no.email.invalid> wrote in message
news:Sean.May.3bulge@no.email.invalid...
> The company I work for uses an old DOS based program on a Win2k3
> server, printing data from various network printers and local printers
> around all of their offices. A bank that they do business has requested
> the font type and size that their checks are printed in, however the
> folks who actually support this DOS based program are no help
> what-so-ever and say that it's decided by the printer...
This is a half-truth. In the DOS era:
1. Each printer offered a default font. Most printers had a
repertoire of half a dozen faults, each turned on and off by
an ESCape command. (The Epson and HP command sets
became in time industry standards.) Some brands (e.g. HP)
offered extra fonts in hardware, viz. printer cartridges.
Documentation usually used the word "emulation" for the
repertoire of two to four standard settings, e.g. Brother
printers could emulate Epson FX80 and HP LJ2 printers.
2. Each DOS application required its own printer driver
(custom software) for each printer. In order to print at
all you had to set up your WordStar WP and your
Perfect File database apps separately, each customized
under its own rules for your brand of printer.
> how on earth could I setup a printer
> with basic drivers to automatically switch from using one font for a
> certain app to using another font for a different app? Obviously I
> don't want to use Courier 10pt font for everything I print!
Para. 2 answers your question. Complexities added by
current hardware are (a) DOS capacity of individual printers,
which is now rare: e.g. Brother Co. now sells a couple of
dozen models of printer but only two or three have DOS
capacity built in. (b) Printing via network, probably
transparent if problem (a) can be solved.
Each printer still has its default font (which is why we
can TYPE to the printer even under Windows.) Some
printers still offer two or more fonts, selected by an
ESC command or something similar, as if they still
printed line by line. But all Windows printers are
"page printers," i.e. compose a page at a time in
memory and print it like a picture, even if the page
content is text.
Windows set out from version 3 to avoid the need
for multiple separate installations of DOS apps, by
configuring printer controls into the operating system,
and software applications as well, so that the OS
controlled printing (and not each separate app
individually.) This is one of the reasons Windows
prefers graphical format (and page printing) to
command line format (and line printing.) WinXP
offfers "compatibility" options that make apps
believe they are running under Win95 rather than
a more modern OS, which solves some problems:
but continued use of DOS apps still tries to force
a round CLI peg into a square GUI hole.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
On Jun 30, 2:43 pm, Sean.May <Sean.May.3bu...@no.email.invalid> wrote:
> Hi all! Thanks in advance for any advice you can throw at me.
>
> The company I work for uses an old DOS based program on a Win2k3
> server, printing data from various network printers and local printers
> around all of their offices. A bank that they do business has requested
> the font type and size that their checks are printed in, however the
> folks who actually support this DOS based program are no help
> what-so-ever and say that it's decided by the printer...
>
> At first I thought, "uh... yah...sure thing boss *snicker*" but then I
> started thinking, "well... maybe there's just some sort of random
> setting that I haven't had to tweak in years and years and he is right
> in a way." Needless to say, I have yet to find anything that proves
> that when you print from a DOS application the font is decided by the
> printer, however I just want to make sure. IS there a way to setup a
> printer that's only using the manufacturer's driver to override the
> font? Even if there is, wouldn't there be an easier way to set that up
> within' DOS? Not to mention... how on earth could I setup a printer
> with basic drivers to automatically switch from using one font for a
> certain app to using another font for a different app? Obviously I
> don't want to use Courier 10pt font for everything I print!
>
> Anyways, any help would be lovely. We've been battling it out with
> these guys for years now and I've always been annoyed at their ability
> to be absolutely sure about what the issue is, and yet have no idea how
> to actually resolve it. As a technician of any caliber that would make
> me pretty ashamed.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Edit: changed title to better fit problem
Unfortunately Courier is what you get. I used to do graphics with DOS
programs, fonts are hard with DOS. You either have the fonts built
into the program or the program has to be designed to get outside
fonts. Here we are not talking about TTF or even Adobe fonts, though
they may have had some, but fonts designed for DOS programs. The ones
I used the most were made by Bitstream. You are at the mercy of the
original programer and did they write the program to accept fonts.
> The company I work for uses an old DOS based program on a Win2k3
> server, printing data from various network printers and local printers
> around all of their offices. A bank that they do business has requested
> the font type and size that their checks are printed in, however the
> folks who actually support this DOS based program are no help
> what-so-ever and say that it's decided by the printer...
>
> At first I thought, "uh... yah...sure thing boss *snicker*" but then I
> started thinking, "well... maybe there's just some sort of random
> setting that I haven't had to tweak in years and years and he is right
> in a way." Needless to say, I have yet to find anything that proves
> that when you print from a DOS application the font is decided by the
> printer, however I just want to make sure. IS there a way to setup a
> printer that's only using the manufacturer's driver to override the
> font? Even if there is, wouldn't there be an easier way to set that up
> within' DOS? Not to mention... how on earth could I setup a printer
> with basic drivers to automatically switch from using one font for a
> certain app to using another font for a different app? Obviously I
> don't want to use Courier 10pt font for everything I print!
As Don Phillipson wrote, the printer has a default font which is used
when the printer receives plain ASCII data.
On some printers this default font can be selected by hardware
switch(es).
But the printing app (or its driver) can issue an Esc sequence to switch
to a specific font which overrides the default and the setting by the
hardware switch(es).
So it depends whether the DOS application sends Esc sequences to the
printer or not.
If it does, you will have to modify the DOS app to get another font.
If it doesn't (and also does not send the "reset printer" Esc sequence
at the start of the print job), you may be able to change the printer's
default font by hardware switch or by sending an Esc sequence before the
DOS app starts sending to the printer.
> A bank that they do business has requested
> the font type and size that their checks are printed in,
if they mean a particular Windows font (like OCR-B for example), then
you may want to have a look at Printfil to capture the DOS generated
checks and automatically forward them to a Windows printer after
converting the job from text to GDI, with your preferred Windows font.
Davide Guolo
aSwIt s.r.l.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Printfil - Windows Printing System for Applications http://www.printfil.com
Odbc4All - Connection to ODBC Data Sources for any Application http://www.aswit.com/odbc4all
@Kill - Batch Close Windows Applications - Freeware http://www.aswit.com/akill
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DOS Default Print Font? 
Linear Mode
