When fonts requested by the job are unavailable to the RIP, some work flows benefit significantly from being able to produce acceptable, readable copy using another font. This is particularly true with rapid turnaround work flows typical of digital printing. To achieve this, emulated fonts are used to produce suitable facsimile text based on the characteristics of the font that is being emulated in terms of style, spacing, height and width. In this way, a suitable readable font with similar characteristics of the target font is used in the place of a missing font.
Font Emulation is often acceptable when digital printing, and can be preferable to the file not being produced at all.
Font Emulation has the following characteristics:
The ability to recognize the missing font by name A database of style, spacing, height and width for each font name The database currently contains over 1600 specified fonts Font Emulation only supports the standard Latin characters Important note : Please be aware that when using Font Emulation you may not get exactly the output you expect. It is highly recommended that you proof any files containing emulated fonts before starting a print run.
The following characters can be emulated:Figure 1 Serif glyphs in font emulation Figure 2 Serif Italic glyphs in font emulationFigure 3 Sans Serif glyphs in font emulation Figure 4 Sans Serif Italic glyphs in font emulation
Font Emulation is enabled by checking the Enable font emulation option in the Page Setup Options dialog.
CODE
/GGFontEmulation /ProcSet findresource /Emulate get exec Note : When operated through the GUI, the Page setup file (which is parsed by procset/HqnPageSetupConf) can contain /FontEmulation true in the /Options dict which causes the above line to be called.
Once enabled, Font Emulation currently catches references to over 1600 fonts. The type of font that can be emulated is not important because fonts are matched by name. If the font name is in the database the font can be emulated.
Note : Fonts are matched by name for all supported font types. CID Fonts are not supported by font emulation at this time.
If a request for a font returns an error, or anything other than the requested font, Font Emulation first looks up the font name in the FontEmulation dictionary, and then, if necessary, may go on to look up the font in the supplied database on disk.
If Font Emulation fails to emulate a font (for whatever reason), the RIP will behave as if Font Emulation had not been switched on. That is, if the RIP is configured to abort jobs when a font is missing, the job will abort; if the RIP is configured to substitute Courier for the missing font, Courier will be used.
There are two situations when fonts are emulated these are: when the font requested is not found or when a font error occurs. The following sections describe the two scenarios:
Font Emulation will be used for PostScript language and PDF files if:
The required font is not embedded in the job and The required font is not installed in the RIP and The required font is not handled explicitly by font substitution. Font Emulation will only regard font substitution as successful if the font name returned by any substitution is exactly the same name as the requested font. There‐ fore, in most cases Font Emulation will override font substitution. If however Font Emulation fails, the font previously selected for substitution will be used. Font Emulation is enabled and The required font is not disabled in /SW/Config/FontEmulation file and The required font is defined or aliased in /SW/Config/FontEmulation or defined in the Font Emulation database, or the file is a PDF file. Font Emulation will be used for PostScript language and PDF files if:
A font error is encountered attempting to use a font embedded in a job or installed in the RIP (this includes the error produced when selecting Abort the job if any fonts are missing in the Page Setup Options window) and Font Emulation is enabled and The required font is not disabled in /SW/Config/FontEmulation file and The required font is defined or aliased in /SW/Config/FontEmulation or defined in the Font Emulation database, or the file is a PDF file. Note : PDF files usually include a PDF FontDescriptor for each font required by the PDF file, even for fonts which are not embedded. If Font Emulation is employed for a PDF file, the FontDescriptor in that PDF file will be used in place of the emulation data in the RIP. Also, the FontDescriptor can be used even if the font is not defined in the Font Emulation database or /SW/Config/FontEmulation file.
When a missing font is successfully emulated the following message appears:
CODE
%%[ Warning: Font <...> emulated. ]%% Note: <...> is the name of the missing font.
If Font Emulationʹs attempt to get the required font returned an error, and the font is
CODE
%%[ Error: Font <...> not found. (Emulation unknown) ]%% However, if the font returned is not what was asked for (for example, Courier), and the
CODE
%%[ Warning: Font <...> not found. (Emulation unknown) ]%% That is, if a font is missing and it cannot be emulated, an error is only generated with
If the missing font cannot be found in FontEmulation or the database, the following message
CODE
%%[ Error: Font <...> not found. (Emulation not known)]%% If emulation is switched off for a particular font, the following message appears:
CODE
%%[ Error: Font <...> not found. (Emulation disabled)]%% If there is an error in the Font Emulation dictionary the following message appears:
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%%[ Error: FontEmulation syntax /<...> invalid value. ]%% In the unlikely event of an internal emulation font being replaced by a normal font, the
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%%[ Error: Font <...> not found. (FontEmulation installation}]%%
Table 1 lists the fonts that can be emulated. Please note that this list relates only to PostScript language files. Emulation is attempted on all fonts requiring emulation within PDF files.
The number at the end of the name is the emulation font number:
0—Serif 1—Serif‐Italic 2—Sans 3—Sans‐Oblique 4—Type 5—Type‐Oblique 6—Script
Aachen-Bold 4
AGaramond-Italic 1
AmericanTypewriter-CondA 4
Auriol-BlackItalic 1
BakerSignet 0
Bembo-BoldItalicExpert 1
BenguiatGothic-HeavyOblique 3
Bookman-DemiItalic 1
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
Caecilia-Bold 4
CaslonOpenFace 0
Centennial-Roman 0
Cheltenham-Ultra 0
Delphin-I 0
DidotLH-Initials 0
DINMittelschrift-Alternate 2
Diotima-RomanSC 0
Eccentric 4
ElectraLH-BoldSC 0
EllingtonMT 0
Eurostile-BoldCondensed 2
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
FairfieldLH-Bold 0
Fenice-RegularOblique 1
FranklinGothic-DemiCmprItal 2
Frutiger-Light 2
Galahad-Alternate 2
GaramondThree-Italic 1
Giovanni-BlackItalic 1
GoudySans-Book 0
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
Hadriano-Bold 0
HelveticaNeue-BlackExt 2
HelveticaNeue-LightCondObl 2
HelveticaRounded-Bold 2
Impact 2
InflexMT-Bold 0
Italia-Medium 4
ItcEras-Light 2
JansonText-Bold 0
JansonText-Italic 1
JoannaMT-Bold 0
JoannaMT-SemiBold 0
Kabel-Black 2
Kaufmann 6
Korinna-Bold 2
KuenstlerScript-Medium 6
LatinMT-Condensed 0
LegacySerif-Medium 0
LinoLetter-Italic 5
LubalinGraph-Demi 4
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
Machine-Bold 2
MendozaRoman-BookItalic 1
Minion-RegularSC 0
Minister-BookItalic 1
NeueHammerUnziale-One 6
NewBaskerville-Bold 0
NewCaledonia-Italic 1
NewsGothic 2
OCRA-Alternate 4
OfficinaSans-Book 2
Olympian-Italic 1
Optima-ExtraBlack 2
PalaceScriptMT-SemiBold 6
ParkAvenue 6
Perpetua 0
Plantin 0
Quorum-Black 0
Quorum-Book 0
Quorum-Medium 0
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
Raleigh-Bold 0
Rockwell-LightItalic 5
RotisSansSerif-Italic 3
RotisSerif-Bold 0
Sabon-Bold 0
Serpentine-Light 2
Souvenir-Medium 0
StempelSchneidler-Roman 4
Tekton-Bold 2
Times-BoldItalicOsF 1
TimesNewRomanPS-Italic 1
TradeGothic-Light 2
Univers-Black 2
Univers-ExtendedObl 2
Usherwood-Black 0
Utopia-ItalicOsF 1
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
VAGRounded-Black 2
VectoraLH-BoldItalic 3
Veljovic-Bold 0
Versailles-BlackItalic 1
Weidemann-Black 4
Weidemann-MediumItalic 5
WilhelmKlingsporGotisch 0
Willow 0
ZapfChancery-Bold 6
ZapfChancery-Italic 6
ZapfChancery-LightItalic 6
ZapfChancery-Roman 6
Table 1 Emulated Fonts (PostScript language files only)
You are able to add to or modify the Font Emulation database using the file SW/Config/FontEmulation:
Aliasing of a font in the database so an identical font with a different name can be emulated. Switching Font Emulation off for a specified font. This is useful if a corporate logo is using a font in the database. Override a font definition in the database. Add a new font definition to the database. Modifying the Font Emulation file requires some knowledge of the PostScript language.
Note : If Font Emulation fails to emulate a font (for whatever reason), the RIP will behave as if Font Emulation was not enabled. Therefore, if the RIP is configured to abort jobs when there is a font missing, the job will abort; if the RIP is configured to substitute Courier for the missing font, Courier will be used.
Note : Font names are case sensitive.
This Font Emulation configuration file can be found in the following location:
/SW/Config/FontEmulation
A font in the database can have emulation specifically disabled for it. This is important for corporate fonts that must only be produced in their original form.
To disable a specific font from using font emulation, use:
/TheFontName false
where /TheFontName is the font name for which you wish to disable font emulation.
For example:
This line will remove the font /Caslon from font emulation.
A font in the Font Emulation database can be aliased so that an identical font with a different name can be emulated. To do this use:
/MyFontName /DatabaseFontName
where /MyFontName is the name of font you want to use in place of the font currently in the database /DatabaseFontName.For example:
/AmericanaQuiteBold /Americana-Bold
This line will substitute the font /AmericanaQuiteBold with /Americana-Bold. This is allowed as long as /Americana-Bold is in the database.
To override a database font with an updated definition of that font, or add new fonts to the font emulation database, you can use the following: /Willow <0123...734873>/MyNewFont <903843...9823492>This will updated the font called /Willow and add a new font called /MyNewFont.
