An Introduction to Prepress Technology

3. Fonts

Abstract

Fonts for printing are available in either analog or digital form. Analog fonts mean to use conventional optical methods to scale the fonts, while digital fonts to use computers to handle them. Digital fonts have many advantages in computerized pre-press systems since all fonts are stored in computers. Recent development of computer software to create digital fonts has facilitated the development of a number of digital Kanji fonts. It unburdened font developers from time-consuming tasks, and accelerated the move toward integrating characters and digital images. There are many characters each of which is expressed by fonts in various shapes with subtle differences. These shapes in each Kanji font have a long history behind them, and can not be easily disregarded. Printing companies have been responsive to the demand of customers by providing a variety of fonts which include fonts unlisted in JIS.