The Neodynamic.SDK.Printing.Font class is used with the Neodynamic.SDK.Printing.TextItem and Neodynamic.SDK.Printing.BarcodeItem objects and it determines how the characters' glyph looks like.

The Font class supports:

• Native Printer Fonts (NPF)
• Installed Windows TTF Fonts
• Custom TTF Font files i.e. Non-installed fonts

The NPF is an abstraction on the complexity of dealing with different built-in printer fonts when printing simple text on labels while targeting both kinds of printers i.e. ZPL and EPL printers. The NPF provides you three fonts called NativePrinterFontA, NativePrinterFontB and NativePrinterFontS.

Basically, each of these fonts are provided by our SDK as TrueType (*.ttf) font files which need to be installed on the client machine where the SDK is being used. The TrueType fonts are used by our SDK when exporting labels to PDF documents or image files and by the ThermalLabelEditor component for displaying such font on items using the NPF. For printing process, the NPF TrueType files are not used as our SDK uses the built-in ZPL/EPL fonts that are internally associated to each NPF.

TIP: NPF has some limitations when comparing it to non-built in fonts, but you should use NPF whenever possible to boost the printing performance. If your text does not require any special formatting, then use a NPF for printing it.

The following table provides some info about the features that each of the NPF does support.

FEATURE	NativePrinterFontA	NativePrinterFontB	NativePrinterFontS
Font Type	Monospaced	- Scalable for ZPL - Monospaced for EPL	Monospaced
Fixed Sizes (in pts) – Measure of the upper-case chars height	5pt, 10pt, 15pt, 20pt, and 25pt	7pt, 14pt, 21pt, 28pt, and 35pt	3pt (Only this size is allowed. Intended to be used with very small text)
Font Style	Normal	Bold	Normal
Characters Set	- All ASCII chars from 32 to 124 excluding the following chars: 92, 94 & 123	- All ASCII chars from 32 to 124 excluding the following chars: 92, 94 & 123	- ASCII chars from 65 to 90 (upper-case letters) and from 48 to 57 (digits)
Unicode Support	NO	NO	NO
Text Stretching	NO	NO	NO
Rotation	0, 90, 180 & 270 degrees only	0, 90, 180 & 270 degrees only	0, 90, 180 & 270 degrees only
Rounded Borders	NO	NO	NO
Multi-line Text	NO	NO	NO
TrueType file matching	NativePrinterFontA.ttf glyphs are almost a perfect match to both ZPL/EPL font glyphs.	NativePrinterFontB.ttf glyphs are almost a perfect match to the ZPL font glyphs.  For EPL printers, the font is very different and you should try it before going forward.	NativePrinterFontS.ttf glyphs are almost a perfect match to both ZPL/EPL font glyphs.
Char Glyph Appearance

Screen/File Rendering vs. Printing Output

When using any of the NPF, you should be aware of the following regarding what you will get on screen or file and what you will get when printing:

• NativePrinterFontA
  • The NativePrinterFontA.ttf file features almost identical characters’ glyph that matches the same built-in fonts of ZPL and EPL. This TrueType font will be used when you export/save a label to PDF documents or Image files.
  • When printing, both built-in fonts of ZPL and EPL will produce almost identical outputs if using 203 dpi printers. For EPL, the outputs at 300 or 600 dpi will be identical to the output at 203 dpi. But for ZPL, the outputs at 300 or 600 dpi will differ a bit from the output you get at 203 dpi. For ZPL printers at 300 or 600 dpi, you will notice that the font used in those printers features characters glyph which look a bit thinner (in their strokes) than the one used at 203 dpi. However, in ALL cases, the height and width of the characters will be very close.
• NativePrinterFontB
  • The NativePrinterFontB.ttf file features almost identical characters’ glyph that matches the same built-in font of ZPL printers only. The built-in font used in EPL printers, features characters glyph that are very different from the one we did choose for ZPL. This TrueType font will be used when you export/save a label to PDF documents or Image files.
  • This NPF can be considered the “Bold” version. Problem is that in ZPL the font we did choose is “Scalable” while the one used for EPL is “Bitmapped”. When printing, the outputs produced by both built-in fonts of ZPL and EPL are VERY different because their nature i.e. Scalable vs. Bitmapped. What we’ve tried here was to match both fonts in their characters height. So, if you want or need to use a “bold” native printer font, then this is the correct one. If you are targeting just ZPL printers, then you will not have any problems at all. However, if you need to target EPL or both (EPL & ZPL), then we encourage you to make some test before going forward with this NPF. Remember that on screen or file rendering, the NativePrinterFontB.ttf TrueType file matches the ZPL built-in font NOT the EPL one.
• NativePrinterFontS
  • The NativePrinterFontS.ttf file features almost identical characters’ glyph that matches the same built-in fonts of ZPL and EPL. This TrueType font will be used when you export/save a label to PDF documents or Image files.
  • When printing, both built-in fonts of ZPL and EPL will produce almost identical outputs.

Any TrueType font installed in the client can be used with the Font class on Neodynamic.SDK.Printing.TextItem and Neodynamic.SDK.Printing.BarcodeItem objects. With these kinds of fonts you can use all the rich text features available like full Unicode support, RTL languages, text stretching, text alignments, etc.

The custom TTF approach has the same text features as the Installed Windows TTF fonts but do not require you install the TTF on the client system. Instead, you can deploy the TTF file with your application and use the font’s path file. It is useful if you want to use dingbats fonts which you do not want to install on the client machine before using them.