Some Basic Facts about Fonts5-8Appendix5Character Width (Fixed and PS)Each character has a different width from all the other characters in a font at a givenpoint size. For example, “W” is a wider letter than “I.” There are two ways to printletters of different widths: you can print all letters with the same spacing, regardlessof their actual width; or you can change the spacing between letters toaccommodate these different widths. Printing all letters with the same spacing iscalled “Fixed spacing,” while changing the spacing to accommodate different letterwidths is called “Proportional spacing.”Because the Fixed spacing method prints all letters with the same spacing, thenumber of characters which will fit into a given length is a fixed quantity which canbe specified.If the characters are printed with Proportional spacing, then the number ofcharacters that will fit into an inch varies depending on the letters printed.OrientationOrientation refers to the direction of printing. The printer function can print usingtwo different paper orientations: portrait and landscape. With portrait orientation,text is printed across the width of the paper (short edge), and with landscapeorientation, text is printed across the length of the paper (long edge).
