PostScript Font display weirdness

[Dan]

I've not encountered this with other PostScript printers and Frame, but it's
driving me nuts! FrameMaker's paid tech support was less than useless (sure
am glad I'm paying for that contract).

FrameMaker 7.1 under XP Pro.
HP 2550PS Color Laser (PostScript Level 3) set as default printer; font
substitution set to "Download as SoftFont" rather than "Substitute With
Device Font".

Working with some legacy documents (created using other printers as
default). The PostScript font family Univers Condensed is causing me no end
of anguish.

Please bear with me, as the behavior is tough to describe:

It's as if Frame is using one set of information for how wide the characters
are and where lines break, and another for actually displaying the font on
screen. The lines of text look much shorter on the screen than they actually
are when printed. Also, when manipulating text box borders (expanding or
contracting the length of the line to see where lines break), it is clear
that FrameMaker is using the longer information for widths and line breaks,
why it is not for display I have no idea. Trying to gauge true appearance on
the screen is a crap shoot.

If I set Adobe PDF as my default, what I see on the screen matches what
appears in the PDF (if I go that route), but if I attempt to print out of
FrameMaker to the HP, everything reflows.

Frame Support's advice: "Screen representation within Frame is really only a
guesstimate anyway. Don't print directly from FrameMaker. Always make PDFs
and then open and print those."

I don't like that option. It's cumbersome and a royal pain in the ass,
especially when it comes to simply printing out revised single pages. I
don't want to have to make a PDF every damned time I want to print out a
single page.

Any suggestions? If more information is needed please let me know.

Thanks,

-Dan

[Neil Gould]

Recently, Dan <***@revenue-collector.com> posted:
(mostly snipped for brevity)

Post by Dan
[...]
It's as if Frame is using one set of information for how wide the
characters are and where lines break, and another for actually
displaying the font on screen. The lines of text look much shorter on
the screen than they actually are when printed.

[...]

There is a parameter in the MAKER.INI file under the FONTS area which can
be set to accommodate this. To get what you want, the line should read:

DisplayUsingPrinterMetrics=On

Regards,

[Dan]

That's it! I remembered there being an option or setting to control this,
because I had done it a few years back, but the support folks at Frame had
no clue.

Thanks!

-Dan

Post by Neil Gould
(mostly snipped for brevity)

Post by Dan
[...]
It's as if Frame is using one set of information for how wide the
characters are and where lines break, and another for actually
displaying the font on screen. The lines of text look much shorter on
the screen than they actually are when printed.

[...]
There is a parameter in the MAKER.INI file under the FONTS area which can
DisplayUsingPrinterMetrics=On
Regards,
--
Neil Gould
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Technical Graphics & Media