A Little Windows Font History

In this chapter, I'll explain a bit about font technology, how to add and remove fonts from your system, how to choose and use fonts wisely, how to procure new fonts, how to create fonts of your own, and how fonts interact with Internet Explorer.

Microsoft continues the move toward improved font management in Windows XP. As in Windows 9x, NT, and 2000, when you open the Control Panel and choose Fonts, a Fonts folder opens. (In reality, it's the folder X:\winnt\fonts; just replace X with your startup drive letter.) It is one of those specially treated system folders that magically has its own unique menu and right-click commands with options to let you do the following:

• Add and remove fonts

• View fonts in various ways

• List fonts by similarity of looks

• List only the basic font family name and hide variations such as bold and italic to make selection easier

Since the days of Windows 3.0, one of the big attractions to Windows was that it included a unified system for displaying and printing text across all Windows applications and printers.

The Macintosh had it all over the PC in the desktop publishing arena in the late 80s and early 90s, and had the PC not caught up, I think Apple would be the frontrunner in personal computers today.

Not to be outdone of course, Gates and his team caught on fast enough, developing their own font system and building it into the then quickly evolving Windows. With Windows 3.1 came TrueType fonts, and things began to work just about as well as the Macintosh. A user with only a single printer driver and one pool of fonts could effectively lay out and print complex documents across a broad spectrum of applications. Each new version of Windows has improved on the Microsoft font technology.

Windows XP benefits from all the developments of previous versions of Windows. Plus, the unstoppable march of printer technology has brought the price of full-color printing in the 1200dpi range down to below $100.