Font Quality & Customer References
Companies are discovering that implementing in-house automation solutions
with IDAutomation fonts provides the highest level of
scalability and
component re-use with
operating system, application and
printer independence.
Some of the most notable and successful companies and government
agencies in the world use IDAutomation fonts for their high quality, font and
license flexibility and technical support. Following are just a few.
- 3M
- Abbot Laboratories
- Accenture
- Aerospace Integration Corporation
- The Allstate Corp.
- AMSouth Bank
- American Express Co.
- AT&T
- BAE Systems
- BASF Corporation
- Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
- Barnes & Noble Bookstores
- The Boeing Co.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Chevron Texaco Corp.
- Cisco Systems Inc.
- CitiGroup Inc.
- Comcast Corp.
- Compaq Computer Corp.
- CVS Corp.
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- Dell Inc.
- Delphi Corp.
- The Dow Chemical Co.
- Electronic Data Systems (EDS)
- Exxon Mobile Corp.
- FedEx Corp.
- First Union National Bank
- Ford Motor Corp.
- General Electric Co.
- General Motors Corp.
- Georgia-Pacific Corp.
- Hewlett-Packard Co.
- IBM
- The Kroger Co.
- J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
- Johnson & Johnson
- Lockheed Martin Corp.
- Merck & Co. Inc.
- Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
- MetLife Inc.
- Motorola
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- NASA
- NEC America
- Northrop Grumman Corp.
- PepsiCo Inc.
- Pfizer Inc.
- Pitney Bowes
- PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP
- Sears Roebuck and Co.
- Sprint Corp.
- State Farm Insurance Cos.
- Sysco Corp.
- Target Corp.
- Time Warner Inc.
- United States Air Force
- US Postal Service
- United Parcel Service Inc.
- Verizon Communications Inc.
- Wal-mart Stores
- The Walt Disney Co.
- Wells Fargo & Co.
- Xerox Corporation
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*IDAutomation's privacy policy restricts the giving
out of actual names and email addresses of companies that order IDAutomation
products.
Customer Comments About IDAutomation Fonts
| "The IDAutomation
Code 128 Font enabled us to
integrate barcoding into
4D and
Excel applications that
work cross-platform between Classic Macintosh, OS-X and
Microsoft Windows operating systems." - Charles Daneri,
Objective Systems,
LLC (computer consulting firm), Baltimore, MD.
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| “For the first time, I was able to download a package
that provided me with all the requirements for my project,
contained in one package. This font package enables us to
efficiently track the high throughput of our vaccine production.”
- Burke Squires, Eliance Biotechnology, Dallas, TX
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About the Quality of IDAutomation Fonts
IDAutomation business fonts are created directly from national and
international standards. Many of IDAutomation's fonts include new
patent-pending technology, which allows extremely high-quality barcode
printing. A few of the benefits experienced when using IDAutomation
fonts are outlined below. Due to the unique creation of IDAutomation fonts, the statements made here are
in reference to IDAutomation fonts only and are not necessarily true for barcode
fonts created by others.
Unlike bitmap images and many graphic generation programs, fonts
give a consistent and accurate rasterization and printout at various
point sizes. This is due to the fact that fonts are not represented by actual dots
such as bitmap images and graphics. Rather, font files are programs of lines and
shapes designed to rasterize to the output device with specific measurements.
Sometimes, when a font is displayed on the screen at small point sizes it may
look distorted. This is due to the resolution of the screen not being accurate
enough to display the complexities in the font - this is a normal operation of a
scalable font that is created to specifications. Some components that use WMF images such as IDAutomation's
ActiveX Barcode Control and DLL
and .NET Barcode Forms
Control also rasterize well to high-quality printers.
Output Device and Printer Independence
Using TrueType or PostScript fonts in applications can send the output
to multiple printers with varied resolutions. Some
specialized printers have built-in fonts. When the specialized
printer needs service or fails, the output is unable to be redirected
to another type of printer. IDAutomation fonts are not printer-specific which
means these fonts will print on most all printers.
Programs that generate bitmap graphics can be used on printers in
the same way when the printers all have the same number of dots
per inch, or DPI. Switching from a 300 DPI printer to a 600 DPI printer using
a bitmapped application will cause the output to appear twice as small. Making
the same switch with a font will produce a consistent output at any
DPI.
Some
barcode components
that use WMF images such as IDAutomation's
ActiveX Barcode Control and DLL
and .NET Barcode Forms
Control produce a consistent output with any printer DPI.
OS Independence
The unique encoding in IDAutomation fonts allows them to be utilized
on different operating systems with the same application. A Java-based web
application, for example, can utilize
the same fonts on Windows, Macintosh and UNIX PCs if the fonts
are installed on each machine that will display the barcode. Special programs that produce graphic
output are usually compiled for a particular operating system.
Barcode components, such as DLLs, are only compatible with a limited number
of applications and development environments. Comparable to the price
of a single component, IDAutomation barcode fonts and the
font encoder tools
provided can be used in a wide variety of applications and development
environments for much greater flexibility. As an example, applications can
be created in Microsoft Access, which can run on a PC.
After a few years,
growth and new technology may require programming in a new platform.
Developers can create an application in Oracle, for example, running
on a UNIX host. Since the font is already licensed, IDAutomation can
provide fonts with every order that support PCs, Macintosh and UNIX,
it is not necessary to purchase more fonts or hardware. The programmer
would only need to duplicate the same program logic and use the same
font. If a barcode component compatible with Microsoft Access such as
the ActiveX Barcode Control and
DLL were purchased, a UNIX compatible component such as IDAutomation's
Java Barcode Library
would need to be purchased for the new system.
Fonts Require Less Bandwidth than Bitmaps
or Images
Bitmapped and other graphic products consume more bandwidth than
fonts because when the print job is started, the font is downloaded
to the printer and the information that follows is mostly ASCII text.
This becomes important when printing on a busy LAN or to a
remote location. There is an option on some print drivers in Windows
to "print TrueType as graphics". This will consume more bandwidth because
the PC generates graphics and sends it to the printer rather than having
the printer generate the graphics from the font. If the print driver
has this option, make sure it is not enabled if bandwidth is a concern.
Fonts are Easy to Understand & Distribute
Most end users understand and know how to use fonts. MS Word users,
for example, usually select different fonts for the appropriate text.
With this basic understanding of how fonts operate, the only other thing
to do is print the character representing the appropriate symbol in
the font. Fonts can be installed on MS Windows PCs by simply copying
them into the \Windows\Fonts directory. Font usage can be automated
in the UNIX environment with TrueType font servers. Other automated
distribution techniques include embedding PostScript fonts into PDF
(PostScript Data Format) documents and embedding TrueType fonts into
HTML web pages.
While there are several distinct advantages to using fonts, they may not be
the best choice or the easiest product to use in the chosen application. Below
are a few situations when this may be the case:
- Fonts may not be the best solution when implementing barcodes
on the Internet or on web browsers because fonts only work if they are installed
on each individual computer.
Barcode components
such as IDAutomation's
ASP Barcode Server
for IIS,
ASP.NET Web
Server Control and
Java Servlets are
server-side implementations.
- Fonts may not print accurately at very small point sizes when
using printers with a resolution of 300 DPI or less. This is commonly
the case with 203 DPI dedicated barcode printers. IDAutomation has
documented solutions to this problem in IDAutomation
knowledge
base. Some barcode components such as IDAutomation's
ActiveX Control and
DLL and
.NET Forms Control automatically reformats the barcode before
printing according to the printer DPI to ensure accuracy.
- When using complex fonts that require check digits such as
Code 128 in Microsoft Access, IDAutomation's
VBA
macros must be imported to format the data to the font. Although
this is not that difficult for a technical user, the
ActiveX Control and
DLL is a much easier drag and drop type of implementation
for Access.
- If an application is created for distribution, it may be easier
to integrate a barcode component such as an
ActiveX Control
or .NET Control.
However, it should also be noted that fonts may be easily installed
by a good installation utility.
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