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.
INDEX:
Some of the most notable and successful companies and government
agencies in the world use IDAutomation fonts; these are just a few of
them:
- 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.com 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, Texas
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About the Quality of IDAutomation Fonts
IDAutomation business fonts are created directly from national and
international standards and 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. The statements made here are not necessarily
true for all barcode fonts; they are only to IDAutomation barcode fonts
due to their unique creation.
Fonts are Scaleable & Rasterize Better
to HQ Printers
Unlike bitmap images and many graphic generation programs, fonts
give a consistent and accurate rasterization and printout at various
point sizes. This is because fonts are not represented by actual dots
such as bitmap images and graphics; rather they are programs of lines and
shapes designed to rasterize to the output device with specific measurements.
Some components that use WMF images such as IDAutomation's
ActiveX Control and DLL
and .NET Forms
Control also rasterize well to high-quality printers. 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.
Using TrueType or PostScript fonts in applications can send the output
to several different printers that have different resolutions. Some
specialized printers have special 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.
Therefore, fonts will print on most all printers.
Programs that generate bitmap graphics can be used on printers in
the same way, as long as the printers all have the same number of dots
per inch. Switching from a 300 DPI printer to a 600 DPI printer using
a bitmapped application, the output will appear twice as small. Making
the same switch with a font will produce a consistent output at any
DPI.
It should be noted that some
barcode components
that use WMF images such as IDAutomation's
ActiveX Control and DLL
and .NET Forms
Control produce a consistent output with any printer DPI.
OS Independence and Scalability
The unique encoding in IDAutomation fonts allows them to be utilized
on different operating systems with the same application. An application
written in Java, for example, that runs on a web browser, can utilize
the same fonts on Windows, Macintosh and UNIX PCs, provided the fonts
are installed on each machine. 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. For about the price
of a single component, IDAutomation barcode fonts and
royalty-free font
tools provided can be used in several applications and development
environments. This allows 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 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 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.
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 printing 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.
Although there are several advantages to using fonts as noted above,
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 the Web browser.
Barcode components
such as IDAutomation's
ASP Barcode Server
for IIS,
ASP.NET Web
Server Control and
Java Servlets are
server-side implementations,
more about this. Fonts only work if they are installed on each
individual computer.
- 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 provided 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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