Font Quality and 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:

• Customer References for IDAutomation fonts
• Customer Comments about IDAutomation fonts
• About the quality of IDAutomation fonts
• Font application scalability
• Component re-use
• Operating system independence
• Application independence
• Printer independence
• Fonts require less bandwidth
• When fonts are not the best choice

Some of the most notable and successful companies and government agencies in the world use IDAutomation fonts; these are just a few of them:

*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

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 and Rasterize Better to High-Quality Printers than Bitmaps or DLLs that Generate Bitmaps

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 like 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.

Output Device / Printer Independence and Scalability

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.

Application Independence, Component Re-use and Scalability

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 and 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.

When Fonts are Not the Best Choice

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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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