Helvetica Font - HP Laserjet 4200dtn (PCL 6)

[dansdaduk]

I don't have a Windows 7 system (32-bit or 64-bit), but on my Windows 10 Professional 64-bit edition, Helvetica is not one of the standard installed fonts - so where has the copy on your workstation come from?

Furthermore, on my system, the registry indicates that Helvetica is to be substituted by Arial (not that Helvetica appears as a font in my Word 2013 version):

You say that "Helvetica doesn't get printed" - can you identify the typeface that is printed?

Your print job definitely downloads and uses a soft font - this theoretically means that WYSIWYG, since the downloaded soft font will have been dynamically generated using the source TrueType / OpenType display font as the 'donor'.

From your corrupt test.prn file, I can't easily tell what the donor font name was.

So that begs the questions:

• Just what font is being used in the source document?
• Does the printed version (using the downloaded dynamically-generated soft font) differ from the screen (display) font.

[dansdaduk]

This Microsoft knowledge-base article gives an overview of the selection and use of device fonts.

I don't think that we can get much more pertinent information from your system without writing and running some of the referenced sample code on your system - which your policy precludes.

[-BL-]

---

@dansdaduk wrote:

I don't have a Windows 7 system (32-bit or 64-bit), but on my Windows 10 Professional 64-bit edition, Helvetica is not one of the standard installed fonts - so where has the copy on your workstation come from?

---

Helvetica is not, and has never been, installed on our Windows 7 computers either. When we specifed "Arial" as the font in, let's say, MS Word document, on the screen it obviously showed Arial. But when sent to a previous printer (which too used to be an HP Laserjet 4200 PCL 6), Arial used to be replaced by Helvetica (seamlessly by the printer).

What I am trying to say is that us users didn't need to have Helvetica installed on our Windows 7 computers. Helvetica is – well as I understand – part of something called Postscript and is installed on the HP Laserjet printer.

Now that older HP Laserjet 4200 PCL 6 has been replaced by another exactly same HP Laserjet 4200 PCL 6. However, when we specify Arial as the font, it doens't print Helvetica on the new printer; it prints Arial as it shows on the screen.

>> ...Just what font is being used in the source document?...

Arial

>> ...Does the printed version (using the downloaded dynamically-generated soft font) differ from the screen (display) font?...

No, it does not differ; letter forms that we see on screen are exactly the ones that get printed. i.e. Arial on screen and Arial on the printer (instead of the desired Arial on screen and Helvetica on the print-out).

[dansdaduk]

>> ... Helvetica is – well as I understand – part of something called Postscript and is installed on the HP Laserjet printer

The Helvetica font is one of the fonts which is usually printer-resident and available in all three traditional Page Description Languages : PCL5, PCL6 (a.k.a. PCL XL) and PostScript (a.k.a PS) on most modern LaserJet printers.

There may be some small differences between the PS fonts and the PCL fonts, due to differences in the font technologies used.

>> ... When we specifed "Arial" as the font in, let's say, MS Word document, on the screen it obviously showed Arial. But when sent to a previous printer (which too used to be an HP Laserjet 4200 PCL 6), Arial used to be replaced by Helvetica (seamlessly by the printer) ...

I obviously misunderstood your original description of the symptoms: "... When I print from MS Word or MS Excel using Arial, Helvetica doesn't get printed, but Arial does ...".

So (to summarise), what you are saying is that:

• With your current LaserJet 4200,  your Word document specifies the Arial font, and the printed document appears to be using the Arial font.

• With your previous LaserJet 4200, the (same?) Word document specified the Arial font, but the printed document appeared to be using the (similar) Helvetica font. 

If you are using a PCL5 or PCL6 printer driver, then the current situation is what I (and, I suggest, most others) would expect to always happen - WYSIWYG is the usual required and expected outcome.

The driver should generate a print job which either:

• selects the printer-resident Arial font (via an appropriate font selection 'sequence');

or:

• dynamically generates and downloads a soft font equivalent of the TrueType screen (display) Arial font, as your test.prn job shows.

I can't imagine how you would have obtained what you claim as the 'previous' situation.

Were you using exactly the same printer driver, on the same workstation?

If not, and you still have the driver set up, could you use this driver and 'capture' a sample job for analysis?

[-BL-]

>> ...With your current LaserJet 4200,  your Word document specifies the Arial font, and the printed document appears to be using the Arial font...

Yes, that is correct.

>> ...With your previous LaserJet 4200, the (same?) Word document specified the Arial font, but the printed document appeared to be using the (similar) Helvetica font...

Yes, that is as well correct.

>> ...Were you using exactly the same printer driver, on the same workstation? If not, and you still have the driver set up, could you use this driver and 'capture' a sample job for analysis?...

Ahhh! I think you hit the nail on the head. 🙂 When this spring they physically removed the previous printer and replaced it with an exactly same make and model, they had to "re-add" in users' DEVICES AND PRINTERS. Might this have changed the printer driver? If yes, then I don't have the previous driver.

[dansdaduk]

>> ... they physically removed the previous printer and replaced it with an exactly same make and model,

>> ... they had to "re-add" in users' DEVICES AND PRINTERS.

They (whoever 'they' might be) should not have had to do anything on the workstation if all that was being done was to physically replace a LaserJet 4200dtn with another printer of the same model.

So if they did "re-add" (whatever that might imply) this perhaps indicates one or more of the following:

• The replacement printer was not a direct replacement - perhaps a different model (despite your claims to the contrary)?
• The replacement printer was connected differently - with this commercial product, I'd expect it to be network-connected - but perhaps 'they' set it up via a USB cable?
• 'They' did not really know what they were doing.

>> ... Might this have changed the printer driver? ...

'Adding' a new printer (rather than just physically replacing the hardware on the end of a network cable and setting its IP-address) will usually add a new Windows printer instance, and (perhaps) a new driver.

But the old printer instance and driver (if different) might still be present, unless 'they' deleted it.

... and I'll paraphrase what I said before:

The current situation is what I would expect to always happen - WYSIWYG is the usual required and expected outcome.

Why would anyone expect the printer to use a different typeface than the one used in the source document, so that you do not get WYSIWYG?

[-BL-]

Thank you for your help. I really appreciate.