Courier print - HP vs. Canon?

Question

I am using Microsoft Word. Courier prints out nicely on my HP III but it prints out razor thin on my Canon or other printers. Any help on this?

Answer 1

You've dived deeply into the mysteries of Windows fonts (you are using Windows, and not linux or Mac, right?).

1. In the old days, like when the HPIII came out, printers came with a set of fonts in the drivers, as well as built into the printer itself. That's because in the old days, each DOS app had to bring its own fonts, or rely on what the printer provided (WordPerfect 5.1 was the perfect example). There is a good chance that with the HPIII you're using the PRINTER fonts, not the Windows fonts.

2. Conversely, modern printers don't have much in the way of built-in fonts, and rely on Windows (or Max OS, or Linux, etc) to send them "pictures" of the letters. The printers are basically getting info that says, "print a dot here and here and here" instead of "print the letter "H" here" (see #1 above).

I know I've lost you. Just make sure that you've got the latest printer drivers all around, and then find another sans serif font (sans serif means "without those little things at the top and bottom of letters" - compare with Times New Roman, for instance). Arial is now the universal font for everything, and I'd suggest moving all your docs to Arial 10 or Arial 12.

Answer 2

I have a Canon laserjet and it does fine. I notice New Roman is not too different from Courier to me, unless you are picky.