AppleShare 4.0: Control Fonts, Client or Print Server

In the AppleShare 4.0 Print Server, which system is responsible for having the fonts for a print job, the client system creating the job or the print spooler that the job is going to?
The client is responsible for downloading the fonts if required to process a print job. The print server does maintain a list of the fonts available on the printer that the client queries, to determine which fonts are required to be downloaded.

Below is more detail into this printing process:

* The process of workstation to spooler is identical to that of workstation to printer. The AppleShare Print Server keeps a list of the LaserWriter's ROM, RAM, or hard drive resident fonts in RAM and it responds to the workstations FontQuery postscript command exactly as the printer would. If the font isn't in the list, then the workstation sends the font to the spooler, who in turn sends it to the printer.

* The fonts installed on a hard drive to some SCSI capable LaserWriters (IINTX, IIf, IIg, and Pro series) appear as though they were in the LaserWriter ROM. Adobe and Apple designed the hard drive option so the LaserWriter operates transparently, and the user can access the additional fonts without having to download them with utilities.

* There is no relation between the font file in the Print Server's System Folder and the downloaded fonts. If the Print Server's System Folder has the desired outline font, but the printer does not, the workstation will send the font to the spooler along with the job. If the workstation does not have a copy of the necessary outline font, the spooler CANNOT use its own copy and a bitmap version is used (or a substitute font if that option is selected).

* Our FontQuery command is used whether a print server is present or not, and the font list maintained by the print server changes as fonts are downloaded to the printer.

* During the capture process the print server builds its font list for the LaserWriter from the LaserWriter's responds to a FontList postscript command. The list remains until the server is shutdown or the LaserWriter is released. The list is dynamically updated as the spooler downloads files to the LaserWriter.
Published Date: Feb 19, 2012