{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "LJ4_FONT", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/LJ4_FONT/5/json", "generated": "2026-07-05T15:57:07Z", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "lj4font - groff fonts for use with devlj4\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "Nominally, all Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4-series and newer printers have the same internal\nfonts: 45 scalable fonts and one bitmapped Lineprinter font. The scalable fonts are avail‐\nable in sizes between 0.25 points and 999.75 points, in 0.25-point increments; the\nLineprinter font is available only in 8.5-point size.\n\nThe LaserJet font files included with groff assume that all printers since the LaserJet 4 are\nidentical. There are some differences between fonts in the earlier and more recent printers,\nhowever. The LaserJet 4 printer used Agfa Intellifont technology for 35 of the internal\nscalable fonts; the remaining 10 scalable fonts were TrueType. Beginning with the\nLaserJet 4000-series printers introduced in 1997, all scalable internal fonts have been True‐\nType. The number of printable glyphs differs slightly between Intellifont and TrueType fonts\n(generally, the TrueType fonts include more glyphs), and there are some minor differences in\nglyph metrics. Differences among printer models are described in the PCL 5 Comparison Guide\nand the PCL 5 Comparison Guide Addendum (for printers introduced since approximately 2001).\n\nLaserJet printers reference a glyph by a combination of a 256-glyph symbol set and an index\nwithin that symbol set. Many glyphs appear in more than one symbol set; all combinations of\nsymbol set and index that reference the same glyph are equivalent. For each glyph,\nhpftodit(1) searches a list of symbol sets, and selects the first set that contains the\nglyph. The printing code generated by hpftodit is an integer that encodes a numerical value\nfor the symbol set in the high byte(s), and the index in the low byte. See grofffont(5) for\na complete description of the font file format; symbol sets are described in greater detail\nin the PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual.\n\nTwo of the scalable fonts, Symbol and Wingdings, are bound to 256-glyph symbol sets; the re‐\nmaining scalable fonts, as well as the Lineprinter font, support numerous symbol sets, suffi‐\ncient to enable printing of more than 600 glyphs.\n\nThe metrics generated by hpftodit assume that the DESC file contains values of 1200 for res\nand 6350 for unitwidth, or any combination (e.g., 2400 and 3175) for which\nres × unitwidth = 7620000. Although HP PCL 5 LaserJet printers support an internal resolu‐\ntion of 7200 units per inch, they use a 16-bit signed integer for cursor positioning; if de‐‐\nvlj4 is to support U.S. ledger paper (11 in × 17 in; in = inch), the maximum usable resolu‐\ntion is 32767 ÷ 17, or 1927 units per inch, which rounds down to 1200 units per inch. If the\nlargest required paper size is less (e.g., 8.5 in × 11 in, or A5), a greater res (and lesser\nunitwidth) can be specified.\n", "subsections": [] }, "LIMITATIONS": { "content": "Font metrics for Intellifont fonts were provided by Tagged Font Metric (TFM) files originally\ndeveloped by Agfa/Compugraphic. The TFM files provided for these fonts supported 600+ glyphs\nand contained extensive lists of kerning pairs.\n\nTo accommodate developers who had become accustomed to TFM files, HP also provided TFM files\nfor the 10 TrueType fonts included in the LaserJet 4. The TFM files for TrueType fonts gen‐\nerally included less information than the Intellifont TFMs, supporting fewer glyphs, and in\nmost cases, providing no kerning information. By the time the LaserJet 4000 printer was in‐\ntroduced, most developers had migrated to other means of obtaining font metrics, and support\nfor new TFM files was very limited. The TFM files provided for the TrueType fonts in the\nLaserJet 4000 support only the Latin 2 (ISO 8859-2) symbol set, and include no kerning infor‐\nmation; consequently, they are of little value for any but the most rudimentary documents.\n\nBecause the Intellifont TFM files contain considerably more information, they generally are\npreferable to the TrueType TFM files even for use with the TrueType fonts in the newer print‐\ners. The metrics for the TrueType fonts are very close, though not identical, to those for\nthe earlier Intellifont fonts of the same names. Although most output using the Intellifont\nmetrics with the newer printers is quite acceptable, a few glyphs may fail to print as ex‐\npected. The differences in glyph metrics may be particularly noticeable with composite\nparentheses, brackets, and braces used by eqn(1). A script, located in /usr/share/groff/\n1.22.4/font/devlj4/generate, can be used to adjust the metrics for these glyphs in the spe‐\ncial font “S” for use with printers that have all TrueType fonts.\n\nAt the time HP last supported TFM files, only version 1.0 of the Unicode standard was avail‐\nable. Consequently, many glyphs lacking assigned code points were assigned by HP to the Pri‐\nvate Use Area (PUA). Later versions of the Unicode standard included code points outside the\nPUA for many of these glyphs. The HP-supplied TrueType TFM files use the PUA assignments;\nTFM files generated from more recent TrueType font files require the later Unicode values to\naccess the same glyphs. Consequently, two different mapping files may be required: one for\nthe HP-supplied TFM files, and one for more recent TFM files.\n", "subsections": [] }, "FILES": { "content": "/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devlj4/DESC\ndevice description file\n\n/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devlj4/F\nfont description file for font F\n\n/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devlj4/generate\ncorrects Intellifont-based height metrics for several glyphs in the special font for\nTrueType CG Times (LaserJet 4000 and later).\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "groff(1), hpftodit(1), grolj4(1), grofffont(5)\n\n\n\ngroff 1.22.4 23 March 2022 LJ4FONT(5)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "lj4font - groff fonts for use with devlj4", "flags": [], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "groff", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/json" }, { "name": "hpftodit", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/hpftodit/1/json" }, { "name": "grolj4", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grolj4/1/json" }, { "name": "grofffont", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofffont/5/json" } ] }