What is the proper font for printing on thermal paper?

delphi printing fonts report
Please_Dont_Bully_Me_SO_Lords picture Please_Dont_Bully_Me_SO_Lords · Jan 31, 2013 · Viewed 12.2k times · Source

I have a program that prints every client's order, like restaurants tickets, but I made it with times new roman. The result wasn't a quality print. I believe that the font is not the best for this tech and I have to convince my client the owner, cause he loves that font.

Would sans serif or similar be the better choice?

Also, is there a standard procedure for printing direct to those thermal printers and choose the internal fonts, whatever the manufacturer is?

I am using QuickReports to create the printing. The result is king of blur. I will put the pictures to compare as soon as I put my hands on a scanner.

Answer

Cosmin Prund picture Cosmin Prund · Jan 31, 2013

Selecting the optimal print font is both subjective and technical. Not all fonts are suitable to small-dpi mediums; Some fonts use highly variable line width when painting the letters and that will "smudge" easily when used with smudge-prone mediums; I guess the thermal printer fits into both "small dpi" and "easily smudged" areas.

In my opinion the selected font should be, based on priority:

  • The device fonts: don't print graphics to tiny printers, use the on-board fonts and learn the "escape" language. Results will be outstanding, and there's enough flexibility to also get beautiful results. The only time I had to deal with a thermal printer I used this method and the results really are great. The device allows font scaling, drawing lines, almost everything you'd need. But it is hard work and you'll be outside of the "comfort zone". The printer driver is not helping you at all and you end up writing device-specific routines.
  • Next option would be BITMAP fonts. That is, don't use True Type Fonts. On today's computers bitmap fonts only serve one purpose: look good at small pixels count. That's perfect for a small-dpi printer.
  • Invest millions in developing a special purpose font that's easy to read on paper and behaves good printed on whatever device. Or use the font others have spent millions in developing: open your favorite version of Ms Word, type a few words and see what font is used. Right now I get Calibri.
  • Use a font that doesn't have fancy strokes that need many pixels to paint OR make smudges more obvious. Write something in Times New Roman in very large font. See the fancy lines, the narrow segments, the elegant design? That's not a good choice for a small-dpi, smudge-prone printer. Now do the same for Arial, Verdana, Tahoma.
  • Let the user choose. This decision is only partly technical, there might be subjective reasons to use one thing or the other.

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