Character Width (Fixed and PS) |
Each character has a different width from all the other characters in a font at a given point size. For example, "W" is a wider letter than "I." There are two ways to print letters of different widths: you can print all letters with the same spacing, regardless of their actual width; or you can change the spacing between letters to accommodate these different widths. Printing all letters with the same spacing is called "Fixed spacing," while changing the spacing to accommodate different letter widths is called "Proportional spacing." Because the Fixed spacing method prints all letters with the same spacing, the number of characters which will fit into a given length is a fixed quantity which can be specified. If the characters are printed with Proportional spacing, then the number of characters that will fit into an inch varies depending on the letters printed. |