Specifying and selecting fonts

To use fonts with PSF, you make two choices: you specify fonts and select fonts. You specify fonts to print the entire print data set. You select fonts to print individual lines or fields of data.

For MO:DCA-P data, you specify and select the fonts within the data stream. For data that PSF must compose into pages, the fonts are specified either in a page definition or in JCL with the CHARS parameter, but not in both. For a single data set, you cannot mix fonts specified in a page definition with fonts specified in JCL. Select fonts with table reference characters (TRCs), with AFP control records, or in a page definition.

For printing traditional line data, you can specify FOCA fonts in your JCL or all AFP fonts, including TrueType and OpenType fonts, in the page definition. If you do not specify fonts, PSF uses the default font for the printer. In record format line data and XML data, you can only specify fonts in the page definition. If fonts are needed by a record format or XML page definition and none are specified, PSF issues an error message.

If you want to print the entire data set in a single direction, you can specify fonts only in JCL. PSF uses the fonts that have 0° character rotation for the specified direction. When a data set requires fonts with more than one print direction or character rotation, you must specify the fonts in the page definition. To verify whether fonts can be specified in JCL for the default page definition, see the "Page-Printer Defaults" form. Not all printers can print in all four directions. For information about the print directions your printer supports, see the documentation provided with the printer.

Select a font that is of the correct size for the amount of data and the lines per inch spacing of your print job. Recommended FOCA fonts are listed with the page definition descriptions in Page definitions supplied with PSF. This topic also contains tables that list the line-spacing values for some of the page definitions supplied with PSF. See Page definition line-spacing values and fonts.

The following examples apply only to fonts used in traditional line data applications. In MO:DCA-P documents or overlays, fonts are defined in structured fields within the document or overlay. See the reference publication for the AFP utility you used to create the overlay or document, or see Mixed Object Document Content Architecture Reference, AFPC-0004.

Examples:

In this example, the JCL CHARS parameter is specified in the DD statement:
```
//DD1 DD SYSOUT=A,CHARS=(60D8,50FB,GT12)
```
In this example, the JCL CHARS parameter is specified in the OUTPUT statement:
```
//OUT1 OUTPUT CHARS=(60D8,50FB,GT12)
//DD1 DD SYSOUT=A,OUTPUT=(*.OUT1)
```
In this example, the JCL CHARS parameter is used to select font 60D8. Because no font is specified in page definition P1V06683, PSF uses the font specified in the CHARS parameter.
```
//AFPUSERB JOB ...
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USERB
//OUT1  OUTPUT PAGEDEF=V06683
//PRINT DD SYSOUT=A,OUTPUT=(*.OUT1),CHARS=60D8
   /*
```
This example uses a page definition that contains a font specification. The specified font can be a FOCA font or a TrueType and OpenType font. You do not need to code a CHARS parameter in your JCL. If you do code the CHARS parameter in your JCL, PSF ignores it and uses the font specified in the page definition.
```
//AFPUSERA JOB ...
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USERA
//OUT1  OUTPUT PAGEDEF=M13280
//PRINT DD SYSOUT=A,OUTPUT=(*.OUT1)
   /*
```
This example uses the default page definition for the printer and specifies font 60D8 in the JCL.
```
//AFPUSERA JOB ...
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USERA
//PRINT DD SYSOUT=A,CHARS=60D8
   /*
```
Whether the 60D8 font is used depends on how the default page definition is defined for your printer. Your system programmer might provide this information on the form shown in Page-printer defaults form.
For the examples in this topic, assume that the printer is defined so that specifications of fonts in the CHARS parameter in the JCL override specifications of fonts in the default page definition.
In this example, multiple fonts are listed in the JCL CHARS parameter, which lets you select fonts by using table reference characters (TRC) in the print data records. The presence of TRCs in the print data is indicated in the TRC parameter of the OUTPUT statement. If TRCs are not specified in the print data, all the data will print in the first font in the list, 60D8.
```
//AFPUSERA JOB ...
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=USERA
//OUT1  OUTPUT TRC=YES
//PRINT DD SYSOUT=A,CHARS=(60D8,50FB)
   /*
```
Fonts for TRC selection can also be specified in the page definition. For more information, see Using table reference characters to select fonts.