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The fonts that you use in a publication affect not only its appearance, but also its commercial printing cost. When you choose fonts for a publication, take advantage of the following useful tips.

Reduce your file size before handoff    Before you save your final publication, ask your printing service if they have any of the fonts that you used in your publication installed on their computer. If they do, you can choose not to embed the fonts that they have when you save your files for your printing service. This reduces the size of your handoff files.

Use TrueType fonts   Although you can use either TrueType fonts (TrueType font: A scaleable font that displays and prints smoothly at any point size. TrueType fonts are directly supported by the Windows operating system and can be embedded in publications.) or PostScript fonts (PostScript font: A scaleable font that displays and prints smoothly at any point size. PostScript fonts are based on the PostScript page description language. Also called a Type 1 font.) in your publication, it's best to use only TrueType fonts for two reasons:

• Microsoft Publisher can embed TrueType fonts in your publication, but not PostScript fonts or other non-TrueType fonts. If you use non-TrueType fonts, you will need to make sure your printer has those fonts, or you need to provide fonts along with your publication.
• If you use TrueType fonts, your printing service can use all of Publisher's advanced features, such as trapping, to prepare your publication for final printing.

Use fonts instead of styles    Use only the fonts installed on your computer instead of formatting fonts with styles, such as Italic or Bold. That is, before you make text bold, check to see whether the bold version of that font is installed on your computer, and use it instead.

Use only high-quality fonts    High-quality fonts provide additional information to printing devices, such as imagesetters (imagesetter: A high resolution output device that prints to paper or film, or directly to a press plate. Publications that will be commercially printed are usually output from an imagesetter as the first step toward going to press.). This improves the appearance of text in your printed publication.

Use only a few fonts    Limiting the number of fonts ensures faster printing and a cleaner publication.

Remove unnecessary objects    Remove text and graphics from the scratch area before you save your files for your printing service. This makes it easier for your commercial printing service to work with your files.