Using SAS/GRAPH Fonts

Rendering Bitstream Fonts

SAS/GRAPH includes methods of storing rendered versions of Bitstream fonts, along with three graphics options to control how the fonts are rendered.

When your graphics output uses one of the Bitstream fonts that are provided with SAS/GRAPH, SAS/GRAPH must process information contained in corresponding FONTS catalog entries to determine how to draw characters of the specified size and typeface. The process of calculating the character shapes and sizes is known as rendering the font. Bitstream fonts that are available with SAS/GRAPH include the Century, Swiss, and Zapf families.

SAS/GRAPH can store rendered versions of the Bitstream fonts in memory or in special SAS files. Using these rendered versions of the fonts can provide a speed improvement when characters of the same size and style are used again during the SAS session. SAS/GRAPH can read the rendered version of the characters from memory or from the rendered font file instead of performing the rendering calculations each time the characters are used. If you store the rendered fonts in files in a permanent SAS data set, SAS/GRAPH can use the rendered font files again in subsequent SAS sessions.

Note: Because the rendered font files use a special utility member type, they do not appear in the list of library members that is displayed in the DIRECTORY window. [cautionend]

You control whether and how rendered versions of fonts are stored using the FONTRES=, RENDER=, and RENDERLIB= graphics options. See Graphics Options and Device Parameters Dictionary for details.

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