Polyprint

Polyprint, written by Arcom Software and distributed by New Star Software, is a utility to print a file on a dot-matrix printer using one or more fonts supplied with the utility.

There is a partial dump of Polyprint as part of the "Poly System" bundle at the PCW Wiki. Polyprint itself is not included, but one disk of fonts is.

Font file format

A font file consists of a 128-byte header:

0000	Font ID. This usually matches the filename; so 102.FNT would have an
	ID word of 102.
0002	19h, length of the string that follows
0003	Font name, padded with spaces to 25 characters
001C	Unknown
0025	Appears to contain random data

Following the header there are 144 character definitions, corresponding to characters 32 to 175. The character set used is based on PC code pages like code page 437, but with some differences in characters 169 and later to include characters from code page 865 like the currency symbol and slashed O.

A character definition is 84 bytes:

	DS	1	;left margin + 1, 1 byte
	DS	20	;top half, pass 1: 20 bytes
	DS	1	;character bitmap width, 1 byte
	DS	20	;top half, pass 2: 20 bytes
	DS	1	;right margin, 1 byte
	DS	20	;bottom half, pass 1: 20 bytes
	DS	1	;unknown, may not be used
	DS	20	;bottom half, pass 2: 20 bytes

The bytes of bitmap data are held in graphics mode as an Epson printer would expect them: as columns, with bit 7 at the top and bit 0 at the bottom.

Fonts

Since Polyprint fonts are variable-width, I have attempted to convert them to BSD vfont format.

In the preview image below, the left margin area is shaded blue, the right margin in green, and any of the character cell beyond the right margin in light grey.

Font	Download	Preview
Typeface Set 2
Old English	002.fnt 002.vfont
Helvetica Light Italic	006.fnt 006.vfont
American Typewriter Medium	009.fnt 009.vfont
Tiny Print	015.fnt 015.vfont
Broadway	102.fnt 102.vfont
Compacta	103.fnt 103.vfont
Microgramma	114.fnt 114.vfont
Cooper Hollow	121.fnt 121.vfont