Improve fonts in PDFs made from a design file

MicroStation V7 - If you've not been happy with the quality of text when creating PDF files from MicroStation, try the following.

Create a copy of pscriptc.plt and add the lines shown below at the end of the file. You may also want to change the default_extension as indicated in the fist line.


default_extension/auto_incExt='ps';default extension for plotfiles

;Font Substitution
FONT("Courier")=(0)/Sizeratio=1.20 ;MicroStation STANDARD
FONT("Helvetica")=(1)/Sizeratio=1.15 ;MicroStation WORKING
FONT("Courier")=(2)/Sizeratio=1.31 ;MicroStation FANCY
FONT("Courier")=(3)/Sizeratio=1.26 ;MicroStation ENGINEERING
FONT("Helvetica")=(7)/Sizeratio=0.72 ;MicroStation COMPRESSED
FONT("Helvetica-Oblique")=(23)/Sizeratio=1.07 ;MicroStation ITALIC
FONT("Symbol")=(26)/Sizeratio=1.00 ;MicroStation GREEK
FONT("Helvetica")=(32)/Sizeratio=1.22 ;MicroStation INTL_ENGINEERING
FONT("Helvetica")=(33)/Sizeratio=1.22 ;MicroStation INTL_WORKING
FONT("Helvetica")=(42)/Sizeratio=1.35 ;MicroStation BLOCK_OUTLINE
FONT("Helvetica")=(43)/Sizeratio=0.96 ;MicroStation LOW_RES_FILLED
FONT("Helvetica")=(105)/Sizeratio=0.93 ;MicroStation INTL_ISO
FONT("Courier")=(106)/Sizeratio=0.88 ;MicroStation INTL_ISO_EQUAL
FONT("Courier")=(127)/Sizeratio=1.26 ;MicroStation CHAR_FAST_FONT


To use this method of plotting you'll have to place the plotfile (ie: filename.ps) into a folder watched by Acrobat Distiller or drag and drop the file into Acrobat Distiller.

With thanks to Sean Forward for sharing this tip.

AskInga Tip #223