A
font that is
copied from a
computer's disk to a
printer's memory. Soft fonts can be erased, unlike
resident fonts (fonts that are built into the printer) or
font cartridges.
Soft fonts are generated by a font program in the computer. You can control the program to specify the font size and other characteristics. The disadvantages of soft fonts are that they require a lot of disk space and printer memory (from 10K to over 200K for a single font), and it takes time to download the fonts to the printer.
Soft fonts are also called downloadable fonts.