Abstract: This invention teaches a system and method for printing bar codes and forms in a soft font environment. Special codes that identify the underlying font and character code of a screen font are encoding in the drawing instructions of a soft font, allowing systems that monitor print data to identify the original character strings and substitute alternate printing fonts, even in environments where coding information is discarded during print text formatting. Applications, such as barcode applications that require additional characters to produce a barcode suitable for scanning, can seamlessly provide the additional control characters without interaction from the user or application program.