CDE and Fonts and understanding

[Andrew Moody_1]

Dear All

I've been asked to install some barcode fonts on my HP-UX 11i servers to support Oracle reports. This I've done largely due to this excellent post by Colin Topliss.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=937114

However, my real issue is now one of understanding. The more oracle doucmentation I read the more some of the newer reporting functions seem dependant on have a graphics card etc on the server. I don't understand the link between functionality and hardware in this instance, neither do I really understand the whole font and font server practice and why it's seemingly CDE dependent, as it's just software right? Surely the reports can be generated and set to a printer output without the need for a graphics card. (see attached Oracle Doc 171464.1)

Anyone know of any decent documentation on this explaining any of this that I can read about?

With thanks.

Andrew