Strange behaviour of Font

[Srik]

:eek:

I have this text in Illustrator. The font used is "NimbuSans", which is custom made to include some special characters. In one illustrator document the font furnishes the text correctly. In the other the font shows some junk characters when opened. Can anyone let me know where the problem lies? I'm sure that if anything is wrong with the font it should not be showing correct in one of the illustrator document.

[Inmedia]

I don´t know why this problem occurs, but I know that sometimes when you create a document on a Mac it might mess up the font if you open it on a PC.

But anyways... You can solve the problem if you outline the text. :)

[Srik]

Hi Inmedia,

Thanks for your reply. But I'm sure creating outlines will not work. When you see junks, creating outlines will also be in junks. I'm not opening the file in PC. It was created in Mac and am opening in Mac. Using Illustrator CS on Panther.

Can Repro Kid and Adobe Ace help me out?

[The Repro Kid]

Well, yes.

Use the Find Font from the type menu and make sure you are mapping the correct font to your file.

Are you using suitcase? If so, are you using Auto Font Activation? It may be activating the wrong font, say a copy of Nimbus Sans on your machine that has not been customized.

Or sometimes it just might be confused and need to be shaken-up a little. In Find Font you may be able to simply select Nimbus Sans from the top list (fonts in document) and then change it to Helvetica Cond. used in your system (the bottom list). Then change them back to Nimbus Sans.

If it suitcase getting confused, changing the fonts with Find Font will cause them to be remapped and then suitcase might open the correct ones from then on.

If have lots of fonts and understand the differences between them, then it may be more efficient to turn off auto activation and create your own, manually operated sets. This will alleviate many weird font behaviors. However, if your font collection scares and baffles you, then leave auto activation on.

Hope some of that helps.

[AdobeAce]

Hi Srik,

Like Repro said, it sounds like it could be a Font Activation problem or a conflict.

Try opening an illustrator file which does NOT have the problem and then open a file that DOES have the font problem. If the problem mysteriously goes away, then it sounds like an activation problem. Or manually open the fonts in Suitcase before opening the files. Are you even using Suitcase?

I'm also wondering if the Illustrator files that have the font problem have, in any way, been saved differently that those that don't have the problem.

Ace

PS: Hi Repro, How's it going? Long time, no talk. Hope all is well - Ace

[Srik]

Hi Ace and Repro,

Tried that too, not working. I have removed all my user fonts and have reinstalled the fonts required for that particular document. Machine was restarted, Illustrator still refuses to show the proper text for that particular document. The other document is fine. May be as Ace mentioned it might have been saved with a different setting? No clues yet. I believe there ain't any special option while saving which pertains to specifically restricting fonts!...
Can there be a conflict of any special plug-in? then again the other file is proper...???

[scottie]

Try this...copy the bad file use Apple-a. Then apple-c. Now migrate to the good file and enter apple-v. While still selected drag the copied file off of the good file so as to compare the two. Did the bad file display correctly when placed onto the good file? If yes, open a new document and paste the copied file onto the new document. If not, well I give up.

[Srik]

Hi Scottie,

Tried that too, did not work!!! I think it is something to do with Unicode characters which needs to be picked up from Glyphs separately. I'm sure there must be a simpler way to handle these foreign language characters. I presume that the font has been custom made to include all Czech characters with different accents. After keying this in that language using the Czech keyboard settings, it should have been sent to me. Now if the PDF is correct and the file when opened at my end is wrong then there should be something wrong when saving the document. The other document works perfectly!!

[The Repro Kid]

maybe that's your problem. When setting type on a localized system, you have to reopen the file in the same localized system or you will not get the same characters as with a latin keyboard.

The thing to do is take the text and paste it into a text editor and turn it to some system font like helvetica or geneva or times. If the characters are still incorrect, then you have a text entry problem, not a font problem. You will either have to reopen the file in a Czech localized system and output from that, or you will have to re-enter the text. Or you can use Find/Change to find al the bad characters and replace them with the good characters.

Howdy Ace.

[AdobeAce]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if it's the document itself that's the problem.

Have you tried copying and pasting all objects except the problem text into a new document, then redoing text in the new document? Or creating text in a fresh new document, converting to outline and pasting into the old document?

Is there a reason that a special font was used for this job? I just finished two jobs in Czech using Times and Times Bold with no problem. All special Czech glyphs worked perfectly. Most fonts I tried WERE missing characters, but a few of the old standbys worked fine (ITC Baskerville, Adobe Caslon, Futura, Garamond Premier Pro, etc.).

Ace

Howdy back at your Repro!
:D