Graphic Design
Working With
Text:
Extremely
important elements in processing a job are the fonts used in the
page layout document. When you select a font in your page layout
program the program is actually calling up a small file in your
computer system's fonts folder for the 'font map' or how it will
display it's weight and shape. If you then forward someone the
layout file without including the font file from your system, the
end user will not be able to proceed.
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Tip:
To avoid hassles with fonts during pre-flight, use
Illustrator or InDesign and before you save your files,
select all your text and choose the menu TEXT | CREATE
OUTLINES (older versions say create paths) - to turn all
fonts into self contained lines on the page. When you
output your job you will never get a hold with "font
files not found" error messages.
Please make sure you have carefully proof-read all of your
copy before converting to outlines. Modifications once
text is converted are either impossible or will take a
long time, resulting in additional charges to you! |
Fonts are actually mini files that manage the
"typefaces" you see on the monitor and your printed
page. In order for CDman to output your files correctly, we need
to have the same manufacturer, and version number of the fonts on
our system that were used in your document.
Above image: the windows/fonts directory tree
Font
problems are unquestionably responsible for more job delays and
frustrations than any other area of digital file production.
However, they can be easily avoided once you know what to look for
and how to properly organize your fonts.
How to
avoid font problems:
The easiest
way to eliminate font problems is to ask the layout program to
convert all fonts into lines on a page rather than calling up the
font file for display information. This is easily done in
Illustrator and InDesign but Quark currently does not have this
feature.
Illustrator's menu: type, create outlines.
Steps
to creating a font free layout using Illustrator or InDesign.
Step 1: Make
a backup of the finished layout. Once you create outlines there is
no going back to re-type words and sentences. A string of letters
is no longer a string so save a version of the non outlined layout
before proceeding.
Step 2:
Select ALL the text in your layout. If any layers are locked,
unlock them first.
Step 3: Use
the menu Type, Create Outline. This will create nodes around each
letter so don't be surprised at the unusual appearance of your
text at first.
Step 4:
Ensure your process worked by opening the Document info pallet
(menu: window, document info) and select 'fonts' in the fly out
menu that appears when you click the arrow in the top right corner
of the palette. You should see 'none' in the usage of fonts.
Primer
on types of fonts
Type 1
fonts for Macintosh
The original Adobe Postscript font format, Type 1, is still
considered to be the best by most professionals. Type 1 fonts
consist of two parts: the SCREEN font and the PRINTER font.
The screen font is a bitmap image of the letter forms used to
represent the type on screen.
Shown above
is a sample of the icon used for a Type 1 (or postscript) screen
font for Helvetica Bold.
Screen fonts are usually collected in a “suitcase”, which can
contain fonts from many different families. For proper
organization of your fonts, it is best to put each font family in
its own font suitcase.
Shown above
is a sample of the screen font suitcase for the Helvetica family.
The printer font contains the data that is actually sent to the
laser printer or image setter and it is used to correctly render
each character. If the printer fonts are not available or are
damaged, your font will look “jaggy” on the screen and will
either print with the same bitmapped appearance, or convert
automatically to a default system font such as Courier.
A sample of
the printer font icon for Helvetica is shown above.
It is
important to send both the screen and printer components
for each font used in your document. This includes fonts used for
EPS files (3rd party EPS files are notorious for containing fonts
not included with the job, as they are often sent to clients
without including the font files). Many fonts with the same name,
such as Helvetica, are manufactured by more than one company and
may have differences in kerning values, letter weight, etc., which
may cause your text copy to reflow if we have to substitute our
version of the font because we did not have yours. On a Macintosh
platform, the fonts can be found in your main hard drive system's
folder:
Unless you are using a type manager
your MAC fonts are in the system folder
TrueType
Fonts for Macintosh
The TrueType format was developed by Microsoft and is now widely
distributed with system software, applications and on disks of
font collections. The most obvious difference between Type 1 and
TrueType is that in True Type both screen and printer data are
contained in one file whereas Type 1 has two separate files.
A sample of
the TrueType icon for the italic version of Century Gothic for a
Macintosh is shown above. TrueType fonts are also stored in a font
suitcase and should never be mixed with Type 1 screen fonts.
Rename the suitcase to Century Gothic Type1 and Century Gothic
Truetype and place the files accordingly. If you have both types
of fonts in the same suitcase it will occasionally cause problems
when printing.
Type 1 and
True Type for Windows
The same concepts apply for Windows versions of Type 1
(postscript) and True Type fonts. Just as on a Macintosh system,
the postscript font is composed of two parts, a printer font and a
screen font. The printer font has an extension of .pfb and the
screen font has an extension of .pfm, and both have the same red
Adobe “A” icon as shown below.
Printer
fonts are used by ATM (Adobe Type Manager) to create crisp,
accurate screen renditions of the font at any point size. You will
find the postscript fonts in C:\psfonts folder. You must be sure
to send both the screen and printer components.
A sample of
a Windows True Type icon is shown above. If you are using ATM,
then these fonts can be found in your C:\windows\fonts\ATM
folder.
If you do
not use ATM, then all fonts available on your system should be
found in C:\windows\fonts.
Unless you are using a type manager
your Windows fonts are in c:\windows\fonts folder
One benefit of using ATM (Adobe Type Manager) is that it can help
you find your fonts quickly on your hard drive. The Deluxe version
includes a Font List tab which allows you to see all the fonts
your system uses as well as if they are True Type or postscript (
Type 1) fonts. You can locate a font on this list by clicking on
it, and then under “Display” go to “Properties” (shown
below) and it will tell you exactly where this font is, as well as
the actual name of the font. This can be very useful since many
fonts such as the “Times” font family can have the following
names: “TIR”-Times Roman; “TIB”-Times Bold; “TII”-Times
Italic; “TIBI”-Times Bold Italic.
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