Formatting Stylized Text:

Families and Applying Styles

A font is an individual style and weight, for example, Times Bold. A family is a collection of these individual fonts. The family will include Times, Times Bold, Times Italic, Times Bold Italic, etc. Your font package will contain a printer font and a screen font for each member of this family. A mistake commonly made when setting up files is to “style” the font instead of selecting the true font. One example would be to use Times, then apply bold to it by choosing the “bold” option from the font style menu. If you initially set up your pages by applying styles, always go back through your document using the “find and replace” function and change these stylized fonts to the correct family member to avoid imaging problems.

When you apply the characteristic <italic> to the font "Times," the program goes to the font file for "Times" and asks it, "what is the name of your italic companion typeface?"  The font replies "Times Italic," and the page layout program searches for a font with that name. If the page layout program finds "Times Italic," then that's what it uses.  But if "Times Italic" is missing, that spells trouble.

You should never apply bold or italic stylization to fonts that do not have existing bold or italic family members. It may work on your screen, and may even print to a printer, but generally will not work correctly when sent to an imagesetter. Sometimes bold applied to a font that does not have a bold family member will cause the font to have a double image. Applying italics this way may cause the font to only slant instead of becoming a true italic, or may not print at all to an imagesetter.

Some styles, such as underline, superior, superscript, subscript and small caps, can only be accomplished by using the styles menu and are generally acceptable. The drop shadow and outline styles should be avoided –they were designed for non-postscript use.

More information regarding fonts and styles can be reviewed at Adobe's font tutorial section:
http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/main.html

If you do this -make sure the BOLD version
is located in your system!

Arial Bold is available!

• Remember the fonts embedded in EPS files. Often a customer will send the fonts used to create headlines and text, but forget to include fonts that are contained in EPS graphics that are imported into the page layout document.
  
  
  • EPS: A graphic file format specifically used to transfer PostScript based data within compatible applications. Usually created by drawing tools such as Adobe Illustrator, an artist can transport curves, paths, spot colors and graphics into InDesign or QuarkXpress. In Illustrator you would use File, Save As: EPS option.
    
    
• As an alternative, before creating an EPS, you can convert the text to paths. Most Illustration programs, especially Illustrator and FreeHand, have the ability to change text into vector elements so you no longer need to include the font files. It becomes self contained :-) -keep a backup before you convert!
  
  <select the text , menu: Type , Create Outlines>
  
  
• Avoid nesting or layering of fonts. Placing type in a graphic, then placing it in another graphic, and finally, imprinting it into the page layout program could make it hard for the imagesetter to find the font. Try to keep graphic file construction simple.
  
  
• Avoid obscure font manufacturers or bargain basement fonts. All fonts are not created equal. Strange fonts could cause problems with high-resolution output. Some of these types of fonts are only made for 300dpi laser printers.