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June 15, 2009
Answered

Zapf Dingbats font corrupt on new laptop

  • June 15, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 4328 views

I am moving to a new laptop. My old laptop had Windows XP SP 2, FrameMaker 8.0p277, and Acrobat Distiller 8. I had 2 Zapf Dingbats fonts that worked fine on my old laptop (ZapfDinbats and ZapfDingbatsStd [OpenType]). However, on my new laptop, when I try to install the ZapfDingbats .pfm version of Zapf Dingbats, I get a corrupt font error. The new laptop has the following applications: Windows XP SP 3, FrameMaker 8.0p277, and Distiller 8.0. Other people on my team have downloaded and installed this file without any problems. I've done some reading on the Forum about this issue. But I haven't found a solution to my problem yet. Would someone please help me? Someone mentioned a bios setting without any particulars. I'm wondering whether I need to do something like that here.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Be.eM

    Here's the error message that I get when I try to install it. The font is located on a network drive. However, I also copied all of the fonts in this folder locally and still got the same error message when I attempted to install it.

    Windows Fonts Folder

                 Unable to install the "ZapfDingbats (Type 1)" font.

                 File "...\zd______.pfm" is either invalid or damaged.


    tc_trumpet wrote:

                 Unable to install the "ZapfDingbats (Type 1)" font.

                 File "...\zd______.pfm" is either invalid or damaged.

    Is it possible that your new laptop has a Nvidia graphics card? A Google search for «"XP SP3" postscript fonts» reveals solutions like this:

    -------

    Open the registry editor (START, RUN and type regedit and click OK)
    Navigate to the following key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro  l\SessionManager\MemoryManagement
    Add a new REG_DWORD Value - Change the name of the value to SessionImageSize with a value (decimal) of 20  and then reboot the machine.

    -------

    Found in a German Windows related forum, where the thread describes exactly your problems (solution comes from DELL). Maybe it's worth a try.

    Edit: here's an English blog which gives the same solution (scroll down to the end of the page):

    http://onetruth.blogsome.com/2008/06/10/adobe-opentype-fonts-windows-xp-sp3-and-nvidia/

    Bernd

    1 reply

    Be.eM
    Inspiring
    June 16, 2009

    This is normal. A PS Type1 font, once installed, cannot be moved, copied or re-installed. The reason is, that Windows creates this combined "PFM" file (which isn't a PFM in reality) out of the original PFB and PFM file. Not a correct font file any more.

    If you want to use your T1 ZapfDingbats, you need to re-install it from the original group of font files, which mostly include a PFB, a PFM, sometimes an AFM and an INF file. Then it will work again.

    Bernd

    June 25, 2009

    I did have the original font files. I still had the same problem. Another person from my department tried to install these same files and he was able to do so. However, someone else with the same laptop image as me was NOT able to do so. So there is something on this laptop that is prohibiting me from downloading and installing this font. I need to figure out what that is. Because I have legacy documents with this font, I can't work on them on this laptop until I get this issue resolved. Again, I have Windows XP SP3, FrameMaker 8.0p377, and Acrobat 8.

    Inspiring
    June 25, 2009

    As you point out, it seems to be something on that particular laptop image that's causing you problems, so you either need to dump the problem on your IT people or start debugging what is preventing you from loading the fonts. Because you don't provide the error messages, it's hard for someone in the forum to contribute much, but it certainly sounds as if it's a permissions problem, either with your account lacking admin privleges or the files that you're trying to install being owned by another account that doesn't allow sharing or execution.