Font issues when exporting to PDF

Question

I am runnig the most recent version of InDesign CC on a 2019 MacPro Monterey (just installed InDesign update a few days ago when alerted).

I have a job with 15 layers of artwork that can be turned on one at a time in addition to a common background layer that stays active. I export each one of the 15 combinations to Print PDF (all vector content, mostly text). This is for some signs printed annually at a Las Vegas show (cloned the file from last year which worked perfectly and used the same fonts).

When I sent the 15 PDFs to the printer, they said they could not use 5 of the files because the "fonts were not available"? When I looked at the files most of the problems were with (2) OTF fonts I had purchased (Hangbird & Magneton). Here is the mystery... Magneton embedded perfectly with no issues on "some" of the PDFs? Hangbird was on two signs and was set as a 2-line text block (unchanged from last year) - the first line was outlined on export however looked correct, but the second line was using the editable font but not available in the PDF? I then tried removing the second line of text and creating a new text block underneath the first line and the exported PDF did the same thing!

So, sometimes it "outlined" certain text on export. In one case, it did not outline Magneton and just defaulted to a text block still showing as the missing font Magneton, but looked like Aerial? The two files using Hangbird, the first line somehow outlined itself and the second line was editable, but font missing?

I tried doing a Save As to a new file and same issues?

Any ideas?

johnd59898678 · Accepted Answer

Opening a pdf created in InDesign is always problematic when opening in illustrator. It should not be done.

It was likely a legacy style or nested style as you aluded to earlier

OK. Apparently all the printers in Las Vegas we have used are using Illustrator or some other similar software to print PDFs from. I guess the only solution for me is to switch from InDesign to Illustrator to create future sign PDFs. They never had these font problems with PDFs created from AI.

Eugene Tyson · Answer

Where did you purchase the fonts?And what is the EULA state for embedding the fonts in exported pdfs? If they look ok on your end you can outline them in the PDF - which is better option.In Acrobat go to the Preflight Tools  Just make sure the EULA of the font allows this - or else you're in breach of the license you agreed to when you bought it. You should contact the font vendor to see if they have a version that allows proper embedding.

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