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_Thomas_C_Rogers_
Participating Frequently
August 7, 2008
Question

Unable to install Type 1 fonts in Windows XP

  • August 7, 2008
  • 69 replies
  • 44519 views
I'm having problems loading Type 1 fonts into Windows XP. I loaded ATM 4.1 light and get the following error message when trying to load the fonts through it: 'Cannot activate font <fontname>. The font files are invalid.'<br /><br />I've removed ATM 4.1 from my computer and ran the ATM 4.1 light updater to fix the registry problem, but now get the following error message when trying to load the fonts through the windows font folder: 'Unable to install the <fontname> font. File "D:\fontname___.pfm is either invalid or damaged"' <br /><br />So I'm thinking that the registry is not completely fixed as it seems the .pfm files are not being associated properly. I've tried re installing windows and that did nothing. I would really prefer not to have to re format the hard drive and start from scratch as I already had to do that with this brand new Dell laptop due to issues with MS Office. I guess that's my worst case scenario. I also have Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, and Acrobat Pro 8.0 on the computer. I don't think any of those would be causing my problems, but I mention it in case might. <br /><br />Does anyone have any ideas of how I can fix this problem? Thanks, Tom
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    _Youtou_Ko_
    Participating Frequently
    September 18, 2008
    reducing video acceleration... how do i do that? in the nVidia panel?

    and i'm starting to think it might be a SP3 issue...
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    _Aandi_Inston_
    Participating Frequently
    September 19, 2008
    Desktop
    Right click
    Properties
    Settings
    Advanced
    Troubleshoot

    You should see a slider. You can reduce acceleration, or disable it
    completely. Worth a try, it often works around bugs in video drivers
    (at a cost in performance; if it is off, you may as well have the
    cheapest generic card).

    Aandi Inston
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    _Youtou_Ko_
    Participating Frequently
    September 18, 2008
    hmmm.....guys i've read through the post, so it seems like the solution is to roll back to an older driver. but i just bought my laptop recently and it comes with a nVidia 9200m GS. It's a really new model, the nvidia sites doesnt provide the drivers, and there's no old drivers to roll back!

    any ideas how to solve this one?
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    _Aandi_Inston_
    Participating Frequently
    September 18, 2008
    Maybe reducing video acceleration...worth a try.

    Aandi Inston
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    _Cindy_Brewer_
    Participant
    August 28, 2008
    Thanks for working this out. It helped me with the same problem on a Dell Precision M70 laptop on which the IT people installed a new operating system after a crash (XP). I went to the Dell Drivers site you indicated, navigated to the M70 video drivers, downloaded the old one there (2006), and installed it.

    After running the driver's .exe install program, I also had to 'roll back' (rather than 'update') the driver using the display tools in the control panel.

    Now my Type 1 fonts install without a .pfm error, and I'm able to complete the projects I was half-way through.
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    _Cindy_Brewer_
    Participant
    August 28, 2008
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    _GaryBlakely_
    Participating Frequently
    August 27, 2008
    No problem, I'm glad we all found a resolution (and who knows, maybe Adobe will add an item to their "partner certification" check list).
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    _Thomas_C_Rogers_Author
    Participating Frequently
    August 25, 2008
    Gary....you da man! Needless to say when I rolled back to an earlier driver everything works fine. When I first went to Dell to get the drivers I entered my service tag number rather than looking for them by the computer model. Via the service tag I only got one driver to download (ver. A06). From the link Gary sent I go the four he found. All of them worked fine so I went with the latest version (A05). Without your recommending I try a different video driver I would still be baffled b this. Thanks Gary!

    Tom
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    _GaryBlakely_
    Participating Frequently
    August 22, 2008
    Rockin' and congrats...

    Probably both nVidia and Dell. Also, it's kind of funny that the "Partner Certified" drivers didn't work, but as I recall any fonts that were already installed were working in my apps and I didn't notice a problem until I went to try to add additional fonts, so it is possible the "certification" process missed the step of adding a Type 1 font (or since our Type 1's are destined to be replaced with the new open type fonts, Type 1 confirmation wasn't part of the process at all). I think all 4 vendors involved (including MS) should have some interest in making this work and Win 2k3 SP2 did include a new version of atmfd.dll and atmlib.dll from Adobe, so somebody, somewhere is still in this code.

    I can't say this is the strangest video issue I've ever seen, but it is definitely up there. Since the failure blames the font, the code must be assuming any error at all while adding the font is related to the font files. When I was troubleshooting this and looking through some of the dev docs I did notice the GDI.exe is tied to the font activation process (a very old font related hot fix in Win2k included atmfd.dll, atmlib.dll and dern near all of the GDI components), and that is what first kick started my brain back to the basic TS step of checking for a video conflict. So much for the Hardware Abstraction Layer I suppose. I'm sure things would be worse without it (think Win 3.1), but I do wish it was little more robust in its defense against driver related weirdnesses.
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    _Jon_Reider_
    Participating Frequently
    August 22, 2008
    Wow, so I uninstalled the current driver from 6/10.
    It allowed me to install the fonts.

    So I installed the only listed older driver from 2/26. And it worked!

    Just to make sure, I uninstalled that driver (2/26) and reinstalled the newest one (6/10), and it broke it again.

    What do you guys think, should I talk to Dell support or nVidia or both?

    I have yet to read what is new in the updated driver, but at least I have a functional computer now.

    Thanks for the help guys!
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    _GaryBlakely_
    Participating Frequently
    August 22, 2008
    ahh...rough break. I was looking at Thomas's model. Sorry...

    I suspect (and can't be sure since I don't see the machines) that the 3600 in a laptop is being called a 360M since the link for Thomas's laptop model lead to the 360M. Probably worth a call to Dell to find out (and who knows they might have other drivers they can direct you to).
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    _Jon_Reider_
    Participating Frequently
    August 22, 2008
    I am running a 6300 not a 4300.
    That link is for 360 not 3600.

    Here is my driver link. Only one.
    http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/previousversions.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&SystemID=PREC_M6300&releaseid=R189269&vercnt=2&deviceid=16260&formatcnt=1&releasetype=DRVR&servicetag=&catid=-1&libid=6&impid=-1&osl=en&os=WLH
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