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susanbauerlee72
Known Participant
June 14, 2024
Question

Problem with Roc Grotesk Variable

  • June 14, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 904 views

Hello...

 

I am experiencing a weird problem with Roc Grotesk Variable. The same issue has shown up in two projects printed at two different printers.

 

I've attached screen shots from InDesign layout and photos of the printed results. The issue occurred twice in the MIAL project and once in the LB290 project.

 

I am at a loss to describe what's happening, but it looks like some weird, random distortion. I used the font as-is and did not add any special affects.

 

The printer of the MIAL project had to eat that run because the press person didn't catch it. The  project was delivered via usps to recipients before anyone noticed what happened. The printer agreed to print a few extras so that the client could have copies for their archive, so for that run I converted the offending font to paths and everything printed as it should have.

 

The printer who printed the MIAL project gave me a complete list of steps in their process and included notes about this specific project:

A few things to mention:

  1. We like it when customers use the Adobe Font Marketplace. Using Adobe means that we have access to the same fonts used by the customer in case we need to make an edit for them.
  2. We printed the original file supplied on two different laser printers and neither of them gave us any font errors.  It was only the rip at the Indigo that there was an issue.
  3. Typically the Indigo press will provide a warning when there is a font issue.  It didn’t in this case.
  4. Since we became aware of the issue, I’ve tried sending the file to the press a few different ways; they all had the same font issues. 

 

Has anyone seen this happen before? Is this an issue that should be escalated to... someone else?

 

Thank you.

 

Susan

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

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    Bobby Henderson
    Adobe Expert
    June 16, 2024

    What types of files are you giving to the print shops doing the print work? INDD or PDF? It looks like the RIP they're using to output the job doesn't understand how to handle variable fonts. The overlaps that often occur in variable letter shapes appear to be causing the problem.

     

    Variable fonts aren't specifically supported in PDF; usually when InDesign documents containing variable fonts are saved in PDF format the fonts are converted to static instances. But the overlaps in the letter forms may remain. One solution would be converting the affected text objects to outlines and using pathfinder operations to weld over the overlaps in the letters. Another work-around: syncing the static styles of Roc Grotesk at Adobe Fonts. But the static styles may not cover the variable instances you were using in your document.

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    susanbauerlee72Author
    Known Participant
    June 16, 2024

    Both projects were InDesign documents output to PDF and went thru proofing as intended.

     

    The problem in the MIAL project apparently didn't show up until the rip on their Indigo.

     

    The LB project was a completely different document and printer, also went thru proofing, and we didn't see it until we had magazines in hand, so likely also didn't show up until the rip. This one wasn't that big of a deal, but it showed me that there's a problem with the font.

     

    I didn't create any new variables... I used a couple of the faces that came with the family, and it may be just the wide face is the only one that screwed up.

     

    I converted the problematic fonts to paths for a reprint for the MIAL project, but I have since removed the entire Roc Grotesk Variable family from my fonts list. 

     

    B
    Bobby Henderson
    Adobe Expert
    June 16, 2024

    IIRC, the static version of Roc Grotesk doesn't have any overlaps in the letters. They wouldn't cause any issues in the Indigo RIP. But Adobe Fonts carries only so many static styles of Roc Grotesk out of the 90 or so available. The variable version has many thousands of possible combinations.

     

    One of the things that is most badly needed is the PDF spec needs to be improved so it supports variable fonts natively (and accounts for the possible overlaps present in the letters). Some graphics applications will automatically convert variable fonts to outlines when a document is saved in PDF format. Adobe's applications tend to generate static instances. But in either case if the letters have overlaps in their designs those overlaps are going to be carried over into the resulting PDF files.

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