Embedding fonts used in FM source files to produce PDF

[Spectrum Writing]

I have cross-posted to the Adobe Acrobat forum as well.

Hello,

This is post is going to be cross-posted to the Framemakers forum as well but I thought that I would try here first.

I am Windows 11, 64 bit and have Framemaker 2019 installed and updated to date for the last version available. I have Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 also installed and updated to the latest version available. I have the Roboto Font Family installed in C:\Windows\Fonts. I have confirmed that all the fonts are properly installed. They are the Open Type fonts available from Google that I received from a client (and they from Google) and these are the exact same fonts that are available from https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/roboto. (In fact, there is even the disclaimer for these fonts on the Adobe site that they are from Google.)

In Framemaker, when I am setting up my template and creating the necessary paragraph tags, all the installed Roboto font families are available on the Font tab in the Paragraph Designer and all the available variations w/in these families (Bold, Italic) are available as options, so all is working correctly in Framemaker 2019.

I always use the Publishing option in Framemaker to produce my PDFs. However, I always create a custom settings/job options file that stipulates the fonts that I want to embed for a specific template/client. (It's the standard procedure to do so, but for reference, see https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-framemaker-how-to-edit-the-pdf-preset-list/.) 

When I am creating the custom job options file in Distiller 2020, this is where I run into the issue: Adobe Distiller is NOT recognizing all the installed Roboto fonts. In the Fonts source list, C:\Windows\Fonts,  only a very small subset of all the installed Roboto fonts are available for selection. And it appears to be helter skelter as to which fonts are available for embedding and which are not. For example, none of the Roboto Thin variations and none of the Roboto Light variations are available, Roboto Black is available, but not Roboto Black Italic and yet all the variations of the Roboto Condensed (Bold, Italic, etc. ) are. And for reference, https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/fonts-not-showing-in-the-menu.html, none of these possible reasons is applicable and again, I have confirmed these reasons are not applicable with Adobe. Acrobat is simply not recognizing these fonts and I cannot create the needed custom job options file to properly embed the needed fonts in the final PDF.

I have been working with Adobe on this issue and they are just as stymied right now as I am and right now, so I thought that I would reach out to the community to see if anyone has run into this issue and what they did to resolve it.

And I have confirmed emphatically with Adobe support that Framemaker 2019 and Acrobat Pro 2020 do absolutely work and are supported on Windows 11.  So far, FM2019 is cooperating, but the even newer product Adobe Acrobat Pro is the one giving me fits.

Thanks!

TVB

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Could it be something to do with the rights to embed those font variations? Were you ever able to embed them before?

[Spectrum Writing]

Yes, I was able to embed them before. The only difference was Windows 10 at this point - I know that I am grasping at straws but . . .

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

Do you have all the fonts available in Word or other applications (Illustrator, etc.)?

Could it be that some fonts are not shown, because this specific variation is handled with the font option in the character/paragraph designer  - like Regular/Bold/Italic? (Probably you have checked this already.)

What happens, when Distiller does not recognize the fonts in the Embed list? They are probably still used in your PDF, aren't they? What does Acrobat say, when you click Edit and select such text? Which font is this?

Good luck!

Best regards, Winfried

[Spectrum Writing]

Winfried,

Thank you! I actually combined your reply with another thought: in Distiller, when editing a job options file, you can acutally manually add the names of fonts that you want to embed, so I manually added the missing font names, and saved the job options file/settings file, used this settings file to generate a PDF, and then opened the PDF in Acrobat on a system that absolutely does NOT have roboto fonts installed and the PDF looked just fine - I then used your suggestion of editing the PDF and selecting a paragraph that used one of the fonts that was a manually added font name in the settings file and voila! It was indeed one of the fonts that I had manually added. The font is being embedded!!!!!

Thank you for this suggestion. I have been so fried setting up a new system for the past week (absolutely NOT by choice) that a simple test like this eluded me. My brain is fried!! Thank you again.

Tammy

[Bob_Niland]

If Roboto is an OTF Variable font, was it installed as a Variable, or were the Static instances installed?

FM doesn't support Variable fonts yet, so the statics (if supplied) need to be used for stable results.

[Spectrum Writing]

Thank you Bob. See my reply to Winfried above. I believe I can actually function now.

[Spectrum Writing · Accepted solution]

OK, so that I can reply to everyone in one fell swoop: 

I actually got the issue resolved as I said before, but then afte some assistance and a wonderful conversation with the long gone but still extremely missed Dov, things are even better!! First, know that for many reasons, the fonts from the Google site and the  Adobe site differ in the font versions and for many reasons (and not particular good reasons), so I was given explicit instructions NOT to download the fonts from the Adobe site but go to the source, Google itself. The next issue/conversation topic involved how Microsoft also does not want to play nicely with fonts, whether with other vendors such as Adobe or incredibly their own users. In Windows 11, when you right-click a font to install it, you see a single option to "Install" on the context menu. If, however, you hold down the CTRL key and then click the font, and then click More options on the "new" context menu, the classic Windows context menu opens (the one that users have seen since forever) and it's on that menu that you get the option "Install for all users." That is how you absolutely should install a font on a Windows OS again for reasons that were explained to me and how it bypasses some of the cr*p that MS also tries with fonts. Now, when I open Adobe Distiller, and select Settings > Edit Adobe PDF Settings and open the Fonts tab, in the Embedding Font Source list, EVERY SINGLE Roboto font that I installed is displayed - not one is missing. I am back in business and many thanks to Dov and the community members for confirming exactly some of the concerns that I had and what I did to resolve them.

[Winfried Reng]

Tammy, good that you got the solution! And very good that Dov helped! I also miss him!

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Glad to hear that you got the issue resolved!!

For clarity, was the underlying issue that Roboto was only installed for a specific user on your machine?

[Bob_Niland]

Matt: …was the underlying issue that Roboto was only installed for a specific user on your machine?

Whether or not the case in this case, I'm wondering why that would matter. One conjecture is that in recent FMs, not all output workflows execute in their entirety as the authoring user. Some spawned:parallel processes could be a different user or group. How FM itself was installed might come into play.

But it looks like, in FM, a PDF rendering defect checklist might include:

• Install fonts for all users
  (and they aren't, by default)
• If a Google font, get it from Google
• If an OTF Variable font, install only the Static instances

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

It sounded to me like skullduggery on the part of MS, remedied when "fully installing" the fonts in question. Just wondering if Tammy felt the same.

As I told Tammy offline, it's harder to track down when using "older" s/w with "newer" OS.

Perhaps superstition on my part, but I avoid TTF fonts at all costs. I have gotten burned far too many times across a Myriad (sorry, couldn't resist a good font pun) of output engines.

[Spectrum Writing]

Yep, I definitely felt the same and that feeling wasn't too off the mark - definitely confirmed by some key points that I learned about the whole fonts issue of us (Adobe) vs them (Microsoft) from someone who lived it for 30+ years. As it was elegantly said to me, "Remember, "font" is a four letter word that starts with an "f."" :)-

Again, thanks to everyone on this forum and Bob, you summed it up very nicely.