FrameMaker script/utility to collect fonts?

[FrameMaker-dk]

As the heading says - is there a script/utility which will allow a user to collect the fonts used in a document? I remember that there once was a script - or perhaps it was a plugin - which would do the trick?

Bjørn

[Bob_Niland]

What is meant by collect?
Merely report as a list?

If you render to PDF, Acrobat has a tab to report Fonts in File»Properties, although subsetted fonts can get odd re-namings.

[FrameMaker-dk]

I mean collect like when you use the "Package" utility. I want the script to create a copy of the fonts used in the document in a separate folder. This is a standard feature in InDesign and often wish it was a standard feature in FrameMaker.

[K.Daube]

IMHO there is/was no such script available (FrameScript, ES). Such a script must not only look into the catalogues but must look into all paragraphs and graphic Text Lines to build the list of used fonts. IMHO there is no easy way to get the list which is provided in the Fonts panel.

Do you  have an urgent need for this?

[FrameMaker-dk]

I don't have an urgent need for this feature. But I feel pretty sure that such a utility/script has existed. Somewhere... 🙂

I work as a serviceprovider so the business of sending files back and forth between me and my customers could benefit from a more effective way of handling fonts.

[LinSims]

Are you saying that you need to be sure that your customers have the same fonts available when they open your files as you do? Are we talking FM files, MIF, XML, or PDFs?

If it's FM files, they'll need to have the font installed on their system, which may involve purchase of a license. If it's PDF files, you can ensure it looks the same on their system as on yours by altering the PDF settings to embed the fonts you know are in use in the PDF itself.

Silicon Prairie has a plugin called Paragraph Tools that can give you a report listing all the paragraph tags in use in the document (and one for character tags, too). A different function of the same tool lists all the settings for all the tags or for a selected tag.

If you're handy with scripts like python or ruby or javascript, you could probably write a script that goes through MIF versions of your files and find the fonts in use. I think it'd be a real pain, though.

As far as I know, there is no script or plugin that can read FM files (or even MIF files) and extract only a list of the fonts being used in the book. That's a pretty specific need. One of the scripters here might be able to help you, but I suspect it will not be cheap.

I have no idea if it's possible to do what you want on an XML file, but I imagine it would be since both XML and MIF are text only formats.

[FrameMaker-dk]

Hi Lin

We are talking about FM files. Customers may ask me to do edits of all sorts and send me their FM files. I have been in business for many years, so I have a vast collection of fonts but not ALL the fonts in the entire world.

Some customers are not entirely sure where the font files are located on their computers and explaining things can be a hassle. Also I myself can be in the position that I send documents to customers and they complain that I have used fonts I was not aware were used - because I have a lot of fonts installed.

These issues are very common in the dtp world and that is where InDesign is great because measures have been taken to enable designers to transfer documents in a solid manner with all links, fonts etc. I wish things were as easy in FM world.

[LinSims]

Hmmm. You're sending them edited FM files and they're suddenly seeing fonts they don't have? Is that because you don't have the font they used so FM is substituting one you do have instead and updating all the tags to use your fonts?

ETA: Also, when you open a file in FM that uses fonts you don't have, you can get a list of them in the Console.

[FrameMaker-dk]

I take my work where I can find it. Meaning that I have multiple clients. Some are very professional users of design tools and know where they keep their fonts, what they use and what they do not use and what the difference is between otf and ttf. And some clients just use FrameMaker. They are hired to write and that is what they do. Where fonts are stored, where they come from and whether they are missing or not - they don't know. Thing is -  I have to make the collaboration work and in order to do so, I have to make things work for the client. If the client buys one of my templates and can't figure out where to get Gadugi or some other font I have used - I have to help them.

FrameMakers ability to accurately show and work with fonts is not super good. Font usage may "hide" in settings, reference pages, graphics etc. Font references which have been replaced using the fonts panel are not deleted from the file and may appear as missing, even if they are used nowhere in the document.

[LinSims]

Ouch.

At this point, the only thing I can think of is to convert the files to MIF, do a search & replace of the font name/family with a text editor, then reopen in FM and save. As I said, I'm unaware of any script or plugin that does what you ask. 

You might try the Leximation site, though. At one point, Scott Prentice was trying to keep an up-to-date collection of links to all the scripts and plugins he was aware of. Something may have popped up in the last year or so.

ETA: Leximation lists a FrameScript called Report Font Usage, by itl, but the link goes nowhere. I don't know if the company still exists.

[K.Daube]

«Leximation lists a FrameScript called Report Font Usage, by itl, but the link goes nowhere. I don't know if the company still exists.»

The company itl still exists, but has ceased to market (end of 2020) their excellent [i]-Frame script suite. I'm very disappointed about this, because they were very helpful. I have them still - but when running, they report hat the test time has expired. For obvious reasons they are all compiled (fsi), not in source form (fsl).

[LinSims]

Well, nuts. That is too bad.

[K.Daube · Accepted solution]

In the current issue the itl script would not help either: It collected the fonts from the following locations:

Paragraph and Character formats; Body- Master- and Reference Pages; Table Format (even the hidden titles).

That would provide the same collection as by an analysis of a MIF file (not form Text Insets or referenced graphics such as SVG or PDF).

[FrameMaker-dk]

Sounds better than nothing to me 🙂 My main issue here is that Adobe provides little support out of the box for collaboration in the traditional fashion. I send a book/files to you and you send some back. InDesign streamlines that process completely. Package will create a folder with files, fonts, links and even idml versions of the files. Press a button and you are ready to send the entire job to your colleague. FrameMaker provides out of the box a - somewhat working, very limited function which will only collect what is in the folder.

While I can drop a mif into notepad++ and find all font references and afterwards dig the font files out of the fonts folder, this is by and large a cumbersome process. I am using ArchiveES almost daily. It is excellent but I really wish it could do some more tricks like saving mif files along with the fm files and copy fonts out into a folder.

[FrameMaker-dk]

@K.Daube Thanks for the update on the ITL script! I've never managed to buy FrameScript when it was still alive and ITL script was what I remembered. Pity they gave up on producing these utilities.

[LinSims]

I think FrameScript still exists. 

Rick also has a utility for saving FM files to other versions of FM and also to MIF. I believe the files are saved in the same directory, but it's not one I use.

[LinSims]

Ah, hah. There is (or was) one offered by a company called itl.

https://www.itl.eu/de/blog/framemaker-optimieren-archivieren/kopieren-des-aktuellen-dokuments-oder-b...

The page hasn't been updated in a while. They may have it available in ExtendScript by now.

ETA: the only difference I see between this and Rick's Archive plugin is that you have an option to archive the fonts used in the documents, but only the ones on the body pages.

[Bob_Niland]

I might add that searching MIFs for fonts has material limitations. It won't see:

• fonts used in text insets
• fonts used in imported-by-ref EPS, PDF, SVG
• possibly including fonts resulting from substitutions.