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_Karen_Robbins_
Known Participant
October 27, 2008
Question

missing font error on PDF conversion

  • October 27, 2008
  • 4 replies
  • 3951 views
FrameMaker book that has been updated and converted with same set of fonts and styles many times will not convert to PDF on one machine. (I use a Mac running XP in Parallels for Frame, then Distiller Mac.) The error is "findfont" looking for Helvetica-Oblique. This and all needed Helveticas are present, and I've updated this machine's Distiller's PDF font settings to know where they are--to no avail. I have set Distiller to either warn and continue or ignore missing fonts.

This same file converts with no trouble on a second Mac with the same set-up. Acrobat distills with warn and continue, the substituted and/or non-embedded fonts clearly visible in the job log, through all 182 pages of the book.

Is the problem a corrupt font? Bad settings file (and where might I locate it to replace)? Something in what Frame is generating (.ps file)? Printer driver (Acrobat printer actually hangs on either machine)? Should I post this query to the Acrobat forum?

Thanks for any insight....

Karen Robbins
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    A
    Art Campbell
    Inspiring
    October 30, 2008
    Karen,

    Why and where are you generating a PS file?

    If you print to the default Adobe PDF printer, no PS file is generated or required, unless you activate the Print to File checkbox on the Printer dialog box. Which you shouldn't do.

    Just set it up as simply as possible so you can generate a PDF. Then print the PDF to your hard printer if you need hard copy.

    Art
    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    October 31, 2008
    Art,

    >If you print to the default Adobe PDF printer, no PS file is generated or required, unless you activate the Print to File checkbox on the Printer dialog box. Which you shouldn't do.

    Just for clarification, even printing to the Adobe PDF printer
    instance, set to the PDF port, FM does actually generate a postscript
    file. It's just a transient .tps file and is automatically deleted (in
    99.9% of the cases) after Distiller has finished creating the PDF
    file. The "PDF port" is essentially a background service that manages
    the process of taking these .tps through Distiller using the specified
    joboptions and then doing some housekeeping afterwards.
    _
    _Karen_Robbins_Author
    Known Participant
    October 30, 2008
    Forgive my erroneous terminology.... Yes, FrameMaker can open the files with missing fonts. No problem finding .ps files: I actually distill manually because Distiller is on the Mac. No, I am not using a default printer that lists Helvetica Narrow Bold as a built-in font. This font occurs in a file to which I import a large amount of tabular text that is preformatted by an MML file. We've been doing it this way for more than 5 years. This will probably make you cringe: Helvetica Narrow is not, and has never been, installed on the Windows side--only on the Mac side where Distiller lives.

    There are now potentially two problems:

    1) When FrameMaker is set to a printer other than Adobe PDF, a .ps file is generated and yes, I can see where the file chokes in Distiller; if I modify the suspect font on that page, the .ps file will distill up to the next instance of that font. This problem is correctly dealt with via warn-and-continue and/or substitution settings on a second machine with the same set-up as the one on which the problem occurs. Note: Using Parallels to run Windows XP, which uses an HP printer driver to reach my physical local printer (regardless of the make/model it happens to be). On the second machine, I have network printers and several different PPDs.

    2) When the FrameMaker printer is set to Adobe PDF on the problem machine, no .ps file is generated because that printer does not find Helvetica Narrow Bold--apparently just as it should.

    Because FrameMaker can generate .ps files and Distiller can distill them on a second machine with the same (apparent) set-up, from the same source material, I want to understand what it is about the fonts, or the font substitution instruction, that is possibly causing the problem. Or, perhaps adding an additional printer PPD (one that works on the second machine) to the problem machine could clear this up?

    Thanks for more insight....

    Karen
    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    October 30, 2008
    Karen,

    A couple of issues that I see in your situation.

    First, when creating postscript files for distilling, you should only
    use the Adobe PDF printer instance to generate the postscript, as
    postscript output is device-dependent. (Aside: distilling the
    postscript on an other machine/configuration is actually using
    Distiller in a server "mode" and you really should consult the terms
    of the EULA - license - that Adobe provides with their products.) Your
    FM license on Windows installs a version of Distiller (albeit somewhat
    crippled) and that is what you are legally obligated to use unless you
    have a bona fida server license on your Mac.

    Secondly, Distiller needs to know where the fonts are located on your
    machine. When the postscript is created, FM just inserts the reference
    to the font on output and expects Distiller to be able to find it.
    Distiller's joboptions for Fonts give you the options of cancelling
    the job outright when a font isn't found, warning and continuing
    (giving you substitutions) or simply ignoring the missing font (and
    possibly creating "interesting" results). Distiller has Font Locations
    setting that tells it where to look for fonts. It's a totally manual
    process and does not automatically use the system information.

    When printing to the AdobePDF printer instance in the default Windows
    configuration, FM just pipes a postscript file through the backdoor
    routine (the PDF port) into the supplied Distiller and attempts to
    create a PDF using the joboptions specified. If you don't have the
    Helvetica Narrow installed on your Windows machine, then you will get
    the job failures or substitutions as you describe.

    The solution is to either get the Helvetica Narrow font for Windows or
    use a different entirely in your template and documents.
    _
    _Karen_Robbins_Author
    Known Participant
    October 29, 2008
    Hi Art,

    No luck. Adobe PDF printer cannot open files within the book that other printer drivers can open--and won't generate a .ps file at all. In this case, FrameMaker console reports it is looking for "Helvetica Narrow Bold" which is substituted (successfully) on other machines. This is what it was doing all along here as well, until now.

    Karen
    _
    _Kenneth_Benson_
    Participating Frequently
    October 29, 2008
    The Adobe PDF printer doesn't open files. Do you mean that Frame can't
    open your file with the default printer set to Adobe PDF? In what way?
    Frame should have no trouble opening FM files that call for fonts you
    don't have loaded.

    If you're missing Helvetica Narrow Bold, have you checked to see if it's
    installed? You were probably using a default printer that listed
    Helvetica Narrow as a PPD font, a font built into the printer. Since
    Adobe PDF is not a physical printer, it has no PPD fonts and requires
    you to actually have the font installed. This is a good thing.

    The first step in troubleshooting Acrobat problems is separating the
    printing and distilling processes. When you print to Adobe PDF, FM
    prints to a temporary postscript file, and then Acrobat distills the PS
    file, produces a PDF file, and deletes the PS file. But when you get an
    error, sometimes it's tough to figure out which program (Distiller or
    Frame) is causing it. You can change the port from Adobe PDF to File.
    Then when you print you'll be prompted for a filename. Remember where
    you put the file, then run that PS file through Distiller.

    If you print to a PS file, but you get an error distilling, then you'll
    know the problem is in the distilling part, and if you look at the log,
    you'll be able to tell what page it choked on.

    --
    Kenneth Benson
    Pegasus Type, Inc.
    www.pegtype.com
    A
    Art Campbell
    Inspiring
    October 27, 2008
    It sounds as if the system default printer is NOT set to Adobe PDF, which for most purposes it should be. If another printer is the default printer, Frame can use printer fonts that aren't resident on the computer... and if it does that, Distiller can't get to them because they're only on the physical printer, not the system.

    To test this and maybe fix it, set the default printer to Adobe PDF and try distilling again.

    Art
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