Unable to generate a PDF file for 1 of 3 books

Report · Oct 26, 2011

I'm making three documents (books) in FrameMaker and then converting to PDF. The first two books generated to PDF with no "major" problems. There were a couple of glitches here and there but most were simply operator error. This forum solved two of my problems.

Now, with the third book, I can't generate the PDF and get error messages in the log file. I've gone back and triple checked everything and can't find a thing that's different between this last book and the first two. I've used the same templates and all of the paragraph formats and character formats are identical in all three documents.

I'm setting all of the PDF setup parameters the same. In the Adobe PDF setup, I've made certain that the "Rely on system fonts only..." check box is unchecked.

One of the error messages in the log file says,

%%[ Warning: LucidaSans cannot be embedded because of licensing restrictions. ]%%

%%[ Font vendor (B&H) does not permit this font to be embedded in PDF. ]%%

This would make sense if Lucida Sans font were only used in this one book. But it's used in the first two books as well and they generate as PDF with no problems. In fact, just to make sure, I went back and generated one of the first books over again and it worked perfectly.

The only significant (?) difference in the third book is that it is much larger than the first two. It runs to 150 pages while the first two are 45 pages and 70 pages. But I've worked with books as large as 450 pages in the past.

I've been creating the PDF documents by the FM Save as PDF feature. But because of this problem, I downloaded and installed a trial version of Acrobat X. Then printed to PS file, opened with Acrobat and tried to distill. Got the same results and the same error messages.

My experience with FrameMaker and Adobe in general is that error messages and indicated results may be cryptic and sometimes have absolutely nothing to do with the actual problem. In any event, I'm totally snowed by this one. (I really shouldn't pick on Adobe for that. Microsoft is much worse when it comes to vague and cryptic error messages!)

Sure wish I had a Mac right now. Or Linux. Or...

Report · Oct 26, 2011

The error message is telling you what's going on. One specific font (i.e. the B&H Lucida Sans version) in your third book is not allowed to be embedded in PDF files. Check the other files to see which foundry versions of Lucida Sans are being used. There may be different licensing restrictions (i.e. you can print to an attached printer only - check the EULA that came with the font). FWIW, the Microsoft & Adobe versions can be embedded, as well as the Monotype Ascender (with a Commercial Product license). The Linotype version seems to allow only printing.

See also this link on why Lucida Sans won't embed in PDFs:

http://www.ascenderfonts.com/info/help/general-font-questions.aspx#Embed

Report · Oct 27, 2011

Thank you very much for the input. That makes perfect sense to me. The Lucida fonts are, indeed, all from Bigelow & Holmes (B&H). So that explains the difficulties I was encountering. Now, here’s where it gets a little weird.

I created the first two pdf files at work. I work about half of the time from home and was trying to create the pdf file yesterday at home. And that didn’t work. This morning, I loaded all of the files back into the computer in the office and tried again. No problem! Created a nice looking 162-page pdf file. Oh, I did say it got weird, didn’t I? Well, the computer at home and the one at work are both running the same version of Win 7 Pro, the same versions of FM10 and Acrobat X. And the Lucida fonts installed (probably the default set with Windows) are all B&H fonts. That’s right; the same on both computers.

Your input was very helpful because I might have continued spinning my wheels for another day or so on this thing. As it is, I’m considering the matter solved because I just won’t try to make pdf files from these three documents at home. The other alternative would be to use a different font. Umm, no, not at this time. All of the body paragraphs are Lucida Sans. What a task that would be! The other alternative, of course, is to spend a few bucks and by fonts for my home computer that have the proper licensing.

Again, thanks!