Have the LT Pro version of the font, but need to open the LT STD version

[Alexander Rott]

We have purchased a ton of fonts a couple of years ago from fonts.com and they all downloaded as LT Pro fonts (i.e. Helvetica LT Pro). A lot of clients will send us documents in Illustrator and InDesign with the same font, but with the LT STD version, but even though they should be the same style of font, Adobe programs force us to manually replace the fonts everytime when we open a new client file. Is there a feature or even maybe a plugin somewhere that will bypass this issue somehow. If we were to have the LT Pro version of the font installed, and open a document that has an LT STD font in it, it will auto replace or just accept that font since we have to Pro version? After a couple of years having to replace fonts with the same thing every once and a while its getting tedious.

[Mike_Gondek]

Use your font manager on your computer to insall.

Mac - Applications >> Font Book

Win - Control Panel >> Fonts

Of if you have a commercial product like Suitcase use that.

That the name are similar does not matter it treats like an entirely different font and will not substitute, unless syou choose the option to substitute when opening.

[Alexander Rott]

Right, I understand. We have a font managment system in place. The problem is we have ONLY the Pro fonts licensed and available. A lot of times we get files with STD fonts missing when opening and have to go through and manually replace the STD fonts with our PRO ones. I'm asking if there is a solution out there to do this automatically? Like if a STD font is missing, it will pick the PRO one. According to font suppliers, the PRO version is identical to the STD except the PRO has more language support. 

[Monika Gause]

There is nothing automatic built into Illustrator. It can probably be scripted - maybe @pixxxelschubser can answer that. But it's all different fonts that you get, right? Not the same ones that all come from a limited number of clients that have a limited number of fonts in place?

[Alexander Rott]

It is basically a select number of fonts or font families that we are finding from certain clients that come to us that we finalize before sending to print. We figured buying the PRO version of the font families would cover us for any kind of variations. But it seems like most, if not all of our clients or other agencies use the STD versions. This is odd since sites like MyFonts exclusivley only provide the PRO version (or at least their customer rep said). 

I kind of figured that there isn't any built in conversion feature with Illustrator or others. Not sure if there are any scripts or plugins out there that can help before residing to re-purchasing all of the fonts again to ensure we have the STD versions too. 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Unfortunately you are in a very small group of users. Having to use the clients font can mean that you need to remove another superior version to avoid conflicts. A font management software is the only rational way to handle this, FontBook does have some of the functionality bur it is a pain to find and handle conflicts. I am not current with font management nut Extensis Suitcase is a brand that has previously been very strong, not sure if FontExploerer is going to make a comeback (was discontinued last year)

[Alexander Rott]

This is kind of what I was afraid of. We have recieved the correct STD fonts, we just don't own them, unlike the PRO versions. We have also started using Extensis's Connect Fonts which seems to be a lot better than FontExplorer in determining which fonts to activate. Was hoping to just see if there was possibly a better solution than having multiple versions of the same font, but it doesn't look like it. It's just weird why these foundries/font sellers push the PRO versions when it only seems the STD versions are ever used. Thanks for your insight.

[pixxxelschubser]

I am sorry. I don't know of any way to intervene with scripts in the opening process and the associated font setting dialogue. Perhaps there are ways to edit the raw text of the Ai files. Unfortunately, I am not sure whether you are then moving in a legal grey area - or even leaving it.

[Bobby Henderson]

"Live" fonts are one of the more frustrating hazards of dealing with customer provided artwork and documents. If customers are just sending us a vector-based logo or other graphics elements to use we usually request they convert any type objects to raw vector outlines. Otherwise we'll need the same exact font files the client used and need to open the artwork in the same application environment.

In the case of Helvetica many font file versions of it have been released over the years. There's Postscript, True Type and OpenType variants, some of which are not cross-platform compatible. Different builds of 1957 Helvetica and 1983 "Neue" Helvetica have been bundled in the MacOS and iOS for many years. Monotype released OTF and Variable versions of Helvetica Now during the past couple or so years. Then there's all the Helveti-clone typefaces (Nimbus Sans, Swiss 721, Triumvirate, etc).

I wish the font substitution dialog box in Adobe Illustrator worked better. I think the current implementation is a bit cumbersome to use.