Font issues when exporting to PDF

[johnd59898678]

I am runnig the most recent version of InDesign CC on a 2019 MacPro Monterey (just installed InDesign update a few days ago when alerted).

I have a job with 15 layers of artwork that can be turned on one at a time in addition to a common background layer that stays active. I export each one of the 15 combinations to Print PDF (all vector content, mostly text). This is for some signs printed annually at a Las Vegas show (cloned the file from last year which worked perfectly and used the same fonts).

When I sent the 15 PDFs to the printer, they said they could not use 5 of the files because the "fonts were not available"? When I looked at the files most of the problems were with (2) OTF fonts I had purchased (Hangbird & Magneton). Here is the mystery... Magneton embedded perfectly with no issues on "some" of the PDFs? Hangbird was on two signs and was set as a 2-line text block (unchanged from last year) - the first line was outlined on export however looked correct, but the second line was using the editable font but not available in the PDF? I then tried removing the second line of text and creating a new text block underneath the first line and the exported PDF did the same thing!

So, sometimes it "outlined" certain text on export. In one case, it did not outline Magneton and just defaulted to a text block still showing as the missing font Magneton, but looked like Aerial? The two files using Hangbird, the first line somehow outlined itself and the second line was editable, but font missing?

I tried doing a Save As to a new file and same issues?

Any ideas?

[Eugene Tyson]

Where did you purchase the fonts?
And what is the EULA state for embedding the fonts in exported pdfs?

If they look ok on your end you can outline them in the PDF - which is better option.

In Acrobat go to the Preflight Tools

Just make sure the EULA of the font allows this - or else you're in breach of the license you agreed to when you bought it.

You should contact the font vendor to see if they have a version that allows proper embedding.

[johnd59898678]

This is worth looking into a a fix oving forward, but the same fonts worked fine in the same document last year?

[Eugene Tyson]

What fix are you looking for? I don't understand.

If it worked fine before then it would work  fine now. 

I'm not sure I understand your concerns. 

Sometimes print vendors can be bad - is it the same print vendor?
Perhaps they're 'opening' the PDF in a program they shouldn't - which they shouldn't do.

It's hard to know what's going on.

Can you please elaborate further if you can?

[johnd59898678]

I did some further research and testing today.

First, I opened one of the saved PDFs from this InDesign document from last year and "some" of the PDFs showed the same behavior when opened in Illustrator (some lines "outlined", others not)?

So, I created a new fresh InDesign TEST document today and created two test paragraphs using two different fonts. I then exported that document to PDF and the PDF opened in Acrobat without any warnings or issues that I could tell. Then I opened that same PDF in Illustrator and got this warning dialog:

Once the document opened in Illustrator, when I went into Outline-Mode, it appears that every other line in the paragraphs was "outined" in the PDF exported from InDesign??? 

I then copied an pasted the two TEST paragraphs from InDesign into a new document in Illustrator and exported that as a PDF from Illustrator. That PDF created from Illustrator opened without warnings or outlines in both Acrobat AND Illustrator. So it appears that this problem only shows up when exporting a PDF from InDesign?

I also pulled up one of the font purchases from MyFonts:

When I read the EULA, I see no issues: https://www.myfonts.com/pages/license-agreement?id=eula_1575

[Eugene Tyson · Accepted solution]

Opening a pdf created in InDesign is always problematic when opening in illustrator. It should not be done.

It was likely a legacy style or nested style as you aluded to earlier

[johnd59898678 · Accepted solution]

OK. Apparently all the printers in Las Vegas we have used are using Illustrator or some other similar software to print PDFs from. I guess the only solution for me is to switch from InDesign to Illustrator to create future sign PDFs. They never had these font problems with PDFs created from AI.

[Eugene Tyson]

They shouldn't be opening files in illustrator to print from. Crazy

Yes. A pdf saved from illustrator with illustrator editing capabilities enabled.