Font spacing different between otf and type1 font

[marcg6138656]

Hello, I have a document which is set in postscript type 1 fonts. Most of the fonts are updating without issue, but one in particular, Bliss regular, is causing problems. The otf version of the font seems to be causing random, very subtle spacing issues, line lengths in some text boxes are increasing, particularly in table cells. It's resulting in lots of overset text errors.

Is this likely to be an issue with the font or am I missing something in indesign?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Fonts from various sources are going to have differences in their shapes, hinting, kerning data and other metrics. This is true even of apparently "identical" fonts and faces, of the same name, weight, variation, etc.

The T1 fonts you are replacing are likely from one foundry or source, and the OTF fonts, from another. There's no simple solution except to fully update the document and its fonts and then tweak all style settings, then tweak copy fitting page by page. Sometimes very slight style changes (e.g. making the font width 99%) can fix nearly all substitution problems, but some page by page work is almost certainly going to be needed.

It's best to avoid those low-level style tweaks in docs that are still 'live' and being edited and updated; use them only as a shortcut to bring legacy docs back into format. Really fix the fonts, then really fix the doc, for long term stability.

[marcg6138656]

Thanks for the quick reply James. I appreciate fonts from different sources will have variances, it just seems odd that it's the one weight that seems to causing the issue and both version of the font are from the same foundry. 

[Randy Hagan]

The font may be the same. But the font metrics — the way the letterforms fit together with other letterforms — may not be. For any number of reasons. It could be a matter of how the font itself is drawn (for example, Adobe itself had at least three different sets of font metrics for its Type 1 Times New Roman font), how the font interacts with character arrangements within a given program (like InDesign) or how the font interacts with lefferfitting math tables within the operating system itself (as in Windows vs. MacOS).

And the tighter the copyfit, the more anomalies that will present themselves within this variation. Surprise copyfit changes between one version of a font vs. the next is unfortunately, a fairly common occurrence.

Randy

[marcg6138656]

Thanks Randy. I'll contact the foundry to see if they can shed any light on whether they changed the spec of the font when they moved it to the Open Type format. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'll just mildly note that it may take a long time to get a boilerplate answer that doesn't really add much. 🙂 This sort of minor shift is somewhere between endemic and universal across font foundries and eras.

That is, there's not likely to be a "fix" such as an alternate file that precisely matches the T1 font's metrics etc. And unless you're a primary licensee, I'm not sure they'd make it available in any convenient way.

But can't hurt to ask, as long as you aren't holding up any major projects on it. 🙂