Missing Fonts in a PDF

[Tubbsdad]

Since 2014 I have been using InDesign to create monthly print publication magazines. I export to High res PDF’s for my printer and then package the files into a folder with fonts and links. I use the PDF created in Packaging to create an online flipbook (3DISSUE) for my website.

For the first time ever  the 3DIssue software is now  reporting missing fonts – although strangely only replacing some of the text with a different font. Checking the properties in Acrobat shows the fonts are embedded.

3Dissue are saying the fault must lie in the PDF ( they very kindly sent me a link to a 2017 Youtube video showing how to embed fonts in Adobe Acrobat Pro)

Any thoughts anyone?

Anybody got any clues

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

Are you using activated online Adobe Fonts in your work?

While it's generally true that you can "embed" online Adobe Fonts on your system, there can be complications. Like if you haven't used an online font in 150 days or more, you'll need to download/activate it again before you can continue with it. Or occasional mysterious anomalies like you're experiencing like "you're sure the fonts are there, they're listed in the PDF properties, but your vendor hasn't got them so the job won't run."

Try packaging your job within InDesign and let InDesign corral all the fonts used in your job ... or not. But at least in this case, you'll know what's used in the job and what will be used to produce the PDF from your packaging preflight utilities.and check the options to create PDFs and IDML files so you have sotmething to compare with the problem PDFs at your vendor's shop.

Give this a shot and get back with us with what you discover after packaging your InDesign job and checking your packaging preflight/PDF properties after packaging the job.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Tubbsdad · Accepted solution]

This seems to be the final  (inconclusive)conclusion to this problem - 3DISSUE had all my files back and embedded all the fonts in Acrobat Pro - I checked  them and ran them through their software again and uploaded them. Attached are three email exchanges between us with the final one from them stating they will be sorry to lose me but will cancel my subscription as they have only had 15 customers out of 10000 in 12 years with this problem.

I have found their approach to this situation strange - when I said "You are missing the point completely that the file used is the same file that the printer managed to use to print all 51,000 copies of our magazines successfully. You are also missing the point that over the 12 years I have been using 3DIssue there have been many updates to Windows, Microsoft Publisher, AdobeInDesign – all of which have produced a PDF that our commercial printers have successfully printed from and 3DIssue has rolled up successfully into a Flipbook for online posting.
If you continue stating that the problem lies outside your software you leave me no alternative"

They seem adamant that the situation is nothing to do with them.

Thanks to everybody on the forum for their input

[Tubbsdad · Accepted solution]

I have marked all of the answers correct in this thread - as they were.

Extremely grateful to everyone who replied with helpful suggestions, particularly Randy and Uwe.

I have now kicked 3DIssue in to touch and cancelled my subscription - I will be using the Digtal Publishing tool within InDesign from now on to publish my magazines online - it's not a flipbook but does the job just as well, particularly when viewed on phones and mobile devices.

Thanks again, everyone

[barbara_a · Accepted solution]

Randy Hagan has some excellent pointers. Another thing you could try -- in the Export Adobe PDF dialog box, click on Advanced on the left side of the dialog and under the Fonts heading, select zero where it says 'Subset fonts when percent of characters used is less than:"

[Tubbsdad]

Thanks will try that

[Tubbsdad]

Thanks for that

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Can you show us a screen shot of the Document Properties for one of the suspect files?

[Tubbsdad]

This is the missing fonts message in 3DIssue and the Adobe Acrobat properties check - the thrid screenshot is the online version of the Potting Shed Feature and the 3DIssue software has replaced some text in Arial with Minion Pro or Times New Roman - but not all of it?

[Tubbsdad]

Thanks Randy

The weird bit is that INDD has packaged my fonts and the PDF that has gone to my commercial litho printer has worked perfectly and the printed magazines (all 51,000 of them) look exactly as I set them up - fontwise. It is only when I take that same PDF and run it through 3DIssue software that I get the " Missing Fonts warning - when I check in Adobe Acrobat I get all font embedded message.

3DIssue are saying that it must the way Adobe is producing the PDF ( or the way I am exporting) - it cannot be their software.

This has never happened before and I do the same thing every month - month in and month out

[Randy Hagan]

Is 3DIssue a new vendor?

Did this workflow used to work with 3DIssue, but not now? Or did this workflow work fine, but not until you started working with 3DIssue? And most importantly, can you identify specific fonts that aren't making the trip through 3DIssue or are the results seeming random with any fonts in the files?

If this has previously worked with 3DIssue, it's time to search for what variables have changed with your latest issues which might have tilted the board. InDesign update? 3DIssue update? New fonts in the production pipeline? Other variables?

But if you're new to 3DIssue, the variables will be harder to find because the new production workflow is chock ful'o'variables. One thing I get from the screen captures you provided is that you're using a lot of indicated TrueType fonts, and that they are entirely subsetted. It might be worth it to:

1) try embedding the entire font into your jobs (change the threshold for embedding fonts in your PDF Export Preset from 100% to 0%, as shown below:

The downside is that file sizes will grow dramatically, because every font you use will be embedded in the job. Depending on how your pubs are designed — and whether you're building custom advertising for your pubs — this could be much larger.

2) If you can identify specific fonts which cannot make the trip, try a font substitution for those offending fonts and see if it makes any difference. While, in general terms, there's nothing wrong with TrueType fonts per se, there are lots of TrueType fonts which are of questionable quality because corners were cut as they were developed to meet a cheap price point and it shows in the end product. Jus' sayin' ...

3) If everything went wrong when you started using 3DIssue for your website flipbooks, you may want to explore a different tool for the job just to compare results and see if the problem continues. If you want to experiment with that, you can find alternatives here: https://www.g2.com/products/3d-issue-flipbook/competitors/alternatives

Hopefully there's an answer in here that will get you out of your jam. And, if as you reported 3DIssue has found a way around the problem for you, you may want to quiz them about their magic fix. And if you'd be so kind, share that here so others who may find themselves in the same trick bag can work their way out of it in the future.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Tubbsdad]

Randy

Thanks - I have been working with 3Dissue since 2009 and up until this month have neve had this issue. They have now returned my files and have stopped the problem by embedding the font using Acrobat pro and setting the subset fonts to zero. As you say this has increased the size and re-running the PDF's through 3DIssue is taking about 20-25 minutes per titles - with 5 titles that's a chunk of myy life I cannot spare - thanks for the competitor info - might be time to look for a change of vendor.

Many thanks for the advice

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

Please excuse me for injecting myself in your business, but you need to fire these guys.

As Uwe Laubender offers below, opening PDFs in Adobe Illustrator to review — much less modify — is fraught with peril. While embedding all your fonts (and all of the characters in your fonts) in your pub files is good practice, and you should be doing it as a matter of course, they're pretty explicit here in telling you that your business is more trouble than it's worth to them.

I've had two clients who have had excellent results working with Issuu. No automated ebook/flipbook solution I've had experience with has no problems, but these folks have a solid track record, and are willing to fix things when they go wrong. And for one of my clients, the first thing they fixed for 'em was recovering the mess from a previous ebook vendor.

Nobody wants to switch vendors on deadline. And from the sound of it, the folks you're dealing with are counting on that. Embedding fonts seems to work as a short-term solution, so while you consider it an inconvenience and time drag to do that, I'd churn through prepping your files for your current vendor and explore alternatives. Then I'd take them up on the offer — take the money, leave the aggravation.

Good luck,

Randy

[Laubender]

Hi Tubbsdad,

the only workaround I can think of is to convert the fonts to outlines using Acrobat Pro:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Tubbsdad]

Thanks Uwe

It looks as if that is going to be the way forward (although why after years of not having to do that?)

3DISSUE have now sent me back my file and I have proved that ot works so just waiting to see what they did to it.

Cheers

[Abambo]

What happens when you replace the fonts missing in 3DIssue temporarily in InDesign?

What you could also try is to use the print function of InDesign to create the PDF file. As this is not the recommended way of creating a print PDF, it may work as a workaround.

Outlining the fonts will make your document unsearchable.

A different thing to try: take an old document and create a new PDF and check if that PDF is imported correctly by 3DIssue.

You can also try installing the prior version of InDesign and check if the export works there.

A last point: If 3DIssue claims that the problem is with Adobe, but the prepress processing and printing did not detect or produce problems, it still may be that 3DIssue is the troublemaking element here.

[Laubender]

"Attached are three email exchanges between us with the final one from them stating they will be sorry to lose me but will cancel my subscription as they have only had 15 customers out of 10000 in 12 years with this problem."

Hi Tubbsdad,

now the fog is clearing, I think.

They actually have to open the supplied PDFs with Adobe Illustrator?

Is that the message? Well, they are in trouble. You simply cannot reliably open any PDF file in Adobe Illustrator that contains "live" text that is not converted to outlines. Illustrator is not a PDF editor.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )