Type-1 Fonts

[Christopher3440329747o5]

Why on God's earth would Adobe drop being able to use Type-1 fonts?

WOW! Really?

Any sollutions? I mean after 30 years of T1 fonts - I hope they have a solution.

[BobLevine]

Honestly, it's apparent you've done zero research and only came here to vent. I hope it's helped to make you feel better.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

Just annoyed. Yes feeling better! I am sure I am not the only one who hates change.

[Peter Spier]

A better solution is to spend a little time teaching these designers how to properly prepare their files. I know from experience having done prepress and seeing near every possible mistake. How much do you charge for fixing files?

[Christopher3440329747o5]

Um isn't that why they go to college? To learn how to do this? I am not here to teach them. It's impossible so that is why we have to fix the files. Hell - some are in China and don't speak English. You can teach them.

I don't charge enough.

[Peter Spier]

Do you have job specifications you provide so clients know what is expected?

My biggest peeve with a lot of printers (and I'm not saying this is you) is a complete lack of information on what is expected, and particularly any indication of the correct color profiles to use to the right output. The sales staff that are the contacts for my clients don't know the answers, and pretty much never let me speak to someone in pre-press or the in-house art staff.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

Dude - this is the best response I have gotten - THANK YOU! I have been in the prepress world for 35 years from commercial to packaging and I will tell you this - one would need to write a bible on all the things we as prepress people do to files to ensure they go to print without a flaw. The last thing a printer wants is for something to be printed, diecut, glued and folded just to find out something is wrong with the job and $100K is going into the trash and believe me - it has happened. As a high end printer / prepress person - it is our job to continue a project from the designer to ensure that there are no problems and the cutomer is happy. So if you do have questions - I would be more than happy to answer them if I can. No one knows everything - even after 35 years but I have seen a lot and worked on more things than most people. NOT JUST DROPPING A PDF INTO A RIP! HAHA. Oh how I wish it was that easy!

[rob day]

I have been in the prepress world for 35 years from commercial to packaging

And you just noticed that Type 1 fonts have not been sold for the last 20 years and are EOL?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Yeah, I guess after 35 years I'm still learning. One thing I learned right at the outset was "don't take jobs from people who just bought a Mac and PageMaker." We were one of the first shops that neither took live-file jobs nor sent them out, and I still have little regard for "designers" who can make a purty picture on the screen but are dependent on someone else to turn that sketch into something that will actually print.

That was an unusual stance in 1992. It's the industry standard now. But if you choose to do all of your customers' work for them just to print some boxes, it would seem... useful to modernize your methods. Maybe not.

By the way, I do packaging design. Haven't sent a printer/converter anything but PDF for decades.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

This cracks me up! I love some of these comments. DESIGNERS ARE NOT PREPRESS PEOPLE. Most of them now a days don't even know what CMYK or PANTONE is. They are GEN Z web designers who got a design job for print. The last time they saw packaging was when they looked at the phone and searched Amazon for a product.

If designers had the skill (most don't because they are DESIGNERS) to be prepress then print shops WOULDN'T NEED PREPRESS PEOPLE!

[rob day]

so then what?

PDF/X with the fonts embedded.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Modern printing begins and ends with PDF, which is platform, app and (largely) font independent.

The days of sending live PageMaker files and having to match up font installations ended around 2000.

[Peter Spier]

So if you have a luddite client base (and folks who know me here will tell you that describes me) and you want to continue to serve them, then you maintain your museum pieces and software, but you don't complain about upgrading to new tech for those clients that want to use it.

I, too, have not sent anything for print other than PDF in twenty years. And it's even easier now with PDF/X and embedded profiles.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

I will stop using matches to light a fire because THAT IS SO OUTDATED!

Not 1 single project I got in working for a packaging printer came in as a PDF. Native files are ALWAYS needed. The client doens't always use the correct CAD so it needs to be altered. 

Wow I wish I had your guys job. Must be exciting!

[BobLevine]

Then you need the hardware and software to support them. That's on you; not on the rest of us to live in the 1990s.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

I have the latest hardware and software and it sucks!

[Peter Spier]

I have the latest hardware and software and it sucks!

By @Christopher3440329747o5

and it isn't what you need for servicing clients who DON'T use the latest.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As noted, you don't seem to be interested in anything but venting because things had the consarned dag-nab temerity to change over twenty years.

If you're still working with customer-submitted live files, it's the equivalent of not matches, but flint and tinder. Seriously. The shift to PDF as print submissions eliminated 95% of the sheer labor and hassle of taking things to commercial print. But by all means, keep carrying outdated customers on your back. Yours are probably the last left in the world.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

Oh sure so you wont eat because most of the packaging is food. Cosmetics. Pharm. 

HAHA - ya a multi-billion $$$ world wide printer will tell their clients to ONLY SEND PDF's 100% PERFECT from now on. 

HAHA!

[Peter Spier]

Do you tell these clients that their files are deficient or that there are alternatives? If not you guarantee they will continue to submit files that you have to fix, and that costs everyone money.

Last fall I submitted some Illustator-generated AutoCad-formatted files to a laser cutting sign company. This workflow is well outside my comfort zone, and apparently their software didn't like my files so instead of calling me to see if I could correct them they re-worked them in house and billed me. I complained, and the owner of the company admitted that they should have called me and refunded the extra costs. It benefits both sides to work together to solve these problems -- me so I don't do it again, and them so they can give good advice the next time someone says they only have Illustrator.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

You can lead a hore to water but you can't make it drink. Designers DO NOT HAVE THE PREPRESS SKILLS NEEDED. There are so many things a prepress person does to make sure they project goes to print without a flaw. Very few designers have these skills.

[Peter Spier]

Designers DO NOT HAVE THE PREPRESS SKILLS NEEDED. There are so many things a prepress person does to make sure they project goes to print without a flaw. Very few designers have these skills.

By @Christopher3440329747o5

Then I guess those of us who are talking to you here must be abberations.

And I'll repeat that if nobody is telling these "new" designers that their work cannot be printed they will never learn how to do it right.

None of this, of course, has the least bit to do with dropping support for T1 fonts.

[Christopher3440329747o5]

There are designers older than me who have been designing for 40+ years that don't know printing. They are not printers. They DESIGN!

[Christopher3440329747o5]

Why do we need doctors when we can just have nurses do the work. I mean they work side by side so shouldn't a nurse learn what a doctor does and then just get rid of the doctor? 

[Peter Spier]

I guess you haven't had much exposure to healthcare recently....

[BobLevine]

Keep digging. That hole is getting deeper and deeper.

Seriously, I don't understand your attitude at all. You have a wealth of knowledge here to call upon and all you want to do is rant. Good luck; I'm afraid you're going to need it.