Hell-vetica Neue Std Missing...

[_David_Hsu_]

Hi All,

My company purchased 3 fonts from the Adobe Type store for us...

Helvetica Neue Std Light
Helvetica Neue Std Roman
Helvetica Neue Std Bold

they're all OpenType fonts.

Alas, we need to use it in Microsoft Word.

On Macs, Word 2008:
Light shows up as: HelveticaNeueLT Std Lt
Roman shows up as: HelveticaNeueLT Std
Bold shows up as: HelveticaNeueLT Std Bold

On PCs, Word 2003 and 2007:
Light shows up as: HelveticaNeueLT Std Lt
Roman shows up as: HelveticaNeueLT Std
and Bold is missing.

How do I get Bold to show up?

Thank you.

-David Hsu

[_David_Hsu_]

Here are some more follow up information.

1. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling.
2. I've tried using Extensis Suitcase to activate the font.
3. It actually shows up in Adobe CS3 Suite applications on both platforms as 45 Light, 55 Roman, 75 Bold.

[Neil_Keller]

David,

I do know that the Windows platform is far less intuitive at font naming; there being limits as to how fonts can be named. You may have to "bold" another weight to use it in a document. Then again, I must tell you that I'm primarily on Macs and know little of details here.

If no one else chimes in, you may wish to contact Adobe support on this -- installation issues should be free of charge.

Neil

[BobLevine]

> How do I get Bold to show up?

Hit the B icon with one or the other and that will give you the bold
attribute.

The way I used to test this out was to create text in Word or Excel and
then place the text into InDesign which can handle all of those
different weights.

The typeface you're using has umpteen different weights and Word simply
can't handle them all without doing a little magic.

Bob

[_David_Hsu_]

I did speak to Adobe Support already. They also said to use the "Bold" button on Word on PC. When I save that file on the PC and open it up on the Mac, it shows up as "HelveticaNeueLT Std", with the Bold button pressed... not "HelveticaNeueLT Std Bold".

... if this is the solution then why in the world is the point of buying the Bold font? (other than so that we can use it in Adobe products?)

Thanks Bob, thanks Neil.

p.s. Adobe Support said that there was a bug in MS products that makes it unable to handle OpenType as expected.

[BobLevine]

It's not a bug...it's a limitation.

Adobe essentially has their own type engine to get around this stuff on
Windows.

Bob

[Neil_Keller]

David,
>... if this is the solution then why in the world is the point of buying the Bold font? (other than so that we can use it in Adobe products?)

Because you still need the real bold font for it to render correctly. Otherwise you'll have faux bold; an electronic Frankensteinian "font" creation to simulate bold, and none too well. And if you have your speakers turned on, complete with scary theremin music.

Neil

[_David_Hsu_]

ahhh... ok. that's wacky... but after what you guys said... i tried printing them with and without the 75 Bold being installed (both PC & Mac). Without, it is indeed Frankensteinian... hahahaha... and with - it looks pretty much indistinguishable (says our lead designer)... even when printed from Mac.

so I think we're going to go off-logic, install the 75 Bold and ask everyone to use 55 Roman and make it Bold... and not 75 Bold.

Thank you both very much.

-David Hsu

[_Aandi_Inston_]

This isn't really a bug or a limitation, as far as Microsoft are
concerned, but exactly how Windows was designed to work. Grouping
fonts from the same family by weight and presenting only one name is
the design. Where it breaks down is where the family has more than two
weights. In this case fonts designed for Windows have to lie and
pretend to belong to different families.

Aandi Inston

[_Dominic_Hurley_]

>but exactly how Windows was designed to work

And, unless I'm mistaken, ATM Reunion was very popular among Mac users because it did a similar thing on Macs. I actually prefer the Microsoft way of displaying font families to the Mac way, though it should have room for all possible variations, as the Adobe system does (oh, wait, even that isn't perfect - book and regular weights cancel each other out).

>They also said to use the "Bold" button on Word on PC. When I save that file on the PC and open it up on the Mac, it shows up as "HelveticaNeueLT Std", with the Bold button pressed... not "HelveticaNeueLT Std Bold".

What you may not be aware of is a little thing called "style linking". That means that, provided the fonts are constructed properly, both Macs and PCs know to use the correct font when you choose a style (bold, itals). Despite many years of Mac users being told never to use styles in this way, this is precisely what you need to do to work cross platform. As long as you have HelveticaNeueLT Std Bold installed and active, that is exactly the font that will be used when you bold HelveticaNeueLT Std on a Mac or a PC.

[Thomas Phinney]

We're working on putting this info into font family-specific readme files, but there is also info on this issue in the OpenType User Guide for Adobe Fonts, and in the Adobe OpenType readme file.

http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/OTReadMe.html
http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/pdfs/OTGuide.pdf

Short explanation: this is how most fonts work on Windows, in typical Windows applications.

Cheers,

T

[Unit_Seven]

Wait until you get to needing a semibold variant and have to choose light and select then select the Bold button - makes sense in an around about kind of way but that was what really caught me.

Just mentioned it as it's on the same topic and may help at a later date with other fonts.

Cheers,

Sam.

[_David_Hsu_]

Thanks Sam, that's good to know.

Thank you Thomas for those links.

-David Hsu