Hi all

We have a job which we will print litho as normal but the customer also wants a couple of spreads created to put on their website for marketing. Not a problem but the customer commented that the text on the PDF for download has a 'problem' where the letters in a word seem different sizes. I have long ignored this in Acrobat as I know the file will print properly and will display properly if you change the zoom value, which I explained to the customer. He feels that his potential customers may be put off by this odd display and asked me to investigate. Assuming this had something to do with hinting I used a third party program to vectorise all the fonts and sure enough that gets rid of the problem, but that has other downsides (the text looks a bit fatter when printed on a desktop printer and doesn't look quite as good when you view the whole spread in Acrobat). I tried viewing the original PDF in Foxit and it didn't have the same problem, although the text didn't seem to display quite as well as in Acrobat.

The PDF is made in Indesign CS on the Mac and the font is GaramondMT. I've just noticed that the text looks the same in Indesign too. The download PDF is exported to our normal (PDF/X-1a) settings. Can anyone explain what is happening so I can give the customer an intelligent reason or how I can avoid it without having to vectorise the text? I can make the PDF available if anyone wants a look at it.

thanks,
Iain

If you check the PDF, I would guess that the fonts are not embedded. Use press or print settings, not the Std or Small settings to create the PDF. There are settings files available from many publishers that also are setup with the fonts embedded and backward compatible to AA5 or AA6. These are best for online documents due to the variations in folks PDF clients. Being sure that ALL of the fonts are embedded (and probably subset) will also eliminate a lot of problems. If someone decides to use a special font that is restricted, try to discourage them or go out and buy a properly licensed font.

The export may be the issue since it does not use the Acrobat settings files. I am not sure of the options for the PDF/X-1a and that may be an issue for online viewing. You may want to post the PDF some place so we can take a look - seems you will be doing that anyway.

Thanks for your reply. All the fonts are definitely embedded and subset (it's a valid PDF/X file). I have made the PDF file available (http://www.henryling.co.uk/net/downl...oad_spread.pdf) if anyone wants to have a look.

thanks
Iain

I don't see any problem in the document.

Sorry - should have pointed out where it looked wrong. The most obvious point is six lines down, second word in - the 'o' of two looks larger than the 'tw'. My Acrobat default zoom is set to 'Fit Page' so the file opens at 72.3% and looks 'wrong'. It still looks wrong at 100%, but looks right at 103%.

Bernd - what zoom were you using to view the file? Could you get it to go wrong by viewing it at different percentages? I always find zooming in doesn't display the problem and zooming out does.

Iain

Anyone got any ideas how I can explain this problem or get round it without resulting to vectorising the text?

I noticed that the fonts are embedded. 3 instances of GaramondMT plus a bold and italic version. The best I can tell is that it is a function of the selected font. The GaramondMT is not a Windows font, but a front from another system. Garamond is a Windows VISTA font (and I dislike it a lot when I get WORD files from others using this new standard for OFFICE). I am not sure where the MT version comes from, but wonder if the character sizes are not a function of that version. You can look up that font online and see some of the items, but I do not see the size changes there. However, I still think it is a characteristic of the fonts that has been embedded. You can test the GaramondMT font at <http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.asp?pid=205302>. The reason I think it is part of the embedded font is that every "o" in the page you show is larger, not just the one you mentioned. I can not test that particular font on VISTA since it is not part of VISTA. I would have to use the straight Garamond that does appear the way you want.

I really think you need to get the original document and recreate the PDF with a different font. As you had noted, it appears to a property of the embedded GaramondMT font that is from the MAC. Though the user will probably not believe you, you are simply looking at the font that they used, not what you have created. As far as I can tell, the only good fix is to go back to the original and do it there. The MAC font is a multibyte font and the Windows version is a single byte, not compatible. Don't have the greatest advice, except to go back to the original. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the customer is very particular and I'm not sure how he would take a change of font at this stage (we'd have to tell them). Also, it doesn't explain why the font looks 'wrong' at one zoom level and 'right' at another.

You might have them send you a printed copy of the same page you posted. My guess it looks the same, suggesting it is their font problem and their is really nothing you can do about the font. I suspect that the display issue as you zoom (I had not noticed that before) is that the characters are slightly different heights. If you zoom out, they still are not perfectly lined up (like in "two" where the t is slightly lower than the w and the o is a bit higher, like a pixel worth). That all suggests a font issue of your customer. The fonts are embedded and should be a duplicate of the original. If you had the original file, you could possible replace the fonts with the TrueType Garamond. I was able to copy the text in AA8 (was not successful in AA5) to WORD and set the font to Garamond. I then printed to Acrobat and there was no problem as displayed in the embedded font.

I think you are between a rock and a hard place. There is really nothing you can do from what I see. It might be possible to export to WORD and recreate the PDF, but I would not promise good results. It might be worth a try to see if you can fix the problem. I have not been able to find the use local fonts option in AA8 yet (I did not look hard), but maybe you could turn on that feature. If so, then try printing to a new PDF and see if you can recover the fonts that way. You could even use replace pages in the original document (or copy) to replace the text. I was not successful when I tried printing to a new PDF, but maybe you would have more luck.

The display issue would be related to how Acrobat is averaging pixels to put in on the 96 dpi display. If the font shape and height were consistent, it would not be a problem. Apparently the MAC font fails the consistency here. I had wondered if the sizes were built into the original font as I can see it being somewhat desired if trying to imitate an old document. Garamond is actually a very old font, just new to a lot of use on computers.

I'll shut up. I am not sure I am helping.

Well, I'm not sure yours is the definitive answer but I don't think we're going to get one. Sounds plausible to me. Thanks for your input. I will try it with TT Garamond and suggest it to the customer, just for use on the spreads he wants for his website.

thanks,
Iain