PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

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TWAnnie
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PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by TWAnnie »

Hi all,


I have noticed that MadCap does not embed my .otf fonts in a PDF as I would expect. In the fonts list in Acrobat, the fonts are shown as Type1 (CID), Encoding Identity-H.
However, if I use exactly the same fonts in Adobe InDesign, the resulting PDF will show the font as Type1, Encoding Ansi (with the red 'a' icon).
The results look slightly different; for example letter spacing looks a bit off in the MadCap PDF.

I've tried letter-spacing in the css (meh), setting the display to 100% scaling (nope), tried reinstalling the fonts (nada)...

Working with Windows 7 - MadCap Flare 2017r3

There's a lot in these forums about font support (thank you everyone), but I'm still not sure if my problem is 'normal' MadCap behaviour?
I read something in the release notes that .otf fonts are supported, but... not quite?

Is there some secret setting I haven't tried, or should I file a feature/bug request?
Good luck and good writing!
TWAnnie
robdocsmith
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by robdocsmith »

Hi,

Did you ever work out what was going on? I'm in the same boat with company specific OTF fonts embedded as CID identity-h. All was OK until the very latest Acrobat ugrade last night (2019.012.20036 - Aug 13 2019) which no longer seemed to display the fonts. The documents were the same and could be viewed in browsers and on other's machines, but not in Acrobat DC itself. The only workaround I could find is to downgrade back to yesterday's version.

I played with reworking using alternative fonts such as standard Times or other TTF ones, but all fonts are embedded as identity-h in Flare's PDF output.

Cheers,

Rob
Valiant
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by Valiant »

robdocsmith wrote:Hi,

Did you ever work out what was going on? I'm in the same boat with company specific OTF fonts embedded as CID identity-h. All was OK until the very latest Acrobat ugrade last night (2019.012.20036 - Aug 13 2019) which no longer seemed to display the fonts. The documents were the same and could be viewed in browsers and on other's machines, but not in Acrobat DC itself. The only workaround I could find is to downgrade back to yesterday's version.

I played with reworking using alternative fonts such as standard Times or other TTF ones, but all fonts are embedded as identity-h in Flare's PDF output.

Cheers,

Rob
Adobe has now received several examples of the font issue related to the last upgrade on 8/13.
Hopefully the fix is coming soon to Acrobat DC and Reader DC.
doc_guy
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by doc_guy »

That said, MadCap Flare is apparently embedding the font incorrectly. If the font were embedded correctly by Flare's PDF engine, this wouldn't be an issue. So I hope MadCap is also looking at this for a fix from their side, so if Adobe decides again at some point to strictly enforce font encoding, this doesn't break again.
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robdocsmith
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by robdocsmith »

doc_guy wrote:That said, MadCap Flare is apparently embedding the font incorrectly. If the font were embedded correctly by Flare's PDF engine, this wouldn't be an issue. So I hope MadCap is also looking at this for a fix from their side, so if Adobe decides again at some point to strictly enforce font encoding, this doesn't break again.
Indeed. Nothing you can do when Adobe tells you the issue is with the creator of the file, since the same content and fonts are embedded correctly with other applications.
Valiant
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by Valiant »

robdocsmith wrote:
doc_guy wrote:That said, MadCap Flare is apparently embedding the font incorrectly. If the font were embedded correctly by Flare's PDF engine, this wouldn't be an issue. So I hope MadCap is also looking at this for a fix from their side, so if Adobe decides again at some point to strictly enforce font encoding, this doesn't break again.
Indeed. Nothing you can do when Adobe tells you the issue is with the creator of the file, since the same content and fonts are embedded correctly with other applications.
The problem is now that the Adobe Acrobat update has been out for a week, it's not just MadCap Flare PDFs that are having the issue. PDFs from other tools are also getting the font message.

If Adobe needs other software vendors to change the way fonts are handled, Adobe still needs to make their software functionality backward compatible.
doc_guy
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by doc_guy »

I totally agree with you. This is not solely a MadCap issue. This is something Adobe changed that affected a lot of vendors (including Salesforce, for example). My point is only that I hope MadCap takes the opportunity to fix whatever font encoding is being done incorrectly so that, if in the future, Adobe decides to pull this stunt again, our customers won't be affected.

IMHO, Adobe should cancel the update, and roll back to the previous version until they have resolved the issue. But they aren't listening to us in the Adobe forums, really.
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Maya_t
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by Maya_t »

SO does this mean our outputs wont look as we need them to until Adobe fixes this bug????
robdocsmith
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by robdocsmith »

Has anyone tested the optional update 19.012.20040, August 22, 2019. This purports to fix "4282242: Error “Cannot extract embedded font. Some characters may not display or print correctly” thrown on opening pdf files containing certain fonts". I'm reluctant to change what's working for me (the downgrade to previous version) until I know that the issue has been fixed on Adobe's end.

Cheers,
Rob
MGerber
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by MGerber »

Maya_t wrote:SO does this mean our outputs wont look as we need them to until Adobe fixes this bug????
Adobe has already fixed the bug on August 22nd. So if you update your Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat installation, you should be fine.
robdocsmith wrote:I'm reluctant to change what's working for me (the downgrade to previous version) until I know that the issue has been fixed on Adobe's end.
Here, on Acrobat 2017 Pro, the problem was solved with the latest patch 17.011.30148.

I'm still curious if MadCap has a statement to the font subject.

Greetz
Mark
Maya_t
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by Maya_t »

MGerber wrote:
Maya_t wrote:SO does this mean our outputs wont look as we need them to until Adobe fixes this bug????
Adobe has already fixed the bug on August 22nd. So if you update your Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat installation, you should be fine.
This isnt the case for me. I installed Adobe Acrobat Pro DC at the beginning of September, and it just isn't coming out right...
I've spoken to support several times, and they've tried all sorts of things to fix it but they haven't succeeded either..

So baffled...
MGerber
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by MGerber »

Maya_t wrote:I installed Adobe Acrobat Pro DC at the beginning of September, and it just isn't coming out right...
So you have actually installed the latest update 19.012.20040? If not, you can download the update package and install it manually:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/w ... 220040.msp
Valiant
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by Valiant »

Maya_t wrote:
MGerber wrote:
Maya_t wrote:SO does this mean our outputs wont look as we need them to until Adobe fixes this bug????
Adobe has already fixed the bug on August 22nd. So if you update your Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat installation, you should be fine.
This isnt the case for me. I installed Adobe Acrobat Pro DC at the beginning of September, and it just isn't coming out right...
I've spoken to support several times, and they've tried all sorts of things to fix it but they haven't succeeded either..

So baffled...
Have you verified the Adobe patched version is installed
Several co-workers weren't getting the patched version of Reader when I asked them to update.
The download files didn't have the fix included.
robdocsmith
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Re: PDF font type support (otf) - I'm confused

Post by robdocsmith »

MGerber wrote: Adobe has already fixed the bug on August 22nd. So if you update your Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat installation, you should be fine.
Marvellous news, thanks Mark. The only comment I had from Adobe on my bug was:
The engineering teams are aware of the issue and further investigating the root cause. We will share an update on this issue soon.
Appreciate your patience.
It was only by chance I saw that there were patches available.


Cheers,

Rob
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