PDF gets different fonts on different computers.

[bbernat117]

I'm not sure why, but on my computer fonts look different in a generated PDF than on a coworker's. We use the same same layout and .CSS, and all font styles are based on a single font style entry in that CSS--font style is only specified once in one place. Any insight appreciated, image attached.
Flare V5.

Ty,
-billb

[LTinker68]

Did I miss something in the image, or is your font family set with sans-serif listed first in the font family? If so, then it's probably doing exactly what you told it to, and the difference is that you have a different font specified as the default sans-serif font on your computer than what the other person is using.

Font families should be in the order of most desired to least desired option. So it should be "Arial, sans-serif" in your stylesheet, not "sans-serif, Arial".

[bbernat117]

Okay, thanks for the info, sounds like have sans-serif wrong in the middle example. But that's a red herring I probably should have left out. The top and bottom examples show the problem occurs with font-family set to "Arial" only. That was the original problem, just tried sans-serif to see if it would help. Changed my font but didn't resolve.

As a next step we can do some problem isolation by moving entire projects from machine to machine and see what happens.

Ty,
-billb

[RamonS]

Based on the text those two examples are not the same document? Or just different sections? Also, how did you obtain the samples? I assume you made screen shots. Is the screen resolution on your coworker's computer optimized? Did you resize the screen shot? I ask because all I can make out is that yours is clear as day whereas the other sample is fuzzy.
Same PDF viewer? Same version of PDF viewer? Same scaling when viewing PDFs (set it to 100%)?

[LTinker68]

Also, what computers are you both using? I believe Vista has a field on the monitor's display options screen where you can select whether to soften text or display it sharply, or something like that. If you both have Vista, perhaps the two of you have that set to different values. That should affect everything viewed on those computers, though, so it should be easy to confirm.

[SteveS]

Also, what computers are you both using? I believe Vista has a field on the monitor's display options screen where you can select whether to soften text or display it sharply, or something like that. If you both have Vista, perhaps the two of you have that set to different values. That should affect everything viewed on those computers, though, so it should be easy to confirm.

XP has it as well, its called 'clear type', specifically to optimise text for LCD screens.

Right click the desktop and select Properties. Click the Appearance tab and click Effects... Select the Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts and select Clear Type from the list.

[KevinDAmery]

The bottom example is clearly much lower resolution - it looks pixelated. I don't think you're looking at a font usage issue, you're looking at a display issue.