Embedded Font Problems In PDF? Check Your Slug.

InDesign PDF export screenshot Recently I came across an embedded font error when trying to place a PDF created in InDesign into a Quark Xpress 4.1 layout (a place I do contract work for is still on Quark 4.1 – the computer I work on was originally registered to Fred Flintstone).

Granted, this is probably not a very common occurrence, not only because there seems to be a tidal wave of movement towards Adobe InDesign, but also due to the archaic nature of the version of Quark Xpress being used. This could affect later versions of Quark as well, and regardless it’s a good reminder of looking in non-obvious places for solutions.

The first thing I did was to check with the designer for any fonts in the placed logo, which was an Illustrator file. Sometimes deisgners will forget (or not know about) converting font to outlines. Many times this can happen with a ™ or Â© symbol. Sometimes even a text box with no text that hasn’t been deleted, or text on a layer set to hidden.

That wasn’t the problem. So I continued to dig (I have an unexplainable fascination with troubleshooting). I had the designer export the PDF in the oldest version possible, thinking it was a compatablilty issue. No luck.

I let the problem sit for a while, and then it came to me: registration marks & the slug. The slug area is where additional non-printing info for a file is stored (usually at the bottom). Technically this is referred to as “Page Information” when exporting PDFs from InDesign od saving as PDF from Illustrator.

Somehow the designer had a non-standard typeface for the Page Info (on my setup it’s Helvetica in InDesign, and Courier in Illustrator). Hers was Avant Garde or something that looked similar. I have no idea how this was edited, although the industrious ones out there might want to look at this: InDesign Secrets post about creating custom printer’s marks. Perhaps they were using some sort of InDesign custom slug plugin? All I know is that once I asked for the PDF to be exported without the registration/crop marks and slug area, all was well.

The thing to learn here is that the fonts in your PDF may not necessarily be in your layout. I have no idea how that Page Info font was changed, but that was the problem. And as I mentioned earlier, keep in mind when creating your Illustrator files that you could have white text on the pasteboard, or text on a currently non-visible layer.

by George Coghill -
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