Entire Book Came Back with Boxes in Place of Font

[Farland]

So I am guessing I already know what the problem is.  I didn't fully understand embedding. The font that didn't show up is Georgia.  If i remember correctly, it is listed as being subsetted instead of embedded in the Export dialogue.  I guess I figured since it seemed to show up in the exported PDF, I was okay with it.  Mistake, huh? Is there a way to get Scribus to embed Georgia, or do I need a new font?

EDIT: Actually, now that I checked the .sla file as well as the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, it looks like the Georgia font was embedded. But all the other fonts say "Encoding Identity-H" while the Georgia font says "Encoding: Custom." In the Adobe Acrobat Preflight check it says all font as embedded and it found no problems. I'm kind of stumped. Any idea what I should do?

BTW I am working in Scribus version 1.5.3.

[mnawij]

Could you please post the pdf file in question, I will run it through the 2 different preflight software that I have if you want to see what those reports turn out about the fonts.  Did the publisher in question not want the fonts outlined?

mnawij

[Farland]

Yes, please! Any help is appreciated.  The printer is Lightning Source, and as far as I know, they never said anything about outlining fonts.  How would I go about doing that?

The PDF sample I attached I saved as "reduced size" btw, but all other settings I hope are the same.

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[mnawij]

Farland, attached are the preflight screenshots that show some font issues.  If someone could help out by explaining how to outline the fonts I would appreciate it, I do not have time right at the moment or even Google could probably help with this.  Also you must verify that the publisher will accept outlined fonts, some do not.

Regards,

mnawij

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[Farland]

Thank you! I am not sure what "a composite font" is, but Mr Eaves Small Caps some our fine. What concerns me is that it says "Georgia, Georgia Italic is not embedded." That's what I was initially afraid was the problem. What's weird is that both Scribus and Adobe Acrobat XI show it as being embedded.

Think there is some flag on the Georgia Font that is preventing it from being embedded? I will try to subset it this afternoon. Would you mind running your preflight again to see if you think that might help? I will also google outlining the font in Scribus and Acrobat.  Thanks for your help so far.

[Farland]

Okay, I think I MAY have fixed it... somehow.  Here's what happened.  I found this site: https://www.pdf-online.com/osa/validate.aspx

I uploaded a sample of the PDF and it did indeed indicate that the characters in the Georgia Font Family were missing.  I then went in to Scribus, opened the Document Setup menu, went to fonts, and checked the "Subset Font" check box for the Georgia family, which hadn't been checked.  Then, I went to "Export>Save as PDF" and selected "Subset all". Then the export checked out as having the font embedded.

The thing that is scaring me is that in Acrobat XI it indicated that the Georgia family was embedded and there were no issues with any fonts.  But clearly there were. I feel like this might be a bug in Scribus.

mnawij, if you have a minute, would you mind double checking the attached PDF sample with your program again, so that I don't waste another proof? I would greatly appreciate it.

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[mnawij]

Still the same.  Some fonts cannot be embedded due to licensing restrictions, but I did not think that Georgia was one since it was/is a default font for the Mac OSX...  Best bet would be to outline the fonts if the publisher will allow it or choose another font I am afraid.  Was it a font you downloaded or was it part of the operating system?

mnawij

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[mnawij]

Ok not exactly the same , it no longer says the font is missing I believe, it is saying that they are now all listed as composite fonts: (stuff I found on google)

Composite fonts (also called "double-byte" fonts) enable you to display special characters of foreign languages, e.g. Asian languages. They are also called double-byte fonts because every character is determined by 2 bytes (16 bits). Double-byte char­acters may not always be supported in a later stage of the PDF workflow.

Composite fonts are either OCF (Original Composite Fonts) format, an earlier and rapidly dying method for handling East Asian font needs, or the Adobe composite font mechanism for creating "virtual fonts" where some  glyphs in one font are replaced by ones from another font. The latter  invention is mostly used to do things such as having a Japanese font where  the western characters are replaced with ones from a different font, or  the hiragana are from one font and the katakana from another.  Composite fonts may use CID-keyed fonts, but are not necessarily  CID-keyed.

Type 1 and OpenType CFF fonts both have two  sub-types: name-keyed (each glyph has a name) and CID-keyed (character ID),  a special type of encoding that relates glyphs to defined "character  collections" which are really glyph collections. CID-keyed Type 1 fonts  were invented to handle East Asian font needs back in the  mid-90s.

PDFs with composite PDF font resources are quite common, due to the widespread use of Illustrator and InDesign and the fact that Distiller will sometimes produce them. Because of this, most non Adobe "PostScript compatible" RIP vendors have updated their RIPs to be compatible with composite. If you encounter a problem, the best long-term solution may be to upgrade the RIP to allow for the simpler/faster/more capable workflow of exported PDFs rather than using Distiller.

So not sure if this is a good or bad when you print later.  I always outline all fonts before I go to press, so I cannot help you further with composite fonts.

mnawij

[Farland]

Well, I greatly appreciate the help you did give me. It set me on a path that ended up working.  I don't think the composite font thing is a problem for Lightning Source, since your app listed Mr Eaves as a composite font, and that printed fine.  I am good to go now... I think.  *cross fingers*