Quark pdfs

[Pam Hanson]

I have a problem with sans serif fonts in Quark pdfs. This wasn't always a problem. It started sometime this summer after both my colleague and I reinstalled all software. Min computer is a G5 running OS X 10.4.11. My colleague's is a new PowerMac running the latest OSX.

Here's the problem. When we write postscript and distill many sans serif fonts, like Helvetica and Futura Oblique are not embedding as oblique fonts. These are Postscript Type 1 fonts. They are embedding as regular fonts. They RIP and image correctly through our Screen TrueFlow system and appear correctly in Acrobat 8.12. If I export a pdf, they embed correctly. But writing a postscript and distilling is the problem.

I called Adobe and they were really no help. Said it was either a Quark problem or Screen problem. I called Screen and they said that as long as it is not causing a problem to not be concerned.

I have eliminated font cache as the culprit but am pondering either loading the CUPS filter from Quark or trying the CS 4 update. Any ideas?

 

[DavidMa]

what version of Quark are you using?
Do you have your Distiller set to embed all fonts?

 

[Pam Hanson]

I have Quark 7.5 and my colleague is using 7.01. Yes, everything is set to embed. We use a preset to distill all our pdfs based on Screen's Trueflow recommendations. The fonts do embedded but just not as Oblique. Serif fonts work fine.

Something must be interfering with Distiller. This is only a problem in Quark. Same fonts work fine from InDesign. I keep pondering what might have changed since May. I do know we both reinstalled everything, and have new system updates.

 

[JaimeZ]

Are you using the oblique font instead of using the feature in pallet?

I remember, especially in Quark, that one had to use the oblique font from the pull down menu (ie. choose Helvetica Oblique) and not the "I" attribute on the Tool bar for Helvetica (or for that matter any font). Type 1 fonts were especially notorious for this in the past.

Another solution is to try using a True Type or OTF version of the font.

 

[DavidMa]

Do you have these fonts installed as dfonts in your system folder?
If so you may have a conflict.
What are you using as a font manager?

 

[Pam Hanson]

Yes, am using the correct Oblique font in Quark. Have worked in printing since the early days of Digital Production so I know that attributing fonts is a bad idea.

Am using Suitcase Fusion 12.1.7 as a Font Manager program with only one Helvetica open at a time. Just checked my Suitcase again and no other Helvetica is part of the system or in specific job sets.

Don't like the idea of switching to TrueType or OTF as that can cause reflow. All Heleveticas are not created equal.

I work at a print shop and we use Postscript fonts for in-house jobs and load specific fonts for incoming jobs. I have heard bad things about d.fonts reliability for RIPs as well.

It's got to be something with the writing of the Postscript from Quark and how Distiller sees it or their interaction since I can export a pdf directly and the font works well in InDesign.

Thanks for the questions and suggestions though. Any other ideas? Does anyone use the CUPS filter. Screen techs did not think that would work.

 

[DavidMa]

The CUPS thing hasn't worked for me in the past, as far as working with Quark and printing problems.
Just as a double check, launch your Fontbook, click on the "all fonts" in the left pane, scroll down the list and see if there are any dots next to the fonts, this indicates a conflict with two or more fonts. You can click the triangle to view the fonts and delete to remove the dupes to resolve the conflicts.
See if you have the problematic fonts in the list.

As an aside, the only problem I've ever had with Quark that took me awhile to fix, was a printing problem that involved system font conflicts.
Seems Quark is real sensitive to these things, way more than Indesign.

and, I quit using Suitcase with quark for that specific problem. We now use on all our production Macs, Linotype Font Explorer (free!).
It works flawlessly and plays nicely with Quark as a bonus.

 

[DavidMa]

here's a link to Linotype font Explorer X

Font Management - Simple, Smart, Free - Linotype FontExplorer X

 

[Pam Hanson]

Geneva, Monaco and Courier are listed as conflicts because I also have System 9 on this System because we sometimes get old Freehand files and this is the only way we can edit them efficiently.

We do not use FontBook. We use Suitcase and manage all system fonts there.

Thanks

 

[Pam Hanson]

Guess I could try Font Explorer. Just that I know I was using Suitcase fine up until a few months ago and did not think the problem was the font since I can export pdfs okay.

 

[DavidMa]

Yeah, I don't use fontbook at all myself, but it's a tool that I use on occasion to see if there are any conflicts with my system fonts.
Suitcase can sometimes not give the correct info.
I don't think it was really written for Quark, we had so many problems with fonts either not loading correctly or making them corrupt, so we just quit using it .
FontExplorer X is just way better and it's free. No I don't work for Linotype, but a lot of other prepress folks will swear by this font utility.

 

[JaimeZ]

Pam,

I did mean to question your knowledge. Believe me I have often been offended when others had brought up points I already knew. But, I have also learned that I tend to forget things. This is why this forum is such a useful tool in the printing/graphics industry; it allows us to pool knowledge from all over the world--including the stuff we forget and what is new.

We also have been using Font Explorer with great success in both Quark and Indesign.

Frankly, we use Indesign in-house and only have Quark to support our few clients that are still using it

I hope the Font Explorer works out for you.

 

[Pam Hanson]

Jaimez,

No offense taken was just letting you know that I did know about the font attribution. You have no idea what my level of knowledge is but thought it might help to know that I am a bit of an old-timer having started with PageMaker 1.0 UGH!

I loved Quark but have used all programs because of my job and have a love/hate relationship with all desktop programs but that is the challenge of the job which I also love. I am also a long-time Suitcase user. Too bad everyone wouldn't get together and put all the programs into one with the best of all! Dream on! Where's the challenge in that!

Have spotted something with Font Explorer that listed fonts in the Suitcase Vault. Have now deleted them and rebuilt some of my sets. Just haven't tested it yet. But this may be the culprit.

I like this forum as you all have made me think outside the box which is sometimes hard to do when you work in a small vacuum.

Will let you know what I find out.

 

[JaimeZ]

Pam,

I'm impressed, I started with PageMaker 4.0, so I'm not as experienced as you. Quark is a great program, but I've found that Indesign works better for us. And yes, I also have a love/hate relationship with DTP. Like you I love what I do as well, although as an owner I probably do not spend the amount of time in the DTP part of the business as I used to many moons ago.

It's a pleasure communicating with you through this very helpful forum.

 

[toronar]

As far as I remember, there was a problem with Quark XPress 6 where Quark won't embed oblique fonts, but use the normal font and made it artificially italic. Which is technically the same as using an oblique font as I understood it. (see Oblique type - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

There was a startup postscript for Distiller that worked around that shortcoming ... it was made by Robert Zacherl from impressed.de.

I don't know whether Quark 7 or 8 have this same problem as 6.

 

[Eddie3000]

Guess I could try Font Explorer. Just that I know I was using Suitcase fine up until a few months ago and did not think the problem was the font since I can export pdfs okay.

I wonder if Distiller's "Font Locations" might have got screwed up?

In Distiller go to "Settings" > "Font Locations" and Remove everything. Quit Distiller and then re-launch it. It will then do a scan of your system to find the correct Locations.

 

[Pam Hanson]

Distiller will not allow me to remove all the fonts, particularly the Suitcase fonts. I have never heard of the startup postscript for Distiller that Toronor refers to. I was also never aware of this problem in the past but what you are saying about it making an artificial italic is how Distiller is acting. Just not sure why this started suddenly. Can anyone else replicate the problem if they have the same programs?

Think I will perhaps take Screen's advise to not worry about it and be safe and use InDesign for future projects which will just give me more experience. Or I could call Quark. But as I said earlier, this has not caused any problems it just seems curiously wrong.

Thanks everyone for all the insight and help.

 

[phibbsinc]

As far as I remember, there was a problem with Quark XPress 6 where Quark won't embed oblique fonts, but use the normal font and made it artificially italic. Which is technically the same as using an oblique font as I understood it. (see Oblique type - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

There was a startup postscript for Distiller that worked around that shortcoming ... it was made by Robert Zacherl from impressed.de.

I don't know whether Quark 7 or 8 have this same problem as 6.

I hated using Quark 6 for this exact reason. I would always back-save to 5 and go over to the legacy OS9 G4 where I knew things worked.

With the introduction of Q7, I decided to give it a go again, and haven't looked back. I still have Q6.5 loaded on the MacPro (just in case I need to back-save to 5 again ) but for the most part, I export PDF/X-1A from Quark 7.3, and have had no issues .... EVEN WITH QUARK'S TRANSPARENCIES!

But for any in-house work, InDesign is my weapon of choice.

~c

 

[sigurarm]

Hi. I am an old-timer too. Started with Illustrator 1 and Page Maker 3.0. I just wanted to point to a little article I wrote on how to set up Linotype FontExplorer X, based on my experience.

Hope this problem will be solved and I am excited to hear how the story ends.

Fonts : Real World Font Management with Linotype FontExplorer X : font.is

Sigurdur Armannsson

 

[Pam Hanson]

Thanks. I have turned this over to Quark but don't have a lot of faith they will fix the problem. Have not been able to do further testing as work beckons, however until then, I will probably turn to InDesign or avoid Italic sans serif fonts.

I have printed the article and will take it home with me to peruse.