Font compatibility

[amberkeenan]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I am a new mac user and have just purchased office for mac08. I have installed a font and the font is showing in the font library and is showing in the mac based applications, however I cannot access the font from word or any office applications. Is this just a matter of adjusting a setting, or a compatibility issue? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm afraid "font" is an extremely vague term encompassing many
possibilities. Without any descriptive details [such as font type, where
it's installed, etc.] it's hard to hazard a guess.

Have you restarted your Mac since installing the font? Is Office fully
updated (12.2.3)?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[amberkeenan]

thanks for feedback. a bit more info.. the font is Riva LET True Type font. I have restarted my mac. The font is showing in word if i select "Format" then "font" from the top menu bar, however it does not show in the drop down menu when selecting "Font" from top bar or in the formatting toolbox. Also i went into the font library and selected the font. the font validation came up with a 'serious error' message and said 'do not use this font'. when i selected text in this font in word, the font appears correct on the screen until i increase the font size, then the top of the letters disappear. any further advice would be great. Thanks, amber

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Amber:

Well, that's pretty diagnostic. The font is a Windows-only font that won't
work properly on a Mac.

Font foundries should not make fonts like that these days, and increasingly,
they don't. However, this one appears to have been coded under the old
rules which are platform-specific.

If I were you, I would go back to the supplier and ask them to exchange it
for the Macintosh flavour.

That specific font is made in six kinds: there is a Macintosh TrueType and a
Mac and Windows OpenType version as well as Mac and Windows PostScript
versions.

In Office 2008, I would stick with the Mac TrueType version: Office
sometimes behaves badly with OpenType fonts, and Postscript fonts will print
only on a printer than has a PostScript engine.

Hope this helps

thanks for feedback. a bit more info.. the font is Riva LET True Type font.
I have restarted my mac. The font is showing in word if i select "Format"
then "font" from the top menu bar, however it does not show in the drop down
menu when selecting "Font" from top bar or in the formatting toolbox. Also i
went into the font library and selected the font. the font validation came up
with a 'serious error' message and said 'do not use this font'. when i
selected text in this font in word, the font appears correct on the screen
until i increase the font size, then the top of the letters disappear. any
further advice would be great. Thanks, amber

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Amber;

How did you come by this font? It is from a reliable foundry (ITC) but as
John suggests there are several different "flavors" which are operating
system-specific. It does sound as though you've gotten hold of one of the
Windows variations. You need the OpenType (OTF) Com or the Mac Postscript
incarnation of the font... US $26 from:

http://www.linotype.com/searchresult?q=Riva LET True Type

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[amberkeenan]

thanks for the info. very comprehensive. it is an old font disk (say 8 years or so) and although it states mac compatible, sounds like this is the problem. just to confirm i should be getting the Mac TrueType font. As the next post by Bob mentions I should get the OpenType font or Postscript. Also, if i were to email a document containing this font to someone who doesn't have the font installed, would they be able to view it as it should look, or is it only a Postscript font that will do this.

thanks, amber

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Amber:

Yes, the old disk was compatible with Mac OS 9, which used a different
mechanism for rendering text. It will produce strange results on a machine
running Mac OS X or Windows later than Windows 2000.

I would choose Mac TrueType, because I know Mac Office sometimes has issues
with some OpenType fonts.

Bob is recommending OpenType because an OpenType font will enable fancy
typesetting if it works properly. But if it doesn't work, you've spent your
money for nothing. It's a gamble: TrueType is safer.

I would not use PostScript fonts: they won't work on a non-PostScript
printer (think: most Ink Jets...) and some PCs can't use them.

Yes, this will work for someone who does not have the font installed. A
document does not contain the "font" it simply contains the NAME of the
font, and the numbers of the characters you used from it. Modern fonts are
encoded using the Unicode standard, which means that those numbers will call
the same characters from whichever font is installed on another user's
machine, Mac or PC.

Cheers

thanks for the info. very comprehensive. it is an old font disk (say 8 years
or so) and although it states mac compatible, sounds like this is the problem.
just to confirm i should be getting the Mac TrueType font. As the next post
by Bob mentions I should get the OpenType font or Postscript. Also, if i were
to email a document containing this font to someone who doesn't have the font
installed, would they be able to view it as it should look, or is it only a
Postscript font that will do this.

thanks, amber

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Amber;

OK, there ya go... Perhaps it was Mac-Compatible at the time, but this is a
different time As I'm sure you know, the OS, the hardware & the software
have changed radically over the last 8 years. In fact, with regard to font
sensitivity, OS X has changed radically over the last 8 *months*

If you're going to invest in an updated version of any font I'd suggest
getting OpenType (OTF) whenever available, TTF as '2nd choice'. OTF a newer,
more universal, more robust implementation of TrueType technology & doesn't
present the printing issue of PostScript(PS). PS needs to be printed to a
PS-compatible device in order to render at its best, so it's generally used
only in docs that will be printed commercially or on high-end local printers
with PS interpreters.

As for distribution of the document:

The first question always is "Does the recipient have the
authority/entitlement/need to edit or revise the file?" If the answer is No
and you have any concern at all for the document appearing as you designed
it, send a PDF, not an attachment of the document file. In that way it
doesn't matter whether they have the font, what printer drivers they have or
anything else -- the PDF should appear precisely as intended.

If the recipient does have to edit/revise, it gets a little more complicated
depending on the sophistication of the collaborative effort. Font embedding
is not supported by Mac Word, and not all fonts are embeddable to begin
with. So, if you send a Word document as an attachment it is necessary for
the recipient to have the exact same version of the fonts as well as the
same specific printer drivers in order for the document to have a decent
shot at rendering on the other system the way it renders on yours.

If the recipient doesn't have the same fonts Word (as well as most other
programs) has to substitute what it recognizes as the "best fit" available
from what the host system has to offer. As you can imagine, that leaves the
field wide open for deviation... And the more unique the fonts used the less
likely there is to be a suitable stand-in. Combine that with the fact that
Word relies on the printer driver to render content on screen, you can see
where the margin for deviation widens even more. [BTW: This is regardless of
whether TT, OTF or PS fonts are involved.]

For collaborative documents you might want to consider not even worrying
about appearance formatting until the editing is completed. Once the content
is "fixed" you can get into the formatting phase & accompany any exchange of
the document with a PDF so the other user sees how it's intended to look
before they begin making their changes.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[CyberTaz]

G'day John;

<snip>

Bob is recommending OpenType because an OpenType font will enable fancy
typesetting if it works properly. But if it doesn't work, you've spent your
money for nothing. It's a gamble: TrueType is safer.

<snip>

I respectfully disagree I've been using OTF [virtually] since day one
without any problem whatsoever. IMHO, The *technology* is far superior to
that of its predecessor... And more reliable -- with one caveat: You have to
consider the source. I've always used OTFs from reliable foundries.

Like most anything else, fonts can be designed by any fool who has a few
bucks to spend on a Build-a-Font Erector Set, then be thrown up on a
"Freebiefonts.gotcha" web site. Those who grab 'em with no more of a
discriminating decision making process than "OOOOh, I like that!" pretty
much get what they pay for

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bob:

Well, *I* don't disagree with anything you say

I just know that we have had reports of "issues" with OTF fonts in Mac Word.

Whether the issue was the font, or Mac Word, or the person who made the
font, I can't say. I don't think we ever found out

What I don't understand is why Apple does not issue its fonts as OpenType.

Windows makes extensive use of OpenType fonts: Windows 7 and Office 2010
install 625 fonts, and more than half appear to be OpenType TrueType fonts.

In OS 10.6.2 I have only about five OpenType fonts supplied by Apple, and
they're all the Japanese fonts. Only Microsoft seems to supply OpenType to
OS X, and they're mostly OpenType TrueType outline fonts.

I suspect it's another outburst of "Not Invented Here", since Apple and
Microsoft invented TrueType but Microsoft and Adobe invented OTF

There's a succinct description here:
http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Help/_FontFormats.htm

And more information here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/aboutfontsoverview.mspx

And here:
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/fonttechnologies/Technical_Issues_with_Using_
Digital_Type.htm

And the political lowdown is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenType

Cheers

G'day John;

<snip>

Bob is recommending OpenType because an OpenType font will enable fancy
typesetting if it works properly. But if it doesn't work, you've spent your
money for nothing. It's a gamble: TrueType is safer.

<snip>

I respectfully disagree I've been using OTF [virtually] since day one
without any problem whatsoever. IMHO, The *technology* is far superior to
that of its predecessor... And more reliable -- with one caveat: You have to
consider the source. I've always used OTFs from reliable foundries.

Like most anything else, fonts can be designed by any fool who has a few
bucks to spend on a Build-a-Font Erector Set, then be thrown up on a
"Freebiefonts.gotcha" web site. Those who grab 'em with no more of a
discriminating decision making process than "OOOOh, I like that!" pretty
much get what they pay for

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]