OTF Fonts in PowerPoint - Compatibility MAC-PC

J

JPenSuisse

Hi Mac and PC users,

as you know, one of the more annoying points about making compatible
MAC (PP 2004)-PC (PP 2003)presentation is that sizing the text boxes
just right in MAC leads to line breaks or other wierd things on your
PC, because the length of the text string changes based on the
platform you are on.

I thought I was being clever by taking an OTF font, in particular,
Adobe's Futur standard medium. Well, guess what? You will still have
the same problem using the "platform" independent fonts. I don't know
if this is the cause, but I'd like to share my obeservations about the
problem:

1.) Using the aforementioned font on a MAC, the character strings in
the text box do not change length if you make them bold or not bold.
I suspect this is the sense of the concept of bolding the font. You
don't want to change the kering or size of the letter, you just want
to make it heavier. Based on this observation, I believe that the OTF
fonts must be displayed correctly in MAC PP 2004.

2.) Now, if you look at the normal font, not bolded, on the PC, it is
slightly shorter than it is on the Mac. This means you might have
fewer lines in your text box because more words will fit on a line and
then the last line will have fewer words. If you bold the font on the
PC, the character string in the text box becomes much bigger! This
instability leads me to believe that the culprit is PP 2003.

This is only general commentary and I have no questions. I just "deal
with the problem." Interestingly enough, the new Compatibility
Reporter doesn't even mention that this a potential problem. This
also means that the function "embed fonts" if it existed wouldn't help
you on the MAC either, because giving the presentation to a PC user
with embedded font would not make it 100% compatible. (I also don't
think you can embed OTF fonts under windows PP anyway.)

Commentary from anybody else?

Cheers, JP
-G4 Powerbook 1.25Ghz, 10.3.5, Powerpoint 2004
-Mass production PC, Windows XP, Powerpoint 2003
 
S

Steve Rindsberg

2.) Now, if you look at the normal font, not bolded, on the PC, it is
slightly shorter than it is on the Mac. This means you might have
fewer lines in your text box because more words will fit on a line and
then the last line will have fewer words. If you bold the font on the
PC, the character string in the text box becomes much bigger! This
instability leads me to believe that the culprit is PP 2003.

A question that may or may not shed light: is the bold version of the font
installed on the PC? If not, Windows will fake a bolded version from the
normal font. The results won't be identical to a true bold, of course.



--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================
Featured Presenter, PowerPoint Live 2004
October 10-13, San Diego, CA www.PowerPointLive.com
================================================
 
J

JPenSuisse

Hi!

Okay, you got me. The bold font is not installed on the PC. In fact,
there is no bold available. Just a "heavy" font, which I guess is
bold.

1.) This does not change the fact, however, that the fonts are ever
so slightly differnt even if not bolded.

2.) Also, we can then draw the conclusion that PP2004 and PP2003 just
compensate or "fake" the bolded versions of fonts much differently.
And this reamains a compatibility issue.

Thanks for your comment. I think I understand this better now!

JP
 
S

Steve Rindsberg

Hi!

Okay, you got me. The bold font is not installed on the PC. In fact,
there is no bold available. Just a "heavy" font, which I guess is
bold.

Not necessarily; in fact, probably not.
1.) This does not change the fact, however, that the fonts are ever
so slightly differnt even if not bolded.
Noted.

2.) Also, we can then draw the conclusion that PP2004 and PP2003 just
compensate or "fake" the bolded versions of fonts much differently.
And this reamains a compatibility issue.

Under Windows (and I suspect Mac) the application doesn't do the fakery; it
asks Windows to GimmeText("Here's the text",Arial,Bold,42pt) and Windows does
its best to supply a bitmap that meets spec. If it can't find Arial in Bold,
it fakes it from Arial regular/medium. If it can't find Arial, it substitutes
another font altogether.

In at least some versions of Windows PPT, there's a bit of mapping before PPT
hands off the font request to Windows, mostly just to account for the slight
differences between the same fonts on Mac vs PC (gone now, I think, but common
a few years back).

As to 2004, any conclusion would have to depend on your removing the Bold
version of the font. From the many places where it might live on an OS X
system (and trust me, you don't want any advice I might offer on that subject!
.... totally ignorant or nearly so.)

Thanks for your comment. I think I understand this better now!

JP

--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================
Featured Presenter, PowerPoint Live 2004
October 10-13, San Diego, CA www.PowerPointLive.com
================================================
 

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