Symbol font problem in PDF output

[M. Katz]

I hope someone can give a helpful suggestion. My PC-using colleagues
have trouble with Symbol font characters in PDFs I create from Word.

I'm running the latest Mac OS X 10.3.2, and Microsoft Office vX in
it's latest configuration.

I'm sending a Windows-using colleague a PDF that I've generated from
MS Word, using the built-in PDF generation. "localhost" is my selected
printer. The problem is a corruption of Symbol-font characters
when viewed or printed on the PC. But, just to make it interesting, my
PC-using colleagues at my work can view the file just fine. They see
every lambda and mu, yet some can't print the symbol characters.

The main problematic machine is running Windows 2000, and I don't know
much more. I don't have the latest Adobe Acrobat for OS X, and I've
been having problems with Acrobat in Classic ever since I switched to
Panther (I'm guessing that the locations and availability of the
different fonts is causing problems for Classic, which may not have
the ability to look into all of my font folders.) But I'm only really
concerned with Symbol font here.

Acrobat's latest Reader program tells me that Symbol _is_ embedded in
the document.

One more thing. If I output from Word straight to Postscript via the
"localhost" printer, then I bring the postscript file to a PC with
Acrobat Distiller, the resulting PDF file is fine for everyone. That's
not an ideal solution, of course.

What problems should I know about to try to solve regarding Symbol
font and Word on OS X?

Thanks,
M. Katz

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

The first step in troubleshoot might be to determine whether it is a Word
problem or an OSX problem.

If you create a document from TextEdit or some other program with the same
font and symbols, save it as a PDF then open it on Windows do you have the
same problem? If yes, then you know it is not Word, but rather something
about Acrobat or MacOSX or Windows PDF.

To find out for sure where the problem lies we'll need to do a process of
elimination.

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
MS Word, using the built-in PDF generation. "localhost" is my selected
printer. The problem is a corruption of Symbol-font characters
when viewed or printed on the PC. But, just to make it interesting, my
PC-using colleagues at my work can view the file just fine. They see
every lambda and mu, yet some can't print the symbol characters.

Does the ability to print related to the type of printer?

We have had problems here printing OSX-generated pdfs with symbol font
when we try to print them to printers with genuine Adobe-postscript (eg
Xerox Docuprint N2125s). They seem to print OK on HPs and Lexmarks
which have an emulated postscript.

These pdfs were actually generated in Canvas not Word but I wonder if the
problem might be related?

Regards,

Adrian Smith
Centenary Institute

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Yes, it can. And the type of font. If it is a PostScript font designed for
high-quality output (such as you would find on a DocuPrint...) then the
characters themselves contain little pieces o0f computer code designed to
enhance and refine the shapes within the individual characters.

These "macros" may or may not run on the device you send the text to. If
they don't run, the default may or may not suit the device.

So yes, a given font can produce widely variable results depending on the
printer you send it to and the device you send it from.

Keeps things interesting...


This responds to article <[email protected]>, from
"(e-mail address removed)" <[email protected]>

Does the ability to print related to the type of printer?

We have had problems here printing OSX-generated pdfs with symbol font
when we try to print them to printers with genuine Adobe-postscript (eg
Xerox Docuprint N2125s). They seem to print OK on HPs and Lexmarks
which have an emulated postscript.

These pdfs were actually generated in Canvas not Word but I wonder if the
problem might be related?

Regards,

Adrian Smith
Centenary Institute

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[M. Katz]

Hi,

The first step in troubleshoot might be to determine whether it is a Word
problem or an OSX problem.

If you create a document from TextEdit or some other program with the same
font and symbols, save it as a PDF then open it on Windows do you have the
same problem?

Now it gets interesting. When I open TextEdit in Panther, type
something and then switch to Symbol font, the text stays in what looks
like Times. **Every other font** is available as usual. Does anyone
else see this in TextEdit/Panther?

I'll try another program.

Thanks for the suggestions,
M. Katz

 

[Elliott Roper]

Now it gets interesting. When I open TextEdit in Panther, type
something and then switch to Symbol font, the text stays in what looks
like Times. **Every other font** is available as usual. Does anyone
else see this in TextEdit/Panther?

Yes. Tricky! An unexpected outcome innit? If you want unicode symbols
it seems you gotta go pecking for them. Logical I suppose, but a bit of
a nuisance.

I'll try another program.

Word and Freehand each display the ordinary (old fashioned) keystrokes
as greek characters in Symbol font. Pasting them back into text edit
makes 'em latin again.
hmmm