Word 2008 OpenType font kerning issue

[mercury613]

I’m having some serious font kerning (character spacing) issues, and
it seems that the OpenType file format is the culprit.

When I create a new document in Word 2008 using an OpenType font,
everything looks fine at first. Even after I close the document and re-
open it, everything still looks fine. The problem kicks in after I
quit out of Word and try to reopen the doc. After Word launches and
the doc opens, the kerning looks terrible. (I’m not talking about
imperfect kerning that would only be noticed by a type designer; it
really does look awful.) This happens every single time without fail.

This problem only occurs with OpenType fonts (I’ve tested a few that I
own), and only in Word. Smaller type sizes -- especially non-standard
sizes (i.e. 9.5 pt) -- look worse than larger ones do. Also, checking
“Kerning for fonts xx points and above” in Format > Font > Character
Spacing makes things even worse.

Useful details: using Word 2008 12.2.3 on Intel Macs running OS X
10.5.8 with all the latest patch updates. I’m not using any font
management software, and I’ve started from scratch with clean prefs,
font cache, Normal template, etc.

Any help is much appreciated. This issue has been driving me crazy for
weeks. Thanks.

(P.S. I just found out that MS released an Office 2008 patch update
today. I'm gong to try it, but since this issue wasn't mentioned in
the release note, I'm not holding my breath.)

 

[mercury613]

Update: the Office 2008 12.2.4 patch update does not help.

 

[John McGhie]

Which font? OpenType - TrueType, or OpenType - PostScript?

Which document format? (.doc or .docx?)

Cheers

I¹m having some serious font kerning (character spacing) issues, and
it seems that the OpenType file format is the culprit.

When I create a new document in Word 2008 using an OpenType font,
everything looks fine at first. Even after I close the document and re-
open it, everything still looks fine. The problem kicks in after I
quit out of Word and try to reopen the doc. After Word launches and
the doc opens, the kerning looks terrible. (I¹m not talking about
imperfect kerning that would only be noticed by a type designer; it
really does look awful.) This happens every single time without fail.

This problem only occurs with OpenType fonts (I¹ve tested a few that I
own), and only in Word. Smaller type sizes -- especially non-standard
sizes (i.e. 9.5 pt) -- look worse than larger ones do. Also, checking
³Kerning for fonts xx points and above² in Format > Font > Character
Spacing makes things even worse.

Useful details: using Word 2008 12.2.3 on Intel Macs running OS X
10.5.8 with all the latest patch updates. I¹m not using any font
management software, and I¹ve started from scratch with clean prefs,
font cache, Normal template, etc.

Any help is much appreciated. This issue has been driving me crazy for
weeks. Thanks.

(P.S. I just found out that MS released an Office 2008 patch update
today. I'm gong to try it, but since this issue wasn't mentioned in
the release note, I'm not holding my breath.)

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

 

[CyberTaz]

What settings do you have in System Preferences for Appearance> Font
Smoothing?

In your "Useful details": Was Word running when you made those changes re
prefs, Normal.dotm & font cache? Which font cache did you remove? Did you
empty the Trash & restart the Mac afterward?

Have you run Font Book's Resolve Duplicates & Validate Fonts routines?

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

 

[mercury613]

I'm using OpenType PostScript fonts. The problem happens whether docs are saved as .doc or .docx.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[mercury613]

- Font smoothing is set to "Automatic – best for main display" and "Turn off for sizes 4 and smaller".
- No Office apps were running when I made changes to Normal and deleted prefs and caches.
- I removed:
    /Users/[user]/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Office Font Cache (12)
    all files in /Users/[user]/Library/Caches
- I emptied trash and restarted after making the above changes
- Fonts were validated and dupes resolved in Font Book.

Thanks for your help.

Jeff

 

[John McGhie]

Font name?

Some fonts are not encoded with kerning information: many of the OpenType
PostScript fonts are Japanese/Chinese fonts which have no kerning table
because Chinese ideographs are fixed width.

Cheers

I'm using OpenType PostScript fonts. The problem happens whether docs are
saved as .doc or .docx.

Thanks,
Jeff

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

 

[mercury613]

Specifically, VistaSans by Emigre, but it happens with all OpenType fonts we've tried.

 

[John McGhie]

Emigre OpenType fonts contain PostScript font outlines. (Also known as
OpenType CFF.)

It looks like these don't work. OpenType TrueType works (but Word 2008 does
not enable all of the OpenType features).

All I can suggest is that this is likely to be improved in the next version
of Office, 2011.

Sorry...

Specifically, VistaSans by Emigre, but it happens with all OpenType fonts
we've tried.

--

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 | mailto:[email protected]

 

[mercury613]

That's what I suspected and was afraid of. Oh well. Thank you. I really appreciate your help.