PDF font substitution in AutoCAD LT

[marchitect_nc]

I'm revisiting a topic that keeps coming up in my practice: Font Substitution on PDF's that are printed by commercial printing companies...

When I use ACAD LT to create pdf's then email them out to a commercial printing company they inevitably are produced with different fonts than the fonts I used to create them.

The printer guy has all kinds of excuses that seem to center around the fact that their printing device doesn't have the fonts I used in its catalog, even though I use standard Windows fonts.

This is messed up!

I have tried making the pdf's with the "convert all text to geometry" option selected and "capture fonts used in the drawing" option. NONE of these work. The print shop copies still have messed up text, messed up text justification, blocks of text totally dropped out (replaced by lines of dots).

It's getting to the point that contractors are not bidding the projects correctly because of the missing blocks of text!

This is completely unacceptable!

And don't give me that dribble about Autocad LT has always done it this way because I still have an old version of LT that can produce pdf's that can be printed correctly (and I'd use it but it isn't compatible with some of the nice newer features).

I try to use standard windows fonts; Arial, even Comic Sans, etc. to no avail. And it's a problem with all the printing companies in the area. It's now become a liability for my practice!

So, how to fix this?

Concerned.

@marchitect_nc

john.vellek has edited your subject line for clarity: PDF font substitution

[pendean]

We've never seen that issue here: we all create PDFs and send them out to print all day long and have done for a very long time now.

Post one of your PDFs with this problem and post a screenshot of a print of the same PDF from your printshop so we can see what you are talking about.

[marchitect_nc]

​Hi Pendean,

Attached is a screenshot of the original and a pic of what came from the
Print Shop.
This is an example of what I see normally.
The drawing title, scale and number are changed...
The missing text blocks were the worst...contractor kept that one.
That's why I'm worried.

​

[pendean]

nothing attached: you have to come to the website and reply to message using your webbrowser in order to post files.

Don't forget, we need your actual PDF file and not just a pretty picture of it, along with a picture of what your printshop send you back from the same PDF.

[marchitect_nc]

Hi Dean,

Ok I'll try again...

Attached is a pdf sheet extracted from the pdf set and a pic of the sheet as received from the printer.

Notice the drawing title, scale, and drawing number...

Thanks,

[pendean]

Q1: so the problem is with just the one bold short text style being swapped and nothing else? Really?

Q2: is this your only and only printshop's problem, or many printshops in your area?

And is this a sudden new problem? Or new printshop change? or did they get a new plotter?

I plotted your PDF to a laser plotter and an inkjet plotter here in our office, plus a few test prints on the same area to two brands of desktop printers and they all look like your PDF.

 

Not seeing anything wrong with your PDF: what else is missing or bid-inhibiting from your printshop print?

[marchitect_nc]

so the problem is with just the one bold short text style being swapped and nothing else? Really?  Yes, and that's a problem. If I wanted a serif font I would have used one. I didn't. I used Arial bold, I want to see Arial bold. After all, they are a "copy shop". They are supposed to "copy" what you give them. If it's going to be re-created as something else why bother.

is this your only and only printshop's problem, or many printshops in your area? It's not a new problem, and its not confined to my area. I also work in a neighboring state and the print shops there also cannot faithfully reproduce an electronic pdf file. And none of the local shops can print/reproduce what they receive electronically. As they upgrade/update their copy equipment it suddenly becomes an issue. Some printshops are worse than others, such as the one that had entire blocks of text represented a rows of dots.

And your printer test is the same as mine, what it receives it faithfully reproduces. But not so with commercial companies and electronic files. They have font libraries that they have copywrite permission to use and if your font is not in their library it gets substituted with some other font, or dots.

Now if I give them a hardcopy to print then there is no problem. But that's not practical any longer. Everyone wants their file sent to the printshop and they will go pick up the printed copies. Or they need it printed out of state/town, so an electronic file is sent. The interpretation of the electronic file is where the problem appears.

Like I said, it's messed up.

Here's another rub...if I create the pdf's with other software such as pdf995 or PDF Creator the resulting files can be reproduced exactly as I send them out, no font substitutions. The down side of that is I have to create each sheet separately, neither program has batch file printing capabilities...that I'm aware of.

So, that's my 2 cents. Electronic PDF's are not what they should be.

[pendean]

Weird indeed: you may just have to use a 3rd party PDF driver then if the "convert all text to geometry" also fails on your offsite prints.

[john.vellek]

Hi @marchitect_nc,

I have just read through this thread and it seems weird to me too.  I looked at your PDF in Acrobat and it shows a variety of fonts being used and some are not TTF.  This cold perhaps be metadata or something else but I was hoping you could share a sample drawing file so I could dig in a bit deeper.

[marchitect_nc]

Drawing file or pdf?
--
Mark Grenell, Architect
*9 1 0 2 3 3 1 0 6 1*
[email protected]

[john.vellek]

Hi Mark,

I have the PDF from the thread. I would like to see the DWG and if you could tell me or show me the plot settings when you tried to use the built-in PDF driver it would be helpful.

If your data needs to be private or confidential, please email it directly to me at [email protected] and please include a link to this thread in your email.

Please also tell me your specific version of AutoCAD LT that you are using.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[john.vellek]

Hi @marchitect_nc,

You shared some data with me via email. 

I opened your plan file, ran AUDIT (21 errors), Purged, and also -Purge>Regapps.  Then I created a Page setup using the AutoCAD PDF (GD) driver and ran publish.  The resulting PDF shows all TTF fonts in it so this should print properly.  It might be worth having your outside print run a test for you. I did not have all your SHX fonts so you might reprocess.  If you want to send back to me (before sending out for printing) I can use Adobe Acrobat to look at the embedded fonts.

If the problem persists, I suggest importing the page setup that I created and then AUDIT frequently.

You indicated that one print company identified some fonts that they didn't have license to. Do you remember which ones those were?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[marchitect_nc]

The font was Tall Paul and a couple of others I liked, Architects Daughter, and Flux Architect.

They didn't like some shx fonts as well but I don't remember them.

You indicated I could import a page setup...was that attached?

Thank-you for spending time on this.

m

[john.vellek]

Hi @marchitect_nc,

Yes, the pagesetup was in the file I returned to you by email.

Some fonts are considered "licensed" so you would have to temporarily share them with others in order for them to work. This is true of other software as well which is why most of us just use the built-in stuff except for a logo or something like that.

When you make your next set to go our in PDF, Why don't you also perform an eTransmit and include in the option s to have all the fonts included? Then you can see which fonts are required for the set.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[marchitect_nc]

I'm sorry John, sometimes the terminology screws me up..."the pagesetup was in the file I returned to you..." not sure what I'm looking at there?

If I make an etransmit with the fonts included what am I doing with it? I'm sorry, I don't follow the purpose...am I sending it to the copyshop? for them to do what?

The things you are describing here are new to me...prior to some of the recent ACAD LT releases I didn't have any of these issues so none of this was relevant.

So I'm sort of lost here.

m

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

HI @marchitect_nc,

i am sorry if I was not clear - I run pretty fast at times.  The file I returned to you had a Pagesetup applied to one of the layouts. It was the one I used to produce the PDF I returned.  That PDF appeared to have the correct fonts intact.

I made a short video that shows me grabbing one of your layouts and importing into a new drawing and then I use Page Setup Manager to bring in the setup that I created.  You should note that I also show the option of changing from Capturing the fonts to changing them to geometry during the PDF process.

The eTransmit process would allow you to see all the font files that are required in your file.  You could opt to include all those fonts with your PDF when you send it to the print shop.

Again, as I stated in my email, if you have another project you want me to look at i am happy to do so.

 Note: Video shows that I am doing this process in full AutoCAD 217 but it should perform the same in LT.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.