Font problems in PowerPoint X
Tinu
(PowerPoint 2000) do not fit on the slides anymore (they run below the
bottom of the slides).
While this is easy to correct for by adjusting a smaller line-spacing
in the master it is annoying. So I installed the Office X Service Pack
1 hoping for a cure. However, while the service pack indeed increased
stability and font rendering quality, the problem with fonts is even
worse now: I got the same behavior as described in the thread "Very
weird font weirdness". Fonts are widely spread, no kerning at all,
sometimes what used to be single text boxes are now multiple textboxes
(one for each character)... it's unbelievable.
Uninstalling the service release (i.e. uninstalling Office X and
re-installing without the service release) left me with the initial
problem. So it is definitively due to the service release!
If anyone knows a cure, tell me. If anyone at Microsoft's Mac team
reads this post, please investigate the manner and provide a solution.
It's a nuisance.
Detailed information: The fonts used are PostScript Type 1 which are
identical on both OS. The fonts work well except for importing into
PowerPoint. The OS are Windows 2000 and MacOS 10.1.5.
Thanks for any hints,
Tinu
John Reiher
tinu...@yahoo.com (Tinu) wrote:
> Detailed information: The fonts used are PostScript Type 1 which are
> identical on both OS. The fonts work well except for importing into
> PowerPoint. The OS are Windows 2000 and MacOS 10.1.5.
You just said the magic woid: PostScript fonts!
While they may be indentical across both platforms, they are not handled
the same way by PPT X and PPT 2000. In fact PPT 2000 does not handle
PostScript Type 1 fonts at all!
The only way you can get the fonts into PPT 2000 is with the help of
Adobe Type Manager the full program. But, it's not the PS font, it is
the Preview version, that is, the, hopefully, ttf preview font for that
PS font.
PPTX however can read and display PS fonts. Now if the font for display
being used on PPT2000 is not the exact same font... Well you the answer
to that.
One other thing: DON'T USE POSTSCRIPT FONTS IN PRESENTATIONS.
PS fonts are meant for printing, not for display. If you've fallen in
love with a PS font, find it's TrueType equivalent and get a version for
both platforms. That should solve your problem.
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Steve Rindsberg
> Adobe Type Manager the full program. But, it's not the PS font, it is
> the Preview version, that is, the, hopefully, ttf preview font for that
> PS font.
Care to elaborate on that 'un, Firebreath? <g>
Whether or not you need ATM to use PS fonts in PPT2k depends on the version
of Windows you have.
All WinNT versions from 4 on have been able to use PS fonts w/o ATM
installed, though in different ways.
NT4 and, maybe?, Win2K do pretty much what you describe: when you install a
PS font, they create a TTF version for screen use but give you the option to
print with either one to PS printers. Not sure about XP.
Win9x requires ATM; it won't install or use PS fonts at all w/o it.
In either case, Win9x or NT4/Win2K, if you have ATM, it renders the PS fonts
for screen and non-PS printing; no TTF previews required or even created
when you install the PS fonts into ATM. Of course, if you install them
directly into Windows via CtrlPnl/Fonts, you're bypassing ATM and making
messes. Need some paper towels, big fella? ;-)
Tinu
> While they may be indentical across both platforms, they are not handled
> the same way by PPT X and PPT 2000. In fact PPT 2000 does not handle
> PostScript Type 1 fonts at all!
This may be true, I don't know. In fact, handling PostScript fonts
should not be left to each application but be an OS functionality.
However, it does not answer the question why the service release
completely messed up the font handling...
> The only way you can get the fonts into PPT 2000 is with the help of
> Adobe Type Manager the full program. But, it's not the PS font, it is
> the Preview version, that is, the, hopefully, ttf preview font for that
> PS font.
I had PostScript fonts in a lot of PPT 2000 presentations. As far as I
know, W2k handles PostScript fonts without ATM. At least, I do not
have a TT equivalent of my PostScript fonts and they work.
> PPTX however can read and display PS fonts. Now if the font for display
> being used on PPT2000 is not the exact same font... Well you the answer
> to that.
Okay, this would answer the slight misalignment, slight kerning
changes or larger line spacing. But it does not answer the complete
mess...
> One other thing: DON'T USE POSTSCRIPT FONTS IN PRESENTATIONS.
> PS fonts are meant for printing, not for display. If you've fallen in
> love with a PS font, find it's TrueType equivalent and get a version for
> both platforms. That should solve your problem.
I don't subscribe to this point of view. Technically speaking,
PostScript fonts are cubic Bezier and TT are quadratic B-splines.
Therefore PostScript is of higher quality unless the TT font makes
clever use of the more sophisticated hinting in TT, but otherwise
there is not much of a difference... Both formats are supported either
on W2k and MacOS X and therefore should work.
And what's the mess with the MS Office X service release 1?!
John Reiher
tinu...@yahoo.com (Tinu) wrote:
> > You just said the magic woid: PostScript fonts!
>
> > While they may be indentical across both platforms, they are not handled
> > the same way by PPT X and PPT 2000. In fact PPT 2000 does not handle
> > PostScript Type 1 fonts at all!
>
> This may be true, I don't know. In fact, handling PostScript fonts
> should not be left to each application but be an OS functionality.
> However, it does not answer the question why the service release
> completely messed up the font handling...
From what I understand, OffX's service release fixes some font problems.
But something you said has made me wonder... When you said that the PS
fonts are identical, you didn't mean that exactly. Even PS fonts come in
PC and Mac flavors due to the vagrancies in the differences between the
two operating systems.
I've seen cases where the client swore he used a specific font, I've had
the same font with the same name on my Mac and it didn't work. I had to
replace the fonts in the PC presentation with a different font then swap
to mine for it to work properly.
Just because the fonts have the same name, doesn't mean they are the
same font internally. Unless you bought both the PC and Mac versions of
that PS font from the same vendor, they may not be same font.
>
> > The only way you can get the fonts into PPT 2000 is with the help of
> > Adobe Type Manager the full program. But, it's not the PS font, it is
> > the Preview version, that is, the, hopefully, ttf preview font for that
> > PS font.
>
> I had PostScript fonts in a lot of PPT 2000 presentations. As far as I
> know, W2k handles PostScript fonts without ATM. At least, I do not
> have a TT equivalent of my PostScript fonts and they work.
>
You must pardon my ignorance on Win2k, I went from Win NT4 straight to
Win XP, so I'm not familiar with Win2k's capabilities.
> > PPTX however can read and display PS fonts. Now if the font for display
> > being used on PPT2000 is not the exact same font... Well you the answer
> > to that.
>
> Okay, this would answer the slight misalignment, slight kerning
> changes or larger line spacing. But it does not answer the complete
> mess...
>
> > One other thing: DON'T USE POSTSCRIPT FONTS IN PRESENTATIONS.
>
> > PS fonts are meant for printing, not for display. If you've fallen in
> > love with a PS font, find it's TrueType equivalent and get a version for
> > both platforms. That should solve your problem.
>
> I don't subscribe to this point of view. Technically speaking,
> PostScript fonts are cubic Bezier and TT are quadratic B-splines.
> Therefore PostScript is of higher quality unless the TT font makes
> clever use of the more sophisticated hinting in TT, but otherwise
> there is not much of a difference... Both formats are supported either
> on W2k and MacOS X and therefore should work.
>
I agree, in a perfect world, it should work. That it did work once, may
have been more of a fluke than design. However, one way to find out if
the server release is the problem:
Put the Office X cd into your drive and run PPT from the CD. It will be
slower, but it's the original, unaltered version. Open your problem
presentation up. How does it look?
Looks good, then the service release is causing it, contact Microsoft
direct and complain.
Looks the same, it's not the service release, it's something else. What
that could be, I couldn't tell you: OS X update, new software, something
is different and is causing this problem.
> And what's the mess with the MS Office X service release 1?!
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