[PDF] Re: Identity H encoded fonts
Michael Jahn
The PDF list is a service provided by PDFzone.com | http://www.pdfzone.com
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On 2/13/04 4:52 PM,"Jon Bamsey" <j...@ppl-online.co.uk> wrote:
> We have a problem with font which are encoded Identity H, in particular
> Wingdings. This is a very popular font with customers, particularly
> those using Word and the like, and pdfs that we receive from them
> generate ps errors when printing. We are currently using Acrobat 6, but
> it occurs on all version on the windows platform. Can anyone explain why
> this is happening and how to prevent it?
A search at
Entering - Identity H Font
Yields
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/3222e.htm
<wink> - hey, your on the internet, use it !
LOL
CID or composite fonts are also commonly referred to as "double-byte fonts",
"complex fonts" or "Asian fonts" or "Identity H fonts". These fonts are
typically used to handle writing systems where there are a very large number
of characters, such as in Japanese or Chinese writing systems.
So typically you would run into PDF files containing CID fonts for files
that are for an Asian market. However, Adobe InDesign typically outputs all
fonts as CID fonts if you output directly to PDF instead of going through
PostScript.
When these fonts are used in a PDF document, they can use all kinds of
specialized encoding systems; but one of the most common you will encounter
is called "Identity-H".
Typically CID fonts are checked during a preflight process because they
cause problems on older RIPs.
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Michael Jahn
The PDF list is a service provided by PDFzone.com | http://www.pdfzone.com
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On 2/13/04 4:52 PM, Jon Bamsey" <j...@ppl-online.co.uk> wrote:
> although most of the
> pdf's come from customers
Like the airline industry has done, you probably need to begin planning a
way to 'protect' yourself from your customers.
Many service providers require their customers to preflight their PDF files
BEFORE they send them in, and some even go so far as to take the time to
explain how to make reliable files - a great resource of instructing
customers on how to make reliable 'error free' PDF files can be found at;
As a publisher, Time Warner does not have the "time" to accept and try and
process PDF files, so they demand that PDF file be in a certain condition
PRIOR to arriving in their FTP site - Time Warner then runs them throgh
preflight and if they error, back they go (they don't have time to fix them,
and they don't want the responsibility of 'fixing' files.
Anyway, just a thought - GIGO - garbage in, garbage out
Hope this helps.
Dov Isaacs
The PDF list is a service provided by PDFzone.com | http://www.pdfzone.com
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At 2/13/2004 02:12 PM, Michael Jahn wrote:
>On 2/13/04 4:52 PM, Jon Bamsey" <j...@ppl-online.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> although most of the
>> pdf's come from customers
>
>Like the airline industry has done, you probably need to begin planning a
>way to 'protect' yourself from your customers.
>
>Many service providers require their customers to preflight their PDF files
>BEFORE they send them in, and some even go so far as to take the time to
>explain how to make reliable files - a great resource of instructing
>customers on how to make reliable 'error free' PDF files can be found at;
>
>http://www.direct2.time.com/
>
>As a publisher, Time Warner does not have the "time" to accept and try and
>process PDF files, so they demand that PDF file be in a certain condition
>PRIOR to arriving in their FTP site - Time Warner then runs them throgh
>preflight and if they error, back they go (they don't have time to fix them,
>and they don't want the responsibility of 'fixing' files.
>
>Anyway, just a thought - GIGO - garbage in, garbage out
>
>Hope this helps.
Quite frankly, there is nothing "garbage" about files that contain CID
font encoding. IN FACT, CID font encoding is permitted by PDF/X and
even the "more stringent" PDF/X Plus of the Ghent PDF Working Group in
Europe.
It isn't a matter of "old RIPs" ... it is a matter of RIPs or prepress
software that conforms neither to the PostScript nor the PDF specification.
If fact, the problem is usually "PostScript emulations" that didn't bother
to fully and properly implement the full PostScript Language Specification
and/or test against it!
Time's ad specifications are very unfortunate in that they don't even
live up to PDF/X1a specifications (and even those are pretty dumbed-down
PDF)!
- Dov
Michael Jahn
The PDF list is a service provided by PDFzone.com | http://www.pdfzone.com
__________________________________________________________________
On 2/13/04 6:46 PM, "Dov Isaacs" <isa...@adobe.com> wrote:
> Quite frankly, there is nothing "garbage" about files that contain CID
> font encoding. IN FACT, CID font encoding is permitted by PDF/X and
> even the "more stringent" PDF/X Plus of the Ghent PDF Working Group in
> Europe.
>
> It isn't a matter of "old RIPs" ... it is a matter of RIPs or prepress
> software that conforms neither to the PostScript nor the PDF specification.
> If fact, the problem is usually "PostScript emulations" that didn't bother
> to fully and properly implement the full PostScript Language Specification
> and/or test against it!
>
> Time's ad specifications are very unfortunate in that they don't even
> live up to PDF/X1a specifications (and even those are pretty dumbed-down
> PDF)!
Okay.
1. PDF/X plus does not mean "more stringent" - it is simply someone who
builds a profile that checks to see if a PDF file meets the requirement of
PDF/X and then checks for something else that may not be required by
everyone.
An example is Time Warner - simply accepting PDF/X files would allow low
resolution images and the potential of a spot color in the PDF - in
automated workflows, that might mean that you would run an entire set of
plates that needs to be thrown out, or that spot colored object simply go
missing. So, the Preflight profile rejects PDF files that have Spot colors,
even though they be perfectly valid PDF/X files.
There is no one 'right way' - and many people who have older systems (or
poorly implemented PostScript interpreters, as you suggested) can't process
PDF files that contain CID fonts in them. Worse, since Time Warner can't
control where the files get made into plates at the 50 or so printers they
use world wide, well, hey, they did their tests, and they came up with a
procedure that works 100% of the time, despite some inexpensive prepress or
print service provider that has old or bad RIPs.
So, one can be academic and say "hey, CID font encoding works, and I can
prove it" and I can walk you into a printer in Mubia, India or Bogata
Columbia and say "you are Meshungina"
- hey donšt be such a kvetch!
LOL
Anyway, have a great weekend everyone, and happy valentines day.
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Cheers,
Michael Jahn H: 310 540 6950
1104 Esplanade F: 310 540 8369
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