Franklin Gothic Printing Problems...

[follicle]

Greetings,

We sent our interior newsletter to the printers a few weeks ago and got them back soon after. I've been designing this quarterly newsletter now for more than a year. We have always used the same printer (a local lithography studio) and the same body font (Franklin Gothic).

Today, while glancing through the publication, I noticed that – on one page only – the body type seemed to shift from regular to thin in weight (very frequently). I immediately took a look at the PDF that we sent the printers just to find that the type looked fine. I then did some test prints on two different multifunction printers we have here at the office. Both (in color and black and white) came out fine.

After speaking with my supervisor about the problem, he noted that several pages of materials that I designed and printed in-house for a meeting a few weeks ago were the same way. Some characters would appear as regular in weight, while others would appear to be extremely thin. These materials were also printed as PDFs (converted from a Word Document).

After looking through many of the materials I have designed and printed (internally and externally), I've come to the conclusion that this problem only occurs with Franklin Gothic.

Would anyone have any insight into why this problem is occurring? Is it an issue with ripping? Should I not be printing from PDFs? I’m lost. Any response would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[PrintDriver]

How many different Franklin Gothic fonts do you have on your machine (in all the various font folders?) Is there any chance you may have chosen a different foundry version (happens all the time in files I get, especially if the designer has Classic loaded). Sometimes I'll get a mix of Truetype and Postscript too.
Fonts can hide out in 4 or 5 places on your comp and they have a stacking order...
Not sure why that would affect the pdf unless it is defaulting to something similar like Courier.

[follicle]

I looked over my fonts. All of Franklin Gothic is TrueType and they were all came pre-installed with Windows XP.

I have no idea what could cause something like this. It seems to be completely random. Whenever I recheck the file, everything seems to be fine.

I probably should have looked over the proof a bit closer.

I wonder if converting my type to outlines would make a different before I package everything up into a PDF...

[hewligan]

Well, the only versions of Franklin Gothic that come with Windows XP (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/winxp.htm) are the medium and medium italic. Are those what you're using?

[follicle]

To help everyone get a better visual of what I'm talking about, I scanned in a sentence from the actual printed page. It is attached.

The Franklin Gothic faces that were included with my OS are as follows:

Franklin Gothic Book
Franklin Gothic Demi
Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed
Franklin Gothic Heavy
Franklin Gothic Medium
Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed

Each of these fonts have an italic counterpart.

Thanks for the input thus far!

[Two-Toe Tom]

it seems it's the same letters that always changing weight, so my guess is that it's something wrong with the font itself. have you tried reinstalling it?

[Virgo Nightingale]

Is the text over anything, such as an image?

[jimking]

I've got a feeling those fonts are not embedded in your pdf for whatever reason. Not sure if you have the right plug-in for word to allow you to create a printready pdf. The pdf may look good on you screen and it may print fine on your printer but if the font is not embedded you've got problems if sending it to a hi-end postscript rip with those fonts not loaded or embedded. Do you have Acrobat Professional? If you do open one of the problem pdfs and run "preflight" on it to see if your fonts are embedded or not. If you don't, ask the printershop to do it for you. As asked earlier, is the font printing over an image?

[follicle]

Thanks for the replies.

If these fonts were included with my OS, how could I re-install them? Is there a way to do that? I was thinking, worse case scenario, about just purchasing the OT version of ITC Franklin. It might do away with the problems I'm having. Thoughts?

I do have Acrobat Professional. I just opened the Newsletter PDF that I sent to our printer and did a font check. All of the fonts (the Franklin Gothic family) were embedded in the file.

The type is not being set over an image of any kind.

Thanks again for all of the input.

[Two-Toe Tom]

hmm, maybe you can try to find the font file on your OS disk and copy that over your current file?

[follicle]

Update...

I noticed that when I print straight from InDesign, I have no problems. However, when I convert the same file to PDF, the problem appears. Maybe this is a problem with Acrobat?

[jimking]

I read this thread awhile back and it makes me wonder if it's the same.
http://www.prepressforums.com/forum/acrobat/9521-pdf-proofs-show-thick-ls.html
What kind of printing was the newsletter, was it offset or digital?

[DesignVHL]

Do you use a Font management program like Extensis? If not, you should! :) Extensis has a product called FontDoctor which has fixed and repaired fonts for me very well in the past. Perhaps if you ran your fonts through the Doctor, they will be repaired....

Though I'd also double check to be sure you did embed fonts.

Fonts and PDFs can be kinda tricky/wacky sometimes. While I've never had any issues from PDFS with my print vendors, I HAVE had problems printing directly from a PDF to my Inkjet - the font turns to foreign characters and greeked text for some reason....never could figure out how to fix it - other than closing the file, opening the file, reprint, and cross fingers! :P

Anyways best of luck, hope this gets resolved!

[doubting_thomas]

Is converting to outlines an option? What happens if you do that? Not really
a solution as much as a work around. I think your font is corrupt and not
embedding correctly, or that you have some kind of conflict, as others have
already posted.