Box symbol

[DonnaL]

I"m doing this form that has tons and tons of check boxes.. not your typical dingbats box with the drop shadow, just a regular square box. Normally I would just make a bullet (Opt. 8) then change that bullet to a dingbat font but by doing that it's not right exactly. It's either a bit bigger or smaller than the current font I'm using (helv or times). I need just a normal square that will fit the size (and keep the spacing) as the font I'm using.

Can anyone suggest what to do? I really don't want to make a picture box and dup it throughout the form. UGH....

help?

[tperkins]

How does using a lowercase "n" in the zaph dingbat font work after you change it from solid to outline?

[DonnaL]

not sure if attributes will hold with the press but I guess I can give that a try. We try to avoid any machine attributes with all fonts.. regardless.

[Vikia]

I have been using lower case "n" outlined myself for years and never had a problem, especially with Helvetica or Times. Maybe this would be an issue with a newer or non-widely used font. But you are pretty safe with Helvetica and Times even using machine attributes. If there is ANY concern though, ask your print vendor.

[DonnaL]

We do printing here and know that the attributes don't work with our RIP system (Brisque), however, this form is being sent to an outsourced vendor, as they will be 4 part double-sided tear-apart forms. I created a PDF and it seemed to hold but that's not to say it won't hold on their end. I'll find out.

[Jimeda Fork]

I use the letter "p" with the font "wingdings" on a pc.

[Jason Fraker]

I would draw a box with the picture box tool and give it a stroke of .5. Then, with the top tool, select it and copy or cut. Next, switch to the second tool down and paste it in front of the text that requires a check box. That way, it will always be the same size and it will flow with any leading changes you make. I don't like to use dingbats. Hope this helps.

-Jason

[Broacher]

Does Quark not have Character-level styles?

[DonnaL]

If it does, I'm not aware of them or for that matter, know what they are.

[Vikia]

Character-leve styles and attributes are the same thing I think. So yes. But not all RIPs recognize them. It is safer to use an actual font.

[DonnaL]

That's what I thought but wasn't sure. Our rip won't recognize some of the attributes so we try to avoid them all together.

[Broacher]

Well, no. Character level styles are just that.... local formatting (size, colour, font, baseline shift, etc.) saved at a style level to be applied within a paragraph.

And for just a box, you don't even need to do this. I mean, if the dingbat version is too small, make it bigger, adjust the baseline shift if necessary and just cut and paste wherever you need it. What's so hard about that?

[DonnaL]

My concern was that the dingbat I was using wasn't really a font per-say. What I used was Option 8 for a bullet using Helvetica, then changed the font to dingbats. Option 8 for dingbats isn't a particular character, it's one of those - oh what do you call it - Like if there's no particular character for a keystroke, it displays a box as a default, know what I mean? It's not a perfect square and when highlighted it won't highlight the entire character.
ANYway.... I jsut wanted to know if there was any other character that would display a correctly formatted square WITHOUT applying attributes from the control palette. Dingbats has a filled in black square (lower case n) but not a plain one. Now why didn't they think of that???? idiots. LOL!
So be it as it may, I used the dingy, 'n' and reversed/outlined the sucker. I wouldn't have done that tho if we were sending it to our Rip.

[MD]

The font CommercialPi has many different sized "hollow" boxes.

[DonnaL]

Where can I get this font? We don't have it here.

[Vikia]

search result at MyFonts has Bitstream at $24.75
http://www.myfonts.com/search?search%5Btext%5D=commercial+pi