If it doesn’t show as embedded in the PDF there’s very little you can do except request a new file with the font embedded or outlined/rasterised - or purchase the font and pass that cost on to the supplier/client.
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Flatten the photoslop file and see if that fixes your issue. It will rasterize the font but anyone that puts 9pt type in a raster based program deserves what they get (not really, they’d get phone call from me asking them what the want me to do with this error. And they don’t deserve that either.)
It might maybe resolve the issue to ask them to make it a photoshop PDF. That will embed the font.
Indesign does not recognise, collect or embed fonts in links. Not Illy links. Not photoshop links. It can be a real pain in non-pdf links. So much so, on native layered files, we check by opening any suspicious links to see if we get an error message. Photoshop files usually aren’t an issue because like I said, the font will print rasterized even when you get that error.
On a related note, just the other day we had an Adobe Type Kit font not convert to outlines. You know what? That is real inconvenient when the designer used the font for cut vinyl going on a sign…
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Thanks! I’ll ask him to try that.
Not if the font has no embed permissions.
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Right. I shoulda said, most times that will embed the font.
If the font has no embed permissions, well… I’ve always been of the opinion that a font should be a known quantity, vetted before staking your project on it. But we see it all the time since we ask for the layered links in the work we do. The photoshop files do print, just rasterized. I’m not sure what would happen if the font has no outline file. So much sloppy work out there, all around. Three more years. I just gotta make it 3 more years.
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Well I think originally they said the PDF didn’t have the font embeded - likely the font can’t be embedded. And opening the Photoshop File to make a PDF from that, won’t be possible unless you have the font.
My initial thoughts on this was just to replace the font and reproof it and ask if it’s ok to do that as the font had issues.
Likely as the font was small it might have been ok to do this.
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I’m not sure what the end goal Mojo has in mind — editing the type, maybe.
That’s not doable without the font, but short of that, if the font layer was saved as a smart object, that might preserve the vector outlines in the saved file. The non-embedable font itself would, of course, not be embedded, but the outlines, I’m thinking, would still be there and the smart object could still be worked with, just not retyped in any way. I’m sort of guessing on all this, though — it’s not exactly a best-practices approach to anything and I haven’t tried it.
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I’m trying to understand all the pieces of the puzzle and think ahead so I don’t pass on a problem file to the printer. The designer seems stumped, so if I can make a recommendation, that might help. But today I’m thinking maybe that’s not a good idea and I should just tell him the ad can’t be placed until he embeds the font. And leave it at that.
Out of curiosity, I just tried my smart object idea. It didn’t work.
Passing along fonts to printers is sort of a semi-OK thing that people do given that there’s sometimes no good way around it. Why not just ask for the fonts and specify that it’s only for printing purposes and that the fonts will be deleted once the job is printed.
Really though, what’s this person doing setting text-sized type in Photoshop? It’s just the wrong way to go about things. Can’t this person place the photo in InDesign, then just add the type there. The fonts might not be embedable, but they might be packagable via InDesign. If not, I’d have no hesitation in sending the fonts themselves since they’re all but unusable otherwise. Or have this person use a different typeface — one where the font can be embedded.
Still doesn’t stop non embed fonts.
I don’t think you can package them if you can’t embed them. And you can’t package Typekit fonts. Even though there does appear to be some differences between PC and Mac versions of the same activated font. Had a thing last week where word wrap changed and that was the only thing we could come up with. So too, it also happened to be the same font that wouldn’t outline for vinyl. I made it work, but it took a couple hoops.
Do you mean Adobe fonts? TypeKit is no more
Thing is, it’s a designer with many more years of experience than me, and a much more impressive client list, so there’s a slight intimidation factor. If I’m a moron, I don’t want ask him my moron questions, and have it possibly filter back to our mutual client. I’ll ask you all!
The font is essential to the product brand… rebrand. Changing it would affect things beyond the catalog, so not an easy change, though it would fix it. At this point I suspect it’s a free copycat font and that’s why it’s missing permissions, and if he licenses the legit original from its foundry the problem goes away. I’m guessing. I’ll try to find out this week.
The printer is expecting a pdf of the catalog… no ID package.
Just ask him to embed the font. That’s all you can do
I suspect my 40-plus years of experience trumps his. 
Without actually seeing the PDF file and checking it out for myself, all I’m doing is speculating.
When you open the PDF, does the type appear to be there? If so, can you enlarge it by several hundred or a thousand percent with the edges of the type remaining crisp and sharp. If so, the font or a subset of that font is embedded in the PDF. If you get error messages or the type gets fuzzy edges when it’s enlarged, the font outlines aren’t present in the file.
Can you open the PDF in Illustrator or Photoshop. Do you get font-related errors when doing that? If the ad opens just fine in Illustrator with the type appearing to be crisp and sharp — even when you enlarge it — the font outlines are there.
Where in InDesign do you get the missing font message? Is immediately after you attempt to place it? What happens when you run a preflight check on the file as it’s being saved to a press-ready PDF? If you remove the PDF with the missing font, does the InDesign message go away?
What I’m really getting at here, is that there could be at least a dozen different reasons for that missing font.
This alone might point to him not being the expert you think. It’s not good procedure under most circumstances to add live type in Photoshop then place it into InDesign for more type. There are exceptions, but they’re the exception, not the rule.
Are you sure the missing font error is related to the layered PSD? Could it be related to the InDesign file into which the PSD was placed and from which the PDF was made? I’ve sometimes run into similar problems when importing PDF ads into magazine layouts. A time or two, I tracked it down to an unused style sheet in the InDesign file that called for a font that wasn’t actually used or was overridden within the document. At some point, InDesign lost track of the fact that even though the font was part of a stylesheet, it wasn’t actually needed to print the file.
Do you have access to a good desktop printer? When you print out that page with the bad PDF, does it print just fine or is there an obvious font that’s missing.
Bottom lines…
Nothing I mentioned above will solve your problem. I’m just saying all this to give you the thought processes I would go through myself — someone who’s been doing this kind of thing ever since desktop printing was a MacPlus and an Apple LaserWriter printer.
You mentioned feeling a little intimidated by the more experienced designer who sent you the file and not wanting to appear naive. Between Smurf2, PrintDriver and me, we’ve got likely over a hundred total years doing this stuff and none of us can give you a solid answer.
This kind of thing happens all the time — seriously all the time. When you get files made and saved by someone else, this kind of thing is inevitable for the simple reason that there are so many things that can go wrong. I really don’t know how prepress people deal with it.
Anyway, if I were the one who sent you that file, and if you contacted me saying you were getting a font-related error when placing it in InDesign, the very first thing I would think to myself is that I, not you, made a mistake. The thing is, if I sent a PDF ad to some that I created in a combination of Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator and it resulted in a font error when placed into InDesign, the chances are that it would actually be my fault. Placing the ad is a simple procedures and should just work and not cause errors. If errors result from placing the ad, it’s almost certainly a problem of some sort with the file you’re placing, which shifts the problem of solving it back to the person who created it.
With all this said, if I were you, I’d write to this person and say that when you place the PDF ad into InDesign, it results in a missing font error related to whatever the font name is. Let him figure it out since I’d be willing to wager that the problem originated on his end.
And even if it does turn out to be something on your end, it’s no big deal. Every last one of us make mistakes and none of us knows everything. Sit your ego aside because nobody’s going to judge you in trying to get to the bottom of a missing font problem — seriously, nobody. What they will judge you for is not asking the questions, not getting to the bottom of it and having the job print with a missing font.
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Yes I mean Adobe whatever the **** they are calling it today. I didn’t look at what the name happens to be today, and maybe not even the next time they change it. I just activate the fonts (sometimes even successfully) when the designers use them. And reactivate them when it decides to shut them off in my own files. That’s annoying too.
As for this font error thing with photoshop, about 95% sure it is just a matter of having a live font layer in the file. I don’t think it’s anything more nefariously stupid than that. Print it out on your desktop inkjet. Does it print correctly? Resolution good? But by all means make the designer send it as either a photoshop PDF or rasterize the type completely and resend as .psd.
Raster 9pt type… 
Whatever.
Sorry.
This has become a dead horse.
Yeah, 9pt,300ppi rastered type composed of all the process colors. This alone, Mojo, points to this person not being the expert you might think.
PrintDriver mentioned something that I forgot — this wouldn’t by any chance just be a missing Adobe font, would it. Something that you can just activate from within your licensed copy of InDesign.
For what it’s worth, I tend to avoid Adobe fonts for these very reasons. They’re tempting to use, but they’re a recipe for problems. For that matter, just this past week I was dealing with one of these very kinds of Adobe font problems on a finished annual report I delivered to a company. For whatever reason, they weren’t able to activate the font on their end. I finally just converted the type to outlines and resent it.
So, finally sorted out… the font in his file didn’t embed because it was a ‘free’ font that didn’t give permission. He used the font in a layered photoshop file that served as the background of an Indesign ad. The ps file flattened when he generated the pdf, so that wasn’t the problem. However, he had tried to use the font in the ID file. He thought he had removed it from ID, but it was still being used as a spacer in one place. So the problem was an unpermitted font being used in Indesign, and being invisible.
He said saving it as raster at 9pt wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t think the client would spring $30 for the legit font, and he didn’t want to eat it, so he went with the ‘free’ one.
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That’s illegal still.
Yes, it is.