Arial Black Bolder Font is not available

[Jeddleman]

After upgrading windows XP with SP3 (Service Pack) the message [The “Arial Black Bolded” Font is not available. “Arial Black Heavy” will be used in this session.] is generate each time the file is opened. This is a problem because I have several hundred files that use the Arial Black Bolded style. This problem is prevalent regardless of the FM versions (5.5, 7.0 or 8.0) I’ve use. However if I uninstall SP3 the problem goes away. I have also tried these FM files on 2 separate computers, one with and the other without SP3; which have resulted in the same outcome.

What is making the Font conversion occur and why is it related to SP3? Is there a fix for this issue?

--The Font that is targeted is Family-Arial Black with Weight-Bolded.—

[Arnis_Gubins]

There really is no such font as Arial Black Bolded. This is a syntethic derivative of the Arial Black font created by multiple overstrikes and shifting.

FM is trying to find the best match and is suggesting the Arial Black Heavy variant.

I guess the SP3 "fixed" the ability of applications to make these synthetic pseudo-font abominations (finally).

Looks like you have to start systematically updating your templates.

[AxialInfo · Accepted solution]

Some google searching with the topics "winxp sp3" "arial bold" has revealed that MS did make a change in the way Arial Narrow and Black are named and used, resulting in sudden changes to bold or italic or black faces in many applications; also related to Office 2007.

I'm not sure of all the ramifications in FM (I'm not using SP3) but it appears there's an MS Hotfix for the problem.

As always, please, please be sure to back up your FM files before trying these fixes!

Here's a beginning:

http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2008/09/arial_narrow.html

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956514

http://indesignsecrets.com/hotfix-corrects-arial-narrow-problem-on-windows.php

http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71801

[Jeddleman]

Sheila, thank you for your help, you have saved me many hours of work. I didn’t download the MS Hot fix, so I don’t know if that would also fix the problem, but I did replace the ariblk.ttf [Arial Black (TrueType)] file with the one stored in C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ as specified in http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71801 forum. Strangely I did my own google searches before posting on here but I didn’t come across this solution, thanks again.

-------Instructions to fix this font issue*Start*-------

Access C:\WINDOWS\Fonts folder and make backup copy of the “Arial Black (TrueType)” file. This file may also be displayed as “ariblk.ttf”.

Re-access C:\WINDOWS\Fonts folder and delete the “Arial Black (TrueType)” file.

Access C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ and find ariblk.ttf. Copy it and paste it into the C:\WINDOWS\Fonts folder.

-------Instructions to fix this font issue*End*-------

[AxialInfo]

Jeddleman, I'm pleased that you've found a workaround, but I do want to expand on what Arnis mentioned, that if you are indeed using a "synthetic bolding" on the Arial Black then you've still got the seeds of significant trouble lurking in your files.

When font names show as "-ed" such as "Bolded", instead of just "Bold", that means that the face you're using doesn't have a true Bold variant, and you're forcing it to be bold by the digital equivalent of the way it used to be in typewriters, double-striking a key to make it bold. While it may look reasonably ok, there's trouble brewing just below the pixel surface -- if you google for

font synthetic "bolded"

you'll find lots of info about the ramifications, including not being able to search the PDFs correctly. The same thing often applies to fonts named "Obliqued" rather than "Oblique".

Here's one from our own FM-land expert Shlomo Perets:

http://www.planetpdf.com/creative/article.asp?ContentID=Online+PDFs+-+What+You+Get+Might+Not+Be+What+You+See&gid=6495

So, mea culpa for assisting you with keeping bad habits intact, although in the circumstances I'd say being able to do a phased transition when you know the reason for the change will lead to better practices and hopefully avoid having chaos reign.

Oh -- and I believe there are some excellent 3rd party tools that can make it easier to do global font changes in a doc set -- you might take a look at the Leximation tool list, here:

http://www.leximation.com

Sheila

[LindaKH]

I'm also having the problem with Arial Black and have no 'bolded' Arial Black in my document. I have located the Arial Black font in my Windows/fonts folder, but I do not appear to have the $uninstall location on my computer, though I do have SP3 installed. Any idea where I can download it?

Linda Hefferman

[Jeddleman]

I have attached a zip file that contains the original SP2 ariblk.ttf, I hope this helps.

Respectfully, JE

[LindaKH]

Jeddleman, you are my hero! Thank you! The fix worked. No more error messages.

Most gratefully,

LKH

[tlmurray23]

You can change your document's call for bad Arial Blacks (boldeds, for example) by editing the maker.ini file. In the section UnknownToKnownFontMap, you would add a line like

Arial Black, *, *, *=Arial Black, *, Regular, Regular

When Frame sees any call for an Arial Black that's not present, such as a bolded, it will be forced to a plain Arial Black.

[AxialInfo]

A variation on Tim's suggestion of using the unknown font mapping, I often use Comic Sans or Tekton (or something equally as visibly different) as the default font, so that any text that does default is more easy to spot, and it's certainly much easier to search for an "odd-ball" font like that. Particularly good for working with files that might have had external content imported in or pasted in from Word files where formatting overrides can be very difficult to see.

And, hey, Tim -- nice to "see" you around these parts again

[tlmurray23]

Thanks!