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Font Fails to Display in CS5

Explorer ,
Mar 08, 2011 Mar 08, 2011

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I have a font called SBF_D004 that has been supplied with a file, when used in InDesign CS3 and earlier it displays and prints fine, but when used in CS5 InDesign or Illustrator it does not display or print.

In the font drop down boxes of both applications it fails to show a "sample" of the font also.

Has anyone seen this before?

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Enthusiast ,
Mar 08, 2011 Mar 08, 2011

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What OS are you on? Mac, Windows, version? Is the "fine in CS3 but not in CS5" a behavior seen on the same machine, or on two different machines? What format is the font? PostScript Type 1? OpenType .otf? .ttf? When you say "it does not display or print," are you saying it shows up normally in the font menu, but no glyphs show on screen when you change text to that font?

Given the oddball font name, and the fact that a Google search for it doesn't show up anything, I'm guessing it is a custom or proprietary font.

Problems like this are not unheard of. Adobe updates their font support infrastructure (CoolType) with every new release of the CS apps, and sometimes font issues that were not problematic in one version can be problematic in another (unusual but not unthinkable). Mac OS font caches can get corrupted (fairly common). More rarely, Adobe font caches can get messed up... and CS5 would be using different cache files than CS3, even on the same machine.

Advice, some of which might be modified depending on the answers to the earlier questions:

1) First, clear your Mac OS (if you're on Mac) and Adobe font caches, and restart your machine. You can do a quick search for ways and utilities to do this. Such cache clearing is also a feature of the Mac version of my own company's Suitcase Fusion 3... not sure it's worth installing in free trial mode just to do that, but if you happen to be running that already, bob's yer uncle.

If cache cleaning doesn't help....

2) Can you successfully install the font at the system level, and have it show up in non-Adobe applications such as Microsoft Word? If that doesn't work, you can simply blame the font (which admittedly does not solve your problem).

3) Can you get the client's permission to send the font to an outside person for testing and possibly fixing? If it's .otf/.ttf, there are a bunch of diagnostics that people like me have to run on a font. Unfortunately they require some expertise to interpret, but in the right hands they are invaluable.

Regards,

T

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Explorer ,
Mar 09, 2011 Mar 09, 2011

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Thomas

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I am using Windows XP Pro SP3, the problem happens on two different machines, it is a True Type font and apparently the SBF stands for Sign Blazer Font or File and it is one of many fonts bundled with a signwriters program called Sign Blazer.

The problem is exactly as you describe, no glyphs show on screen but the text cursor moves as if the text is there.

I am using Suitcase Fusion 3 on both these machines, the font was already installed on one machine and whilst attempting to install on the other it said something about needing repair and it would only allow it to be added in-place.

This font displays OK in Word and CorelDraw just not CS5 applications.

I can send you the font for testing if you supply details.

Michael

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Enthusiast ,
Mar 09, 2011 Mar 09, 2011

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Given that Suitcase Fusion 3 said there was something wrong with the font, and it doesn't work in your CS5 apps, I'm thinking there is indeed something wrong with the font.

Normally the first step would be to see if there is an updated version of the font. However, it seems that Sign Blazer (from US Cutter) is a discontinued and no longer supported piece of software.

I would suggest contacting US Cutter and see if it is okay with them for you to send me the font to evaluate and possibly fix. Given that they've discontinued the product, I doubt it would be an issue, but permission would be needed, due to copyright issues.

Cheers,


T

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Explorer ,
Mar 09, 2011 Mar 09, 2011

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LATEST

It turns out that the font is the same as Dauphin, which we have on our system so we are using that instead.

Thanks for your help.

Michael

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Guest
Mar 09, 2011 Mar 09, 2011

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Tom -

It may be possible that those are stroke fonts (given the

application and application name). That is, not formed of outlines

and fill. Since CS applications tend to do their own rasterization, is

it possible that they can't process stroke fonts (if in fact that's

what they are)?

-- Herb

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Enthusiast ,
Mar 09, 2011 Mar 09, 2011

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Hey Herb, good to see you.

If they work in other common Windows apps and have a TTF extension, they can't be stroke fonts. Neither TTF nor any other common font format supports stroke-based fonts. (You could do 'em in PostScript Type 3, as well as some more obscure formats.)

That SF3 supported activating them in place suggests it found something wrong, but that it wasn't completely fatal... and that it recognized them as a font format supported by Extensis.

Cheers,

T

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