Troubel when recieving files create on a MAC useing Helvetica Light TrueType font.

[nidall_F]

Hi,

we often receive InDesign files produced by others parties where they use Helvetica Light TrueType font ( please se Metadata that I exported from one of the files )

We only use PC.s and we have some Helvetica Fonts installed but not the exact one mentioned above. so when the file is open we are faceing some issues when choosing a different Helvetica font.

My question is.. Is there a Helvetica Light TrueType font the we can by to use on our PC.s?

if not is there another way we can make this work? as Make sure that an external party uses the Helvetica light .OTF is a bit of a hassle.

As you can see my understanding of how fonts works i general is a bit shaky. So please feel free to elaborate.

all the best

\nidall

Meta data from recieved InDesign file containing the Helvetica Light TrueType

<FontFamily Self="di1c8" Name="Helvetica">

<Font Self="di1c8FontnHelvetica Light" FontFamily="Helvetica" Name="Helvetica Light" PostScriptName="Helvetica-Light" Status="Substituted" FontStyleName="Light" FontType="TrueType" WritingScript="0" FullName="Helvetica Light" FullNameNative="Helvetica Light" FontStyleNameNative="Light" PlatformName="$ID/" Version="10.0d1e1" TypekitID="$ID/" />

[BobLevine]

My guess is that those are dfonts, not truetype.

Sorry but beyond speaking to those sending the files and insisting on Opentype, there’s little you can do here.

[nidall_F]

thx Bob,

So just to be clear on a couple of things.

dfont is a MAC only FontType??

my question here would be if the meta data I extracted from the received file, is wrong, as it states FontType="TrueType".?!

If it was a TrueType can Adobe Applications on a PC handle / install / use a new TrueType Font?

[BobLevine]

Truetype fonts can be Mac, Windows or a flavor of crossplatform Opentype.

I have no idea if it’s right or wrong but again, I suspect it’s a dfont.

Was the font packaged with the file?

[nidall_F]

yes it was.

[BobLevine]

Without seeing the files I’m still going with dfont.

[nidall_F]

Would it help if I uploaded the InDesig file?

[Danny Whitehead.]

It will be the Helvetica.dfont that's part of OSX. It is a form of TrueType, but they won't install on Windows. Really, if you're going to be collaborating cross-platform, you'll both have to use cross-platform fonts. I think the Helvetica.dfont that ships with OSX is the Adobe/Linotype version, so Adobe's 'Helvetica LT Std' will be your best option.