Problem with unavailable fonts haunting me

[FuzzieMac]

Using Frame 11, I cannot create a PDF because of unavailable fonts. I dutifully change them to what the console says using the Character Designer. That works. But when I open the files back up later, the unavailable fonts message come back.

I need some help with this. Thanks.

-- David

[Van Kurtz]

David,

A quick workaround is to open the file, which causes the console to display the missing fonts message. Then with the file open, create the PDF. Your PDF will not have the original fonts but the replaced ones.

In the long term,  you need to replace EVERY reference to the missing font with the replaced one. References can appear anywhere in the document, including reference pages and master pages.

Of course, the easiest solution is to install the missing font.

Van

[FuzzieMac]

So, I was on the right track; just didn't complete it?

-- David

[Van Kurtz]

Only time will tell.

[Diana Swenk]

I've been struggling with the same issue. Is there a simple way to determine what font is missing? The error log only says that there's missing fonts in a particular file in my book.

[Van Kurtz]

Diane,

Is there a simple way to determine what font is missing?

Look in the console window. It should state the name of the missing font, if I recall correctly.

If you have FrameMaker 9 or later, I believe the Fonts pod lists all the occurrences of the fonts in a document. I am kind of guessing here, because I do not use the pod.

Van

[Bob_Niland]

> References can appear anywhere in the document, including reference pages and master pages.

And the offending reference(s) can sometimes be very hard to find (won't even show up in the MIFs). The font call can be coming with with an external object, such as imported DXF, DWG, EPS, PDF and possibly SVG, as well as text insets and imported content from other WP/DTP applications. I wouldn't rule out OLE either (and if so, another reason not to use it).

[Qalix · Accepted solution]

This should solve your problem: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FrameMaker/9.0/Using/WS3311ECE5-10BA-4125-87B4-4C8508D817AA.html

The Fonts pod both shows the missing fonts and gives you the ability to replace fonts. When you replace a font, it replaces it in all tags/locations that use it. So even if it's tucked away somewhere out of sight and mind, you'll replace it.

[FuzzieMac]

Do you happen to know why in some cases unavailable fonts prevents generating a PDF?

-- David

[Bob_Niland]

> Do you happen to know why in some cases unavailable fonts prevents generating a PDF?

If it's a book, and you don't have all the component files already open, it's enough of an error to prevent the clean open that FM needs to generate the output.

[Qalix]

I guess that would depend on the nature of the problem. Is the file not being created at all? Throwing an error when you try to generate a PDF? Missing text within the PDF?

One problem I've seen before is related to the Print Setup. You'll try to print to PDF and bam, Frame crashes/closes. In that case, all I had to do was go in to File> Print Setup and UNCHECK "Rely on System Fonts Only."

We've got some theories about why that is, but can't be certain. It appears to be an issue related to Adobe reader/acro/professional plug in to Frame. We didn't have the issue until acrobat/reader/pro 9 came out. We have a copy of Frame setup on a separate machine with an earlier PDf version and it works fine on files that otherwise crash on the newer setup. We've also seen some weirdness with being able to do a book, but not the individual chapters. Or are able to do a book up to a certain point before it fails, but restarting at the point it failed, it continues on fine. We've also had some luck with a workaround on a file that the uncheck solution above doesn't work on either. We print to a postscript file and then run it through distiller.

It should be noted we're in a large corporation that still uses XP, so who knows what the root cause really is.

[Guest]

Hi,

I've been having exactly the same problem while updating a rather old book, containing about 100 separate files. (And over the next few weeks, I am likely to have to update several similar old projects.)

The fonts pod lists several fonts that are not used in text, as we only use 'Arial', and it is definitely available for use. So I spent some considerable time weeding out the spares, only to still be faced with "unavailable fonts" on every file.

After reading this thread, I checked the console window (d'oh), and found that "Arial Narrow Bold" was the actual problem. This is not listed on the fonts pod.

The only solution seems to be to search each file individually for Character Format "Arial Narrow", searching separately in the body pages, master pages and reference pages. The result of every search so far has been "Not Found"; however I am not having any more trouble with the files I have searched.

Normally I love my job, but this is possibly the most tedious, time-consuming and nauseating thing I have had to do in the last five years. I am probably going to have to spend most of the next day or so, searching single files for things that are not in fact there.

Shame on you, Adobe.

[Arnis_Gubins]

You might find it easier to create a temporary book and add all files there. You can then use the Book level commands to open all files. From the Fonts pod (FM10 and newer), you can then examine All Open Documents in one go and similarily do a font replacement in a single operation.

Alternatively, you can define a substituion in the maker.ini to globally take care of this situation.

[Guest]

Hi Arnis

Thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned I'm working in FM9.

I started by creating a new book file and populating with the latest versions of all the files. My first thought was to search the book file for the naughty font as a character format, but of course most of the files would not open because they contained the font.

Unfortunately, attempting to open 100 or so files at once will crash my pc. I've been working in batches of a dozen or so. Fortunately it has not taken as long as I expected, although many of the files need searched more than once before FM9 was convinced the nasty fonts were absent. I've been using the book search function to check which files have been successfully cleansed and which have not.

I'm not familiar with the maker.ini; where is it and how do I define a substitution in it? Am I likely to cause problems by messing with something beyond my capabilities?

thanks,

Ruth

[Arnis_Gubins]

Ruth,

The maker.ini file contains many specifications and seettings that are not directly accesible through tth FM user inerface. For more details, get a copy of the maker.ini reference PDF from:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/framemaker/ini/framemaker_11_ini_reference.pdf

Look in the [UnknownToKnownFontMap] section for details on how to specify the global mapping for missing or unavailable fonts,