3 Replies Latest reply: Feb 12, 2007 5:23 PM by FredX1 RSS

    Degree symbol (option shift 8)

    mackerr Community Member
      I've been struggling with a problem when outputting an Xpress file (containing an eps generated in FHMX) as a PDF. I was getting an error saying that there was a missing screen font - Symbol - even though the Symbol font isn't used anywhere in the FH document (and didn't show up in the collect for output report from FH either)..

      After much digging it turns out that, although I was using Bitstream Zurich (in various weights) and no other fonts in the FH document, the problem was caused by the Degrees character (as in temperature) which was selected using alt/shift/8 as normal. With this character in I got the missing font call, with it removed all was well. Converting to paths solved it (of course) but I still don't know why using this character makes for a bogus font call.
        • 1. Re: Degree symbol (option shift 8)
          mackerr Community Member
          Forgot to say: Freehand MX, Mac OS X 10.4.8 Xpress 7.1.
          • 2. Re: Degree symbol (option shift 8)
            julesinchaos Community Member
            Fonts in Freehand are weird. You cant use any alt/shift key characters. They show in your document but don't make it to output. I also have problems with apostrophes too which come and go as they please with certain fonts (notably Stone bold as some bold styles aren't supported). You're better off using a font that has the character on it like a Dingbats but not the Apple system version which also won't make it to output. Bullets (alt 8) also don't work reliably either.
            • 3. Re: Degree symbol (option shift 8)
              FredX1
              >Fonts in Freehand are weird. You cant use any alt/shift key characters. They show in your document but don't make it to output. I also have problems with apostrophes too which come and go as they please with certain fonts (notably Stone bold as some bold styles aren't supported).

              Don't take this as gospel, we're still learning FH 11 after jumping from OS 9.2 and 8.01b to Intel Macs and OS 10.4.8.

              8.01b files opened up have done this ...en and em dashes not printing or even swapping, bullets printing as yen symbols, etc. but apparently by recreating the text block fresh, all prints normal. Maybe pasting text to a word processor and back after changing the font would work...haven't tried that yet.

              Still trying to figure out why MX treats normal adobe fonts so weirdly...looks correct in one view, zoom out and several characters turn grey and don't display. Select all and reduce and they look and print perfectly.