Type in PDFs
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- rasko4
so my type nightmares continue... why is it that certain fonts at certain sizes render totally all over the place as PDF's viewed in Reader. In Preview they are fine. You know, like they look all blobby and the baselines seem slightly different for each letter.
How can I get around this considering the PDF is to be viewed on screens of varying sizes/res etc?
Any ideas/avoidances/leads?
- johndiggity0
make sure you are viewing at 100% in acrobat or reader.
- rasko40
well its something that will go out to a mailing list you see.
- johndiggity0
it's just the way adobe's pdf engine renders things. like in photoshop when you are not viewing at 25/50/75/100% everything looks off. not much you can do unless the user has their prefs set to view all pdf's at 100%. there's nothing wrong with your files though.
- rasko40
hmm see, 100% is actually far too small, imagine an A4 page landscape, for viewing on screen, its going to be enlarged to fit screen, and at 100% its both too small and still wobbly, as it is on my screen fit to screen at 144% its wobbly still. Seems to be worse with some fonts than others. This is a big problem for me right now. Some users view by printing out, some on screen, I cant really make the copy bigger either. bugger :(
- radar0
you can define the zoom level at which the document opens at (100%, 150%, etc.)
- rasko40
yeah but it's no good having it open at 150% because then the whole page wont be on screen. You see my problem? I dont think there is a way around it other than to try differnt fonts.
- Typographica0
...or to try a different original document size.
- rasko40
no chance of that, its so people can print in their office or view on screen.
- horton0
how bad is it? small type and detailed vector lineart with strokes always look a little funky in Acrobat.
there's also a checkbox in prefs to activate CoolType which optimizes text display for laptops and LCD, but this of course will only improve on your machine.
- rasko40
i mean that doesn't look sop bad at all there, but I saw it on a different screen and it looked awful.
- horton0
ouch yeah that uneven baseline is a problem.
sorry no idea, unless it's a crap free dafont. do you get the same problem with other fonts?
- rasko40
no its a quality legit font, it happens with other fonts to varying degrees.
it sucks.
- Typographica0
That bouncing baseline is the result of poor hinting or lack of hinting. Very few fonts are hinted well. Only a professionally hinted font will look good at all sizes on screen.
- rasko40
fucking type designers.
;)
- monoboy0
As mentioned, the best thing you can do is set your prefs to open the doc at 100%.
Failing that, you'll have to change the doc to a screen size.
Or, if it's for a mail campaign. Why not go the whole hog amd turn it into an HTML email. (That way it's bespoke, trackable and will look the business).
- aliceblue0
By defualt Acrobat uses local fonts installed on your computer.
what about embedding the font?
(if the font can't be embedded
- some can't -
acrobat substitutes)under:
Advanced/desect Use Local Fontsthen confirm in Document Properties:
File/Document Properties/FontsIt will state that the font is embedded and also the subset.
hope this helps ...
- mr_snuggles0
what program are you saving/exporting the .pdf from? If it's straight outta Indesign or quark it shouldn't be that narly for sure...
- CFish0
I get issues with capital I's even if I have created outlines first. Reader still makes them wider and taller than other letters making our logo look stupid on all PDF's!
- aliceblue0
did u try embedding - see
post a couple before