Fontstyles are not exported into PDF/X-3

[Johannaauriane]

Hello all,

I am creating a business card in Affinity Designer and have the problem that when exporting to PDF/X-3:2003 the font styles are not applied. I am using Montserrat (and have all the font styles installed for it). However, when exporting, the fonts are all output n regular, although I also use bold/semibold. 

What could be the reason for this?

Thanks a lot & best regards
Johanna

[Hangman]

Hi @Johannaauriane and welcome to the forums,

I suspect you have installed the variable font version of Montserrat which is unsupported by the Affinity apps at this time. You will need to uninstall the Variable version and replace it with the static version for your font weights to export correctly to any PDF format.

Note: the PDF format itself doesn't support variable fonts either so any program with variable font support will automatically convert a variable font to a static equivalent on export.

[Johannaauriane]

Thank you so much for the quick reply! I never heard of variable or static fonts. Do you know where I get the static version from? Initially I got the Montserrat from Google Fonts.

[Hangman]

The version on Google Fonts is the variable version. You likely have just one font file (maybe two) installed which includes all the weight variables.

Montserrat is available as a free download under the SIL Open Font License...

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/license/montserrat

and the static OTF versions can be downloaded here...

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/montserrat

To avoid any conflicts, uninstall the variable version first and completely remove it from your font management software and then install the static versions and apply the appropriate weights to your business card artwork and you should find that everything then exports as expected...

Let us know how you get on...

[Johannaauriane]

Thanks for the tipps! I deinstalled the old font and installed the bundle from OTF. Unfortunately it seems like the export is exactly the same - only regular fontweight... Could there be another issue?

[Hangman]

Are you on Mac or Windows and are you happy to upload a sample of your business card artwork even if you use a random name and contact details so we can take a look...

This is what I get using the OTF bundle...

Montseratt.pdf

[Johannaauriane]

Sure I can upload my artwork, I bet it helps to get a clearer view at the issue. 
The Screenshot below is taken out of my Affinity Artboard, the pdf is the exported file. As you can see, the fontweights are just not adopted...

 

 

example.pdf

[Johannaauriane]

... ah and I am on Mac.

[Hangman]

Are you using Font Book for font installation?

On opening your artwork all the Montserrat text defaulted to Montserrat Light which to me suggests it's not using the OTF versions of the respective font weights so I changed the text accordingly and have attached both the V2 artwork and exported PDF files...

I've rightly or wrongly used a mix of Medium and Semibold as that appeared to be the best match based on your screengrab though I noted in your first post you mentioned Bold and Semibold so my assumption may be wrong...

It sounds to me as though the variable version isn't fully uninstalled... If using Font Book I would go to the All Fonts section at the top and double-check if the variable version is still listed and if it is right-click and select 'Remove' from there...

I'm unsure if you're using V2 of Designer but if you are then what do you see when you open the attached Designer file after double-checking that the variable version of Montserrat is fully uninstalled...

 

Business Card Artwork.afdesign

Business Card Artwork (WCM).pdfBusiness Card Artwork (NCM).pdf

[Johannaauriane]

That worked, thank you so so much, you helped me a lot here. Also thank you for the effort you put into the files!!

 

Greetings from Germany

[Hangman]

Hi @Johannaauriane, that's really great to hear and absolutely no trouble at all. I'm glad you now have a file that is working correctly...