embedding fonts problem with printer

[Helen Lucy]

Hi,  I design leaflets on Affinity Publisher, convert then to pdf for print, and send them to an online commercial printer to print to paper.  I have an ongoing problem where they say that the fonts aren't embedded.  Frequently they tell me that times new roman is the problem, but I don't use that font, and when I check the document it doesn't list times new roman as being present on the piece I'm exporting to pdf.  I recently designed a leaflet using only arial font and this caused no problems.  I always check the box on the export menu - embed fonts.  I have tried getting round it by turning text to curves, but this doesn't work either.  The printer has no experience of affinity and so cannot help.  If I can't remedy this, I'm going to have to change my software to adobe which seems to be better understood.  I really don't want to have to do this!  TIA

[Hangman]

Hi @Helen Lucy and welcome to the forums,

Since you're supplying a PDF to your print company the software that generated the PDF shouldn't matter. If your file doesn't contain Times New Roman then it shouldn't appear in the exported PDF... It may be your print company that has the issue rather than the file you're providing...

1. Can you upload one of the PDF files causing the issue so we can take a look at the fonts being reported and confirm that the fonts are actually embedded?
2. Could you also confirm whether you're running on Mac or Windows and which version of Publisher you are using?

[Helen Lucy]

Thanks for getting back to me.  I'm using Affinity 2 on a Mac (although I was experiencing the same problem on my windows laptop with v1 too).

builders november 2024.pdf

[Helen Lucy]

Here is the latest communication from the printer regarding the problem, plush file they were looking at:

test2.pdf

[thomaso]

There are fonts used in invisible text, hidden behind scanned illustrations, with no fill/stroke colour assigned. It seems the illustrations have been placed as PDF that included text created by a text recognition process (OCR).

If you rasterize the placed PDF files before export you can get rid of the missing fonts issue. – Or simply inform the printer to ignore any missing font (assuming all visible texts have their fonts embedded as expected).

[Hangman]

Hi @Helen Lucy,

As @thomaso mentions, the vast majority of pages in the file contain hidden text frames that use Times New Roman. I would go through each page and delete the text frames to avoid any issues with the exported PDF file...

If you use Font Manager you can locate the rogue text frames and delete them...

The remaining fonts used in your file are embedded so shouldn't be causing the print company any issues...

Assuming Times New Roman isn't required at all in the file then once you've deleted all rogue text frames and re-exported the file you should no longer have any issues with fonts that are not embedded...

[HCl]

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[Helen Lucy]

Hangman and Thomas - thanks for your help - I'm beginning to understand the problem.  However, when I go to font manager, it doesn't show the time new roman font like it does on the screen capture video you kindly sent me.  See my screen shot below - no mention of TNR, so can't locate the troublesome text boxes!  What am I doing wrong?

[Hangman]

2 minutes ago, Helen Lucy said:

I'm beginning to understand the problem.  However, when I go to font manager, it doesn't show the time new roman font like it does on the screen capture video you kindly sent me.  See my screen shot below - no mention of TNR, so can't locate the troublesome text boxes!  What am I doing wrong?

This could be a possible font conflict since we're only looking at the exported PDF file... Your file uses Hannotate SC Regular which isn't mentioned in the exported PDF so there may be a conflict there perhaps...

Would you be happy to upload the original Publisher file or even just a few pages from the file so we can see whether we see the same as you're seeing and also to run a test export as it appears as though Hannotate SC Regular isn't embedding if used in the actual original artwork...

[Helen Lucy]

Here is the af file.  I can see how to delete the Hannotate font.  Still no mention of TNR.  I really appreciate your helping me to get to the bottom of this.

builders printed word.afpub

[Hangman]

Hi @Helen Lucy,

Many thanks for the file...

I hadn't realised that your file contained a series of Linked PDF files, that is likely where the font issue lies...

Could you zip up all the PDF files and upload the zip file as well so we can check the font usage in the PDF files...

[Helen Lucy]

Yes I will do - but it will take a while and will probably be tomorrow now. Thanks. I am very grateful for your help here. 

[Hangman]

Hi @Helen Lucy,

That's no problem at all, whenever is good for you...

If the file is massive but under 2GB you could always send it via WeTransfer or if you have a Google Drive Account, upload it and provide a link so I can download the zip file...

[Helen Lucy]

Hi @Hangman - Thanks to your and @thomaso's help, I now understand the problem and have remedied it.  I uploaded the pdf I had previously exported from the afpub file, used the font manager to find all the rogue text boxes and deleted them from the layer bar.  The pdf graphics I originally uploaded had some handwritten passages on them, which I as updating with type.  As one of you pointed out, this has possibly been the problem as a font may have been assigned to that and other marks in the illustration. The printer says everything is good now, so problem solved!

Many thanks for taking the trouble to walk me through this.  Have a lovely evening.

Helen.

[Hangman]

Hi Helen,

That's really good to hear, I'm glad you've managed to resolve the issue and that you now have a happy printer...

Many thanks for letting us know and have a lovely evening too...