Adobe type 1 fonts and XP Pro

[bob]

I have this small handful of Adobe type 1 font files, actually 8 files all variations of the same type face.

I have two machines both under Windows XP, 1 Home, 1 Professional. I just upgraded to service pack 2 on both machines and lo, on the XP Professional machine these fonts are no longer served up by any font list on any application except for Photoshop Elements, which I never use. The very same fonts are served up just as they should be on the XP Home machine.

I uninstalled service pack 2 from the XP Professional machine, still no fonts. It's not that they're not there. They are, right where they're supposed tobe in the Windows font directory. You can view them with the font viewer in that directory. But that's the only place you can. I re-installed SP2 on the XP Professional box since its absence didn't seem to clear up this anomaly.

I re-installed the font files in question. No help.

I know that the Adobe ATM Light is suposed to be integrated with all XP versions and it seems to be so for the XP Home machine. I can't for the life of me figure out just why the XP Professional machine isn't serving them up.
I've examined all of the usual suspects, environment variables, system settings, etc. can find nothing that would pre-empt the type 1 font capability that's supposed to be built in.

So I figure I'd just download the Adobe ATM Light from Adobe's web site and run it externally. Hah. It would appear that, either with malicious intent or casual oversight, that this package is not available. At least at this time.

I assume that there's some obscure variable somewhere, probably lurking in a remote corner of the registry or in some file living in a dark corner of the system, that's preventing XP Professional from dealing with these fonts. The question is, is it, and if it is, what is it and where is it?

If anyone knows anything about this sort of thing, please tell all. If Microsoft spent half of the energy doing support as they do in avoiding support, I would have this solved in a nonce. Since that's not the case, I inquire here.

 

[Bigdawg]

What fonts are they Bob? We are using Adobe Type 1's on XP Pro with no problems... but I haven't installed service pack 2.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I haven't been using my Type 1's for a long time now, having converted them all to TrueType. But to see if I had any problem went ahead and installed a couple of them into the XP Pro SP2 box I am sitting in front of.

They show up just fine and I checked them in both Word and FlexiSign.

What is interesting, at least since I've never installed one into Windows without using ATM, is that Windows evidently combines the PFB and PFM portions of the font into one file during the installation process which carries the PFM extension. For those not familiar, the Type 1 font format uses a PFB file to carry the vector outlines and either a PFM (Printer Font Metrics) or an AFM (Adobe Font Metrics) to carry the spacing, kerning and other info in the font.

Bob, I imagine a well travelled individual such as yourself has a decent understanding of the basics of font installations, but these two things may benefit you or someone else down the road regarding Type 1 fonts and Windows:

1. Type 1 fonts are delivered as two or more files: The outlines and the metrics. Both must be present for either Adobe Type Manager or the Windows font installer to correctly see and install them into the Windows operating system.

2. For fonts to be correctly registered with Windows, and, therefore, show up in your menus reliably, they should be installed or removed with either a well written font manager or by using the Install or Delete command that appears on the File Menu of the Windows Font folder. Dragging and dropping them is not the correct way to install fonts.

Please let us know what the problem turns out to be when you get to the bottom of it.

 

[Bobby H]

I use lots of Postscript Type 1 and even Type 1 Multiple Master fonts in Windows XP Pro SP2. Typically these fonts are installed using Adobe Type Manager 4.1 Lite. Normally I have no problems at all using them. But most of these are Adobe distributed fonts that were bundled in various Adobe software releases.

I have seen problems with Windows own font manager and ATM 4.1 Lite and 4.1 Deluxe rejecting some Type 1 fonts that were converted from Mac platform True Type or Type 1 fonts. Sometimes something gets lost in the translation and you'll get hit with the warning "not a valid font file."

Windows Vista may "break" Adobe Type Manager. I've been planning on buying the FontLab Studio 5.0 upgrade from Fontographer 4.1.5. I'll have to use that to make OpenType conversions of my existing Type 1 fonts.

 

[bob]

What fonts are they Bob? We are using Adobe Type 1's on XP Pro with no problems... but I haven't installed service pack 2.

8 variations of Poppl Laudatio. Unfortunately, a favorite of mine. I came by them by throwing a temper tantrum with Sign Warehouse and they sent me these 8 type 1 file pairs. Probably to shut me up.

Interestingly, the fonts were served properly prior to the SP2 installation. Afterwards, nada. Even curiouser, the XP Home box with SP2 installed via the same CDR functions as it should. And stranger still, removing the SP2 from the XP Pro box doesn't fix the problem. Go figure.

I could probably restore back to a date prior to the initial SP2 installation and get them back but that would obliterate the SP2. Which is needed to tame certain bizarre behavior in Corel X3 for which I just spent premium dollars. Bascally to get the color and cutout labs, which are worth the price of admission. As well as the fillet/notch/chamfer which is ill thought out and the step and repeat which is a bit of a disappointment since it only goes in one direction at a time. Just as disappointing is the regressive feaures of the line width in the outline dialog and the new implementation of the special character docker.

 

[bob]

Disappearing font mystery unraveled

Hah! Just messing around hoping for inspiration I did Control Panel->Fonts->Tools->Folder Options. I figured that since the fonts directory is just a special case of explorer it would show the same boring things that any other iteration of explorer would. But there, on the third tab labeled "True Type Fonts" which only appears in this directory, is a check box labeled "Show only true type fonts on my computer" and the box was checked. I unchecked it, rebooted, and voila, the type 1 fonts appeared everywhere they are supposed to.

It's always something sufficiently simple to make one feel foolish.

 

[Bigdawg]

Bob,
If I hear (read) you correctly X3 has issues if you don't have SP2 installed? What kind of bizarre behaviour? I don't have Poppl Laudatio on the PC so can't speak to that one specifically.

 

[bob]

Bob,
If I hear (read) you correctly X3 has issues if you don't have SP2 installed? What kind of bizarre behaviour? I don't have Poppl Laudatio on the PC so can't speak to that one specifically.

It would just up and quit or go totally catatonic seemingly at random. Both Draw and Photopaint. Invoking the help pages seemed to be a sure fire way to lock it up. But then sometimes not, as I said, bizarre. With the SP2 installed Corel seems to have gotten a grip and behaves in a predictable manner. At any rate, It hasn't given me the finger since I installed SP2 Friday.

When you install X3 on a pre-SP2 box it comes up with a screen informing you of its apparently desperate need for SP2 and, with a digital equivalent of a shrug, allows you to proceed at your own risk. Which, of course, I did. In an hour or so of playing around with X3 and having it fold or seize up on me numerous times I was out questing after a copy of SP2.

I use Flexi mostly, but for many print jobs an EPS file out of Corel Draw directly into the Production Manager allows a faded drop shadow and a far more civilized distortion envelope and gradient tools. Moreover the close interaction between Draw and Photopaint deftly sidesteps Flexi's rather primitive bitmap tools. On the other hand, Corel is utterly lacking in Flexi's ability to position objects and Corel's outlining capabilities are the definition of clumsy if you're cutting.

The only caveat I've uncovered creating EPS files in Corel is that if the job does indeed contain a bitmap drop shadow and you try to rotate the print in Prduction Manager you'll get a rip error after it spends an excruciating amount of time in the process and rip stages. All you have to do is correctly orient the print in Corel and all is well.

On the old news front, the font issue is resolved, see above.