type 1 fonts on vista.

[Joe Diaz]

Okay, my new PC came in today. The old one was fried during a storm. This new one has both Vista and XP on it (dual boot) I haven't started loading every thing up on XP yet because, Vista has been working great with every thing I have except........ Type 1 fonts/post script fonts wont install. I've tried every thing, I've used Bitstreams fontnav to try to install them. I've tried dropping them directly into the "windows\font" folder, I've tried using "file", "install fonts". It just doesn't seem to be happening.

The messed up thing is we must have figured it out before, because two of the other vista PC's have have the type1 fonts loaded and they are working fine. No one seems to remember how we did it though. It was a few years back when vista was brand new.

Does anyone have any tips (besides the non-helpful "get a mac" or "vista sucks" comments?

 

[cgsigns_jamie]

Do you get an error or do the fonts just not copy? Where did the fonts come from?

 

[Joe Diaz]

I tried software called MainType and it says: "font not accessible"

Font nav installs them, and I can pull it up programs like Corel for example, but the preview is blank and i can't use the font.

Same thing with directly coping the fonts into the windows font folder.

And when i try to use "file", "install font" in the windows\font folder, the type1 fonts do not show up.

We have gotten the fonts from several sources over the years. Most have come from the Corel 9 Disk.

Also, I'm noticing my opentype LHF (Letter Head Fonts) aren't working either.

 

[cgsigns_jamie]

I don't use Type 1 fonts but decided to try and install a couple and I can't even open it for a preview in Vista. When I double click the font in the folder it says it's not a valid font file.

I found this on Wikipedia

Windows support
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows Me do not support Type 1 fonts natively. Adobe Type Manager is needed in order to use these fonts on these operating systems. Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista support Type 1 fonts natively through GDI calls. The Windows Presentation Foundation introduced in Windows Vista, which is also available for Windows XP however drops support for Type 1 fonts, in favor of Type 2 fonts.

For Windows platforms that natively support PostScript, only binary PostScript and OpenType file formats are supported.

Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly codenamed Avalon) in Windows Vista supports rasterizing OpenType CFF/Type 2 fonts, whereas Type 1 fonts will still be supported in GDI, but not in GDI+.

 

[Joe Diaz]

What is weird is that they work on our other vista machines. The only difference is mine is 64bit. Right now i'm trying to track down a font converter so I can make the type1s either opentype or true type. Does any one know of a such a program. A quick google search is showing a few but they look iffy.

 

[cgsigns_jamie]

Ha.. my Vista is 64bit as well, that could be the issue.

 

[Joe Diaz]

UPDATE:
I thought I would type this up for anyone else running into this problem:

I downloaded this program:
http://www.proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/
It comes with a fix for vista 64 you can read more about it here:
http://www.proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/help/type1loader.htm

It's a $59 software, but it has a 30 day trial. Apparently after the trial is up, it doesn't effect the fix. I uninstalled it after I used it to move over the type1 fonts and every thing still works, so the fix must stay behind. Microsoft apparently will have a fix to the problem in the future, but this is a good alternative for the time being.

I found while researching the problem, that apparently the problem isn't microsoft's fault, it's adobe's.

Now on to the second part... The fonts are all working great, infact, I'm able to use some fonts that I wasn't able to use in XP, but for what ever reason I still couldn't get them to work in Corel.

This problem was super easy to fix. I just went on to Corel's site and installed all the service packs, updates and patches. Everything is working perfectly! I hope this helps anyone who has run into this. Thanks Jamie for the responses.

 

[Techman]

the problem isn't microsoft's fault, it's adobe's

If adobe keeps on with some of their plans.. This problem will not be the last.

 

[cgsigns_jamie]

Cool! Glad to hear it's all working!

 

[SignBurst PCs]

I ran into this with XP64 and CS3, so I don't think that it is a Vista deal.

I remember doing a little research and finding that it was an Adobe issue. If I remember correctly, they had decided to not support Type 1 fonts anymore.

I am glad that you found a workaround. It wasn't that big of a deal at the time, so I didn't search very hard for a "fix".

 

[Tony Teveris]

Nothing to do with fonts but I know on my system XP 32 bit and Vista 64 bit if I boot XP I will loose all my 64 bit restore points. Not a big deal for me as I have not used XP in over a year now but I do remember this happening.

 

[Joe Diaz]

I remember doing a little research and finding that it was an Adobe issue. If I remember correctly, they had decided to not support Type 1 fonts anymore.

Yeah, I ran into that too. As I was looking into this problem I kept hearing that Type 1's are soon to be a thing of the past. I always thought type1's were better quality then true type, but upon further research I found that that is not the case. It's just that there are so many terrible true types out there that the idea of them being inferior was a common misconception. true type has every bit the means to be as high of quality as type1

Either way the lack of support of type 1's has me worried. I got a program called CrossFont that allows you to convert font types to other font types. My plan is to transition all my type1's to Opentype.

Is there any legal problems with doing that. I mean we bought the fonts, if it turns out that they don't work on future systems, we should be able to convert them right?

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Is there any legal problems with doing that. I mean we bought the fonts, if it turns out that they don't work on future systems, we should be able to convert them right?

I would think that it would be OK, but I am not a legal expert by any means. I defer to those "in the know".