Type 1 font and Illustrator Trouble

[Idea Design]

Hi all -

I'm working with an embroiderer on screen printing some shirts or a local bar. I went to their shop to get the info for the job, saw the graphic, and didn't recognize the font. I asked if they would email the font to me and I would get to work.

They had to search within their specific application (embroidery) to find it, but in any event, they emailed it to me and I installed it.

The problem I'm having is that Illustrator 10 seems to be the only installed program that cannot use the font. Word can, Wordpad, notepad, all other word processing programs can use it, but I need it available in Illustrator.

Any ideas?

I received the .pfb and the .pfm files from them.

Thanks.

Cody

 

[Fred Weiss]

What operating system are you using?

 

[Idea Design]

windows xp service pack 2

 

[Fred Weiss]

Okay ... now what steps did you use to install the font? Secondly, did you relaunch Illustrator after you installed the font?

 

[Idea Design]

After searching through old threads here, and following some of your (Fred's) specific instructions on how to handle this...

I first copied the font out of the job folder, and pasted it into the
c windows fonts folder, that didn't work. BTW, Illy was restarted each time I tried something new.

Next, I deleted the font from c windows fonts, and went in through the Control Panel and installed the font according to your instruction from an old post. Once again, restarted Illy and no luck.

This is strange to me because I've alway had really good luck with installing and using fonts from various sources, and the font seems to work with a multitude of word processing programs. I feel like I've troubleshot this and still can't figure it out.

Does it make any difference that this seems to be a font that came specifically with the embroidery software?

Thanks, Fred.

 

[Fred Weiss]

No I doubt that there's anything unique about the font. It's either a Type 1 or it isn't. Using the control panel to both install and delete fonts from your system is essential to reliable operation ... this due to registry screw ups caused by copying, pasting, dragging and dropping etc.

If you will email me the font, I will be happy to check how it works on my system. Use of Winzip to protect the font is recommended before attaching to email.

 

[Bobby H]

I have seen IllustratorCS2 refuse to "see" certain fonts brought in by customers. One had a Type 1 version of Advertisers Gothic that would show up fine in CorelDRAW but not appear in the font menu of IllustratorCS2. It didn't show up regardless of whether it was installed using the Windows Fonts utility in Control Panel or Adobe Type Manager 4.1.

I've seen other Type 1 fonts refuse to even be previewed much less installed into WindowsXP (the message: "cannot activate [font name here], the font file(s) are invalid." would pop up).

I think the problem can be traced to users downloading fonts off the Internet from various sites and/or using a number of font conversion and renaming utilities. Errors in kerning and other areas pop up in the converted font files. A number of solutions are available. One can open the font in Fontographer or FontLab and regenerate a new Type 1 font file which will install (but the kerning may still be screwed up unless you go in and spend a bunch of time fixing it). Or one can just visit MyFonts.com or whatever vendor is selling it and just buy a font for that specific computing platform.

When it comes to legally purchased commercial fonts, or fonts that came bundled in with a graphics program, I have never seen any Type 1 font in either category refuse to load in WindowsXP's font manager or ATM 4.1.

New Adobe applications further complicate matters by having their own shared folder of fonts that aren't visible to other applications. It's easy enough to move those OTFs elsewhere and install them directly into Windows. Of course its best to leave the Asian fonts in their original location and not mess with any in the "Reqrd" folder.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I have looked over a copy of the font. It appears to have been modified in ways I have never seen and definitely will not show up in the menu for Illustrator 8, 10 or CS2. It shows up in CorelDRAW 8 but will not give you anything usable when you type with it.

I converted it to OpenType and it will enter in Illustrator but not prreview correctly. With preview off I am able to see numerous overlapping shapes in every character.

It was either modified for embroidery in ways I do not understand or modified by someone who had no clue as to what he or she was doing.

The font itself began life as Abilene from Fluent Laser Fonts and can be downloaded HERE. I doubt the inner decoration is anything more than a result of overlapping shapes knocking eachother out.