Micron symbol (opt-m) won't print correctly

[WendiatPresto]

[email]Wendy.Sieja@Alcoa.com[/email]

We often use the micron symbol µ on our packaging, created in Freehand. It's created using Option-M. We have some legalese in Helvetica Condensed, and create the micron symbol also in Helvetica Condensed. However:

In Freehand, the character on screen looks like Helvetica Condensed, straight and plain. Which is fine. But when printed, whether to a color printer, laser printer or PDF, the character shows a "droplet" at the bottom of the long stem, and other serif-type characteristics. It looks like Times or something.

For experimental purposes, I tried the following programs, each time using option M to create the character:
In Illustrator, the character looks like Times on screen, rounded with a "droplet". It also prints like Times.
In Microsoft word, the character looks like Helvetica Cond on screen, and prints like Helvetica Cond.
In Filemaker, the character looks like Helvetica Cond on screen, and prints like Helvetica Cond.

Plain ol' Helvetica acts the same way in all programs.
Viewing the character in Key Caps, using Helvetica Condensed as the font, shows the "straight/plain" character.

Anybody know what's going on? I know I could solve it in Freehand by remembering to convert the symbol to paths prior to printing, but that's a pain since we frequently edit this copy. Note: Printed Freehand packaging (by our vendors) also shows that this "straight" Helvetica symbol has been converted to a rounded font. So I know there are workarounds...I just want to know the WHY!

Curiouser and curiouser. Thanks for any clues.

[Rich Hudgins]

You can convert the micron symbol to paths and then paste it into the
text where needed (You may need to adjust it's baseline to get it to
line up properly). This way it will always be paths, but will still
reflow with the text when edited.

Rich

WendiatPresto wrote:

> [email]Wendy.Sieja@Alcoa.com[/email]
>
> We often use the micron symbol µ on our packaging, created in Freehand. It's created using Option-M. We have some legalese in Helvetica Condensed, and create the micron symbol also in Helvetica Condensed. However:
>
> In Freehand, the character on screen looks like Helvetica Condensed, straight and plain. Which is fine. But when printed, whether to a color printer, laser printer or PDF, the character shows a "droplet" at the bottom of the long stem, and other serif-type characteristics. It looks like Times or something.
>
> For experimental purposes, I tried the following programs, each time using option M to create the character:
> In Illustrator, the character looks like Times on screen, rounded with a "droplet". It also prints like Times.
> In Microsoft word, the character looks like Helvetica Cond on screen, and prints like Helvetica Cond.
> In Filemaker, the character looks like Helvetica Cond on screen, and prints like Helvetica Cond.
>
> Plain ol' Helvetica acts the same way in all programs.
> Viewing the character in Key Caps, using Helvetica Condensed as the font, shows the "straight/plain" character.
>
> Anybody know what's going on? I know I could solve it in Freehand by remembering to convert the symbol to paths prior to printing, but that's a pain since we frequently edit this copy. Note: Printed Freehand packaging (by our vendors) also shows that this "straight" Helvetica symbol has been converted to a rounded font. So I know there are workarounds...I just want to know the WHY!
>
> Curiouser and curiouser. Thanks for any clues.
>
>
>

[WendiatPresto]

Yeah...I know about the workaround. I just wondered if anyone knew why this was happening.

[Judy Arndt]

WendiatPresto wrote:

> Yeah...I know about the workaround. I just wondered if anyone knew why this
> was happening.

I've seen Arial bullets become Yen symbols.

The most likely reason is that the font you're using in FH is not the font
that the printer is using. Perhaps the printer uses a font included in
Printer ROM.

Judy Arndt

[WendiatPresto]

VERY interesting! Apparently our Canon printer, our Epson, and our print vendors are all having some sort of substitution going on. I wonder if there's any way to force a font download; I'll look into possible settings. Meanwhile, we'll go the "convert-to-path" route to avoid the problem.

I've seen the bullet-to-yen thing too; it occurred after someone had messed around in Fontographer and recreated screen fonts, and the new screen fonts were using a different encoding than the printer font!

Thanks for reply.

[SiggySputnik]

Hi, We've had a problem with fonts being substituting as well. I don't know
what version of FH you're running and on what platform, but there are two
places you should check to make sure that you can keep the fonts from being
substituted. The first is if you are using ATM (Adobe Type Manager). I think in
the preferences there is a box you can de-select that says something about
substituting fonts. You of course don't want it to do this for you if you need
a specific font. The other place you can look is under the page setup option in
the program itself under the file menu. There should be a pull-down menu at the
top somewhere. Pull that down to where it says Post Script Options (or
something like that). This will give you some more check-box's. One says
"Substitute Font"; de-select that one. There is also one at the bottom that
says "Use Unlimited Downloadable Fonts"; check this one. My operating system
actually doesn't show this in the menu (Mac OS 10.2.8 running FHMXa 11.0.2) I
hope this helps you some. You might also need the postscript version of the
font when you have the TrueType version of the font (or vice versa). If you
have a program like Fontographer, you could try converting the font to a
different format and then see if it goes to print correctly.

Hopefully my suggestion might help.