Type 3 Font

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

How do I find whether Type 3 fonts have been used in an INDD publication, without manually going through the info in the Find Font dialog box or creating a PDF and checking there?

Many thanks
Vicki

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

It's been a long time, but if memory serves, InDesign doesn't work with Type 3 fonts -- doesn't even see them. But I could be wrong. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

Dave

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

No evidence to the contrary. Just I'm writing some notes on good PDF creation - and then the person for whom I am writing them throws in a curved ball about Type 3 fonts. I'd said the bit about no MM fonts and avoiding TT fonts where possible and how they could check. And this has just left me sitting there. if you can tell me that InDesign does not work with Type 3 fonts - problem solved!!

Look forward to hearing from you
and thanks

Vicki

[Bob Levine]

You're goint to lose credibility if you put that part about Truetype in
there. There's nothing wrong with that format at all.

Bob

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Yes saying no TT fonts is a total red herring: It might have been true (but only on some RIPs) in 1992. But TT fonts have worked on every RIP for a decade.

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for that about the TrueType - I can go back and say there is no problem. We had it as historically there have been problems - but would you back me on saying that today there are none?

Thanks so much for your input!
Vicki

PS Would hate to lose credibility - so I owe you!

[Bob Levine]

What I would say is that there shouldn't be. Any printer warning against
TrueType should be avoided if at all possible.

Bob

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Bob

Would you mind explaining a little more about how one would see/and then avoid a printer warning? Am a little lost here.

Thanks so much for your time though
Vicki

[Cindy_Johnston@adobeforums.com]

Printer as in pressman, not machine.

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

a ha!
Thanks Cindy

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

Okay - am now removing all references to avoiding TT fonts - and see what my bossman says. Have told him (in a comment on a PDF) that the very clever people on the InDesign forum have told him that's all old stuff!

Has anybody anything else they can tell me about Type 3 fonts though?

Thanks once again
Vicki

[Klaus_Scharfenstein@adobeforums.com]

Type 3 fonts are - as far as I know - much less »intelligent« than TT oder T1 (Type 1) fonts. They have no built-in »instructions« that could help raster the character's shape to a typographically fine result when it comes to printing. This is of increasing importance the smaller the pointsize is you want to use a Type 3 font for, and, on the other hand, becomes more and more meaningless the larger that pointsize might be. In other words, I would never use a Type 3 font for printing the New York City phone directory, but it should be okay to write »Queen Mary« on the stern of an ocean liner ;-)

So, in a way TT and T1 fonts are smart fonts, while Type 3 fonts are kind of dump fonts.

Klaus

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

Klaus

Great explanation! Thanks!
But do you know whether INDD can use them? (not that I want to) But need to find out if they can be used, how I can track them. Do they have a different icon which would show in the Find Fonts dialog box? Or something.

Thanks again
Vicki

[Jeffrey_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Here is a support file on T1 and T3
<http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/328509.html>

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

Thanks so much! It does help, but I'm still searching for the elusive answer as to whether INDD supports the use of Type 3 fonts. Because if it doesn't (which I am beginning to wish) I can just remove allreferences to them!!

To all of you - once again thanks. Really do appreciate the help.
Vicki

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Virtually all fonts were converted from Type 3 to Type 1 in 1990 when Adobe published the specs for Type 1 fonts. They remained only a short while in some custom built fonts. They're essentially gone, and I haven't seen one in a decade.

[vicki_loader@adobeforums.com]

Steve

I am going with that. I've not seen one in ages, have none on my machine, you haven't; bet no-one else has. Therefore am going to presume they have gone to the big bit bin in the sky and we don't need to reference them!

Thank you
Vicki

[Richard_Sohanchyk@adobeforums.com]

Type 3 is obsolete. Do not use them. Simple as that.

[Sandee_Cohen@adobeforums.com]

Hold on. Type 3 fonts had their uses.

The main thing I remember about Type 3 fonts was that they could contain halftone information.

This meant you could have an image as the font character. Or shades to create gradients in the font. Or even colors within the character.

Hardly "dumb" at all.

I would not be surprised if InDesign COULD use Type 3 fonts. But I don't think anyone has any. And it may be that neither Mac nor Windows could manage them.

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

Indeed, they were a mechanism for assembling just about arbitrary graphics into a font. That's what made them on the one hand potentially powerful and on the other an absolute disaster in page layout because resources were needed to support them where resources weren't supposed to be.

I suspect that InDesign might be able to use a Type 3 font that didn't indulge in wild fantastical graphical effects, but I also wouldn't be surprised to know that they were locked out.

Dave