🚀 go-pugleaf

Unfortunately, I don't quite know what you mean by Graphics RIP v5.5 to 7.0. Who actually provides this RIP?

The squares you see printing are indeed the .notdef character used primarily in both TrueType and OpenType fonts to designate accessing a character that is not defined or mapped.

The fact that the problem is intermittent and non-repeatable -- I assume from the same content repeatedly sent to the RIP -- is indicative of a RIP issue, not with the output from InDesign. It is possible that what you are seeing is some side effect of your RIP trying to optimize performance by caching glyph renditions from fonts and not necessarily being intelligent about same.

Even more mysterious is the symptom of not seeing the same occur when doing output from Windows. Assuming you are outputting PostScript from InDesign or creating PDF and then printing the PDF from Acrobat and that you are using the same software versions on both platforms, the behaviour your describe makes little sense. Adobe applications generate their own PostScript and do not rely on the operating system's drivers for same. And we generate the same PostScript whether on the Mac or Windows.

Two suggestions:

(1) See if your RIP has any controls for clearing its cache and/or using a less aggressive caching strategy for fonts.

(2) If doing PostScript output directly from InDesign, specify the full fonts are to be output, not subsets, and definitely check the box for "PPD fonts to be downloaded."

- Dov

We come across the the "squares" issue when using a PC-based font (we run hundreds of client-supplied jobs, and are at the mercy of their fonts most of the time) -- typically an apostrophe or other non-defined character. Often the character will *appear* fine, but then turns into a square when ripping the .PS file to print (or to PDF).

We have yet to find a workaround, sort of plugging in a Mac-based font (which isn't always possible or practical) -- so if anyone has a solution, I would love to hear it, too.

Thanks for the response...

To clarify, we are routing film output to several different RIPS. One Konica provided Graphics RIP v7, the other are from Autologic, but are still Graphics RIP and are various versions (although most are v5.5). All are Harliquin RIPs.

I originally had the same thought that the issue was with the RIP, however the fact that we see the problem from different RIPs from different vendors and do not see the problem from Windows machines, or if we feel crazy and use QuarkXpress to impose makes me lean towards an Adobe or Mac OS source.

Also PDFs created from other platforms and in other apps seem to not exhibit the problem.

One other pattern I have observed is that the offensive PDFs all have multiple sets (not subsets) of the same font. For example, our preflight reports will show 2 or more embedded sets of Times Roman (these can be the same or different versions or encodings).

I assume this problem is the result of nesting PDFs via importing PDF ads into the InDesign layout, then creating a PDF from the layout.

We've been addressing the problem through extensive proofing of output, but our tight schedule is making this process prohibitive.

Our standard print presets are set to download PPD fonts, I will however check the RIP settings for some font handling control (It is definitely possible that they are set to handle the font files similarly).

Thanks again.