PXT 4.5.1 font problem in OSX

[sequoyah]

There are versions of type 1 fonts that show up in the Quark font menus as "B family name Bold" and similar constructions for italic, bold italic, condensed, etc. Examples are some versions of Helvetica and Futura, but there are many others.

Now PXT 4.5.1 with Quark 6.5 in Mac OSX has a problem in that it picks up this menu name for the font and then fails to include it in the ps file, giving a fonts missing window listing say, B Helvecica Bold. So that when printing that ps from Preps either in the previewer or to a postscript device there will be a request to locate the font "B" ( or "I", "BI", etc.). Since there is no such font, even in the folder with the correct font, the only option is to cancel. Followed by the message "there are fonts missing, do you want to continue?" Answer yes, then the output is correct because the font say, Helvetica Bold was in the ps file after all.

The header of the ps file will have the comment:

%%DocumentNeededResources: font B Helvetica Bold

That is the menu name of the font but the correct name of the font is Helvetica Bold. If that comment is deleted from the ps file before adding it to a Preps job, then there is no request for a missing font and the output is correct.

These same fonts showed up in the same way in the font menus of Quark 4 and 5 in OS 9, but the earlier versions of PXT did not have this problem. Are any of you having this problem? Is there a similar problem in Windows?

Finally, no part of this problem occurs if the ps file is produced by printing to file with the ScenicSoft ppd using the same fonts and Quark doc.

Al Ferrari

[rgoodman]

I'm a little confused with the problem you are having. What is PXT? Is that a Quark Xtension? Can you be a little more clear?

[sequoyah]

From the user guide:

Creo PXT 4.5 is an extension for QuarkXPress® that simplifies the creation of
PostScript® files from QuarkXPress 6.5 and ensures that PostScript files exported
from QuarkXPress conform to the Adobe® PostScript Document Structuring
Conventions (DSC).

[sequoyah]

I have made some small progress. I had originally discovered the problem with a Q6.5 file that had an Illustrator eps that used Helvetica Bold, and had the font embeded in the eps.

While testing to investigate the problem I was creating a new document and typing the text "Bold" in Helvetica Bold, and proceeding to output .ps through PXT with the results described in my first post.

What is new is that if the test file is saved before doing the output .ps through PXT, then the problem does NOT occur. Now that's for the test file.

A file with a placed Illustrator eps that uses Helvetica Bold, and has the font embedded in the eps, but not used in any Quark text DOES produce the problem even after saving, closing, and reopening the file.

A file with a placed Illustrator eps that uses Helvetica Bold, and has the font embdeded in the eps, and also uses that font in Quark text DOES produce the problem before saving, but not after saving the file.

But neither the saving nor the use of the font only in the placed eps makes any difference if the ps is created by printing to file through a local host virtual printer using the ScenicSoft ppd. That method is problem free.

So why can't Creo make PXT problem free?

[sequoyah]

Well it turns out that it is enough to use the font even on the paste board and save the file to avoid the problem. But it would have to be done for any font that followed that menu naming convention.

A better solution would be for Creo to make PXT write the real font name to the ps file.

Al ferrari