"fl" Disappearing upon PDF export

[sk504]

This is really strange, but whenever I export my InDesign file to a PDF, every instance of "fl" becomes invisible. For instace, "flood" becomes "ood" and "flip" becomes "ip". If I do a Find on "fl" within the PDF, it will highlight the areas where the "fl"'s are supposed to be, but the space is blank.

I've never heard of this before. Has anyone? I thought that perhaps it may have something to do with the font being damaged, but "f"'s and "l"'s are showing up fine everywhere else in the document (as long as they're not together).

I'm using InDesign 2.0 on a PC.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Sabrina

 

[jmgalvin]

Create a new doc & type a sentence like "The flood came" in the font you're using. Duplicate that and change font to something else. Create PDF and look at results. If the first loses FL, the font is bad. If not, your layout is causing problems.

It if a word with FL in it overlaps another object, click on text box with the FL in it, go to Object/Arrange/Move to Front and see what happens.

If the word with FL is close to edge of doc, make sure it does not extend past margins as set in Document setup or Layout.

One thing on fonts: Use a good one - from a recognized font supplier. Some of the freebies you download on the web can be very bad. Fonts can be corrupted if the app (any app) crashes while using that font.

 

[sk504]

I've already tested several fonts, and the placement of the text is directly in the middle of a new document. It seems like this problem is happening with 5 out of 6 fonts (and reliable fonts, ala garamond, century, times, etc.), which is really strange. Most of the time when the font is damaged, it's the entire thing, and not just the ligature "fl". It's also weird that this rare problem is happening with so many other typefaces.

And I'm using Arial, because I thought it'd be less likely to be damaged.

I'm stumped with this thing. I'm just trying to make sure this isn't some strange InDesign bug I wasn't aware of.

But thanks for your help jmgalvin!