Still missing fonts that do not exist.

[scasella99]

Initial questions:

Here's the usual, IMac G5, OS X 10.3.9, Indesign CS.

I am working on manuscript. I am placing word files (from a pc user) on my paste board. I remove all the stuff I need to, I use find and replace for all the foreign fonts with what I'm using, remove all the styles brought in by the word file. I have certain fonts that in the find and replace info window say they exist on page: NONE, they are no where to be found but I cannot replace the font. I have run tests: created a new file with the template I have to use (which is free of missing fonts), I have placed everything in from the library and got no missing font errors, I have brought in all the word files and placed them, replaced all the fonts, come up with missing unreplaceable font. Then I proceeded to remove every bit of text from my text file, master pages, closed library, removed all text form document and paste board, deleted all character and paragraph fonts, and I still come up with missing univers italic, which is a pc font not the mac version I have. There are others but I will stick with just one.

How can I get this font replaced, I've tried replaciing it with the univers 55 oblique nothing works and we cannot send the files out this way. Any suggestions?

Please and thanks
Sandra


INITIAL RESPONSE:
27 Oct 05 8:57
When you try the find/replace font function, are you using the button that takes you to the first instance that the font is used? What is displayed there in the document?

I DID THAT AND THAT'S WHERE I GOT THE DIALOG FROM THE "FIND FONTS INFO BOX THAT STATES WHEN I HAVE SELECTED THE MISSING FONT THAT IT EXISTS ON PAGE NONE.

- - I hope this helps - -
(Complain to someone else if it doesn't)

vakohles (TechnicalUser)
27 Oct 05 9:50
Have you checked your Masterpages as well?

You may already be doing this and this is redundant but here you go:

1) Insert your file into InDesign
2) Don't remove Styles yet
3) Go to File > Preflight
4) Click on Fonts > Find Fonts
4a) Select the fonts which are occuring that you do not have, or do not want and then choose the Find Next button under Done (Select only one Fonts in Document at a time) . . . The troublesome ones will most likely show you a blank text box that houses the obscure font. Then in the Font Family Select what you want to replace it with and the Font Style.

HAVE DONE ALL THAT, INCLUDING MASTER PAGES, (WHICH AREN'T TOUCHED AND TEMPLATE IS CLEAN PRIOR TO BRINGING IN WORD FILE)

5) Select Change All
5) Rinse and Repeat

If you are still having issues affter all of this I recommend you unformat (remove the formatting from the PC Word file) outside of InDesign. . . Then bring it into the InDesign file. Make sure there are no Styles for Characters or Paragraphs - then do steps 3-5 again.

I CAN'T UNFORMAT BECAUSE THE ARE FILES THAT ARE COMPLETED HAVE NOTHING OF THE WORD FILE LEFT IN THEM. I BRING IN THE WORD FILE ON TO THE PASTE BOARD, I NEVER PLACE THE FILE DIRECTLY INTO THE DOCUMENT BECAUSE IT'S NOT ONE FLOWING DOCUMENT,

HTH!

I'VE DONE ALL THAT WAS SUGGESTED EVEN THOUGH THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING AND THE "UNIVERS ITALIC" IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLACE. LIKE I STATED BEFORE, I RAN A TEXT FILE AND AFTER IMPORTING A WORD FILE, GETTING THE MISSING FONTS, I REMOVE ALL TEXT FORM DOC. AND MASTERS, I REMOVED ALL STYLES. THERE WAS NOT ONE BIT OF TEXT OR A STYLE LEFT IN THE DOCUMENT AND THE MISSING FONT WAS STILL BEING FOUND WHEN THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO TEXT LEFT.

I AM VERY PUZZLED. SOME HOW A FONT GETS PERMANENTLY EMBEDDED IN THE FILE AND I HAVE TO GET IT REMOVED. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS??

 

[vakohles]

Just to clear things up a bit - Are you copying the text from your PC file (using say TextEdit or MAC version of Word) and then pasting it into the InDesign Text boxes as opposed to placing the whole file into the document?

I think you are going to say yes, so I will continue . . .

First off the PC file of which you speak, what was it created in? Word 2002, WordPerfect 9 etc.

Secondly do you have access to a PC in which you can open this file and see if your trouble lies there? If not, I would be more than happy to help, since I work on a PC in the office and it just so happens that that is where I am currently. Let me know if that is something you can and would like to do and I would be more than happy to help you out.

Thirdly, well that really can't come until you answer 1 and 2.

Just Trying to Help you out



InDesign CS, Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, Acrobat 7
Windows XP & MAC OS X (Yes I Use Both, Not at the Same Time)

 

[jmgalvin]

I'm guessing that your problem is caused by the copy and paste. I've always found all sorts of wierd things contained in Word files - to the point that I invariably save as plain text and then bring it in. I'm lucky in that I don't recieve very long Word docs - usually no more than 10 pages. Among the things you get burned on is tabs. Double spacing via the return key also seems to call for a font - int the same style as the last word of the line before the space. That's for leading purposes. If a person tabs, it seems that Word calls for a font in that blank space. Another thing that can cause big problems is All Caps vs Caps Lock (I've had that cause text that came out looking Russian when going to pdf).

If you were to use the Place command and click on the Show Import Options box, it would give you at least a few more options, including remove text formatting. I'm not saying this will help, but it couldn't hurt to try.

I don't understand your statement that the originals are no longer in Word format. Did you trash them? If not, it's still easiest to open the Word doc in Word mac and change the fonts there. If you don't have Word, you could use Appleworks or any word processor.

But rather than spend the rest of your life on this, here's something to try. Export a pdf and open it in Acrobat. Go to File menu/Document properties and check Fonts. See what's there. If the problem font isn't there you should be okay.

Another workaround is to preflight the thing and check the missing fonts. Try replacing the whole family with what you want to use from the fix fonts part of preflight. If that is what you're using for your current Find/Replace, then try the Find Change on the Edit menu via more options box. If you use this make sure you keep going thorugh Find next until you're done.

Using OSX 10.3.8 on a G4

 

[jillholland]

We have the same problem, and it has existed for as long as we've been using InDesign (about two years). Even when we start a new document from a new template, sometimes we get a missing font error...and it's on page "None." We have yet to find a reason for this.

It hasn't caused a problem because all of our files are printed from pdfs, so if it says it's on page "None," and we can't remove it in any of the dozens of ways we've tried, we just leave it alone. If you are running files to an ImageSetter, it could cause a problem.

Since we only use Helvetica and Wingdings (we produce technical manuals and are in a pc environment), you'd think our problem would be minimized, but it's amazing the crap that the machine thinks is there, when it really isn't. We have learned to live with it, because it isn't going away.

Jill