Lucida Sans in bold does not work right

[pta]

I have added two lines of text to my PDF.
First line is using Lucida Sans font.
Second line uses same Lucida Sans font, but properties is set to bold.

The outcome looks ok in PDF-XChange, but in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC the bold font is substituted by Adobe Sans MM if I understand it right.

If I do the same test using Adobe Acrobat DC there is no problem.
If I create similar text in MS Word and save it as pdf it woks like a dream.
I can even add more text to these PDF files using PDF-XChange and those bold Lucida Sans lines are o kafter that too.

So How can I use Lucida Sans Bold in PDF-XChange?

BTW I did the same test using Arial and it works ok.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi pta,

Thanks for the post - Is Lucidia Sans installed correctly on your system? Normally font substitutions occur when the font is not installed. Given that you're able to use the font at all, I would expect that it is installed, but would like to be certain before taking this further.

Also, do you see this with any other fonts (not including fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Calibri, and the other most common)?

Cheers,

[pta]

I will attach more screenshots so you can see the picture...
All Lucida* fonts I have:

Lucida_Fonts.PNG

When I open Lucida Sans I can see 4 different fonts:

Lucida_Sans_Opened.PNG

I took a look how Preview works and there are all 4 fonts:

Lucida_Sans_Preview.PNG

Then I went back to document and found out that in addition to "Text Properties" there is also "Page Content Properties":

Lucida_Sans_Bold_Page_Content_Properties.PNG

Then I tried the same with Caladea font and my findings are disappointing... either I just can't do this right or there is something wrong with - well something...

Caladea_Fonts.PNG

Caladea_Text_Input.PNG

Caladea_Bold_Text_Properties.PNG

Caladea_Page_Content_Properties.PNG

Caladea_Bold_Page_Content_Properties.PNG

The file I used in my tests:

Lucida_Sans_Test2.zip

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi pta,

One of the developers informed me of the following:

Font substitution can occur for each font that is not embedded (regardless of whether the font is installed or not).
Problem is that you can have a lot of variations of a font with different names displayed in Windows (which have many different names variants inside, including different postscript names). When a font is not embedded, the only way to identify it is its name. In most cases we use the PostScript name, declared in the font, as in this case font substitution is more precise. But this also can lead to problems, for example:
File was created on a system where Lucida Sans Bold font has the PostScript name of LucidaSans,DemiboldRoman.
When you try to display it on system where there are different Lucida Sans fonts, you may find that the PostScript name for Lucida Sans Bold on that system will be LucidaSans,Bold or LucidaSans,SemiboldBold, and so on. In that case we cannot always match the necessary font (and other programs too, and because each program has its own substitution mechanism we cannot guarantee that other programs will display PDF file using same installed fonts).

The best solution is to embed all used fonts. Unfortunately we have yet not added control of this in Editor, but the driver [printer] has control of font embedding.

So the best option is to embed the fonts, as always.

Thanks,

[pta]

"So the best option is to embed the fonts, as always." - Yes, I prefer this too. Actually I don't have any other option if I want to get this right.
"Unfortunately we have yet not added control of this in Editor" - When do you have this feature? My job should be ready like yesterday!

I bought the license to prepare some (abt 300) templates to my customer. One specification was to use Lucida Sans font. The font was chosen, because people who read these documents are mostly visually impaired persons, and there were some other reasons to choose this font too...

But now back to my question: How can I prepare PDF form templates to my customer using Lucida Sans font and highlight important things using BOLD text?

[Willy Van Nuffel]

At my opinion, Tracker Software should be using the same font naming convention as Adobe is doing.
Currently, this does not seem to be the case. If it would, PDF-XChange Editor and Adobe Reader DC should handle the font information, included in the PDF, in the same way.

@pta
Normally, if you have installed exactly the same Lucida Sans font family as your client has done, and you ask your client to also use PDF-XChange Editor for opening the PDF-files you made with these specific fonts, they should show up exactly the same way on his/her side as they do on yours. I would even recommend to NOT include the fonts in the PDF's you create, except in case they should prefer to use an other PDF reader application.

@Tracker Software Support
Look what a strange effect I get with the sample file - Caladea italic - in Adobe Reader DC (2019.010.20098).
Because I do not have the Caladea fonts on my computer, Adobe Reader is replacing them by Adobe Sans MM.

[pta]

I thought that fonts were embedded.

I made a new test:
New fresh document where I
- "Add text", draw a box, choose font in Text Properties: "Lucida Sans", I also change Bold: "True"
- Under Misc in Text Properties is Use Embedded: "True"

image.png

When I next choose "Select Text" tool and double click on Lucida in Font Details Embedded is "No" and I can't change it.

image.png

After that I could not edit the text before selecting "Edit Text Elements as Blocks"

image.png

After that clicking text opens Page Content Properties where Embedded is "No"

image.png

If I click on Lucida once again I will get Text Properties, where Use Embedded is "True"

image.png

In document properrties I can see the font used - which is ok

image.png

Test file:

Embedded_or_Not.zip

How can I get this font embedded in document?
I thought that it will be automatically embedded, because in Text Properties "Use Embedded" is "True"!
Is it so that I can't use this editor for the purpose I bought it?

My client will fill in forms using Acrobat Reader (I guess - haven't discussed with them, but heavily expect this) and then save those pdf files with unique names. Next those files will be sent to third party to be printed out and mailed in envelopes to end users. I know that I must embed fonts so that it is me who controls the fonts used when printing these forms to paper.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello PTA,

Thank you for the workflow breakdown. As Will mentioned the editor does not currently offer an embedding feature. We are however working on it at the moment. While I cannot provide any guarantees about a timeline, know that it is coming in an upcoming build!

With that said, currently the only methods to embed the fonts are
A) printing to PDF using our Standard printer
B) Saving the document in an archival format, such as PDF/A-1a, which can be done from the save as dialog.

image.png

After doing this you will likely want to resave the document without the archival conformance to restore full functionality.

image.png

While neither solution is perfect, these do offer a few options for the time being.

Regarding your question about the "Use embedded: True" option. This simply allows you to continue using an embedded font that exists in the PDF while performing edits, it does not force embedding or make any other changes to the document.

Kind regards,