Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 8/11/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi. I'm on windows XPsp2 and use Illustrator CS3.  I get a warning when exporting to PDF-x1a format that some fonts do not allow embedding.  All the visible fonts are ok.  I cannot find the disallowed fonts in the type/find_font dialog.  However, when I do a preflight from Acrobat, Acrobat lists several fonts in the .pdf document that do not appear in in the "find font" dialogue in Illustrator.  

So, I deduce that there are some left-over fonts in the Illustrator file that are keeping me from being able to save my file as an x1a-compliant PDF.  How do I remove these?  I can fix it with Acrobat preflight, but I'd rather fix it at the source, and learn something about Illustrator in the process.

Many thanks!

ANSWER: Hi John,

You cannot remove these fonts. These are system and application fonts necessary to run the applications, and show up as ghosts. They do not effect your file and will not impede printing.

Thanks

Kevin



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Kevin, thanks for your quick response.  One of the Fonts is Myriad, which is a Illustrator System Font.  The other is Benguiat, which I tried in a layout and then moved onto another font -- certainly not a system or Illustrator Font.

I can see how Myriad will linger on (even tho I have it uninstalled from my system) ... but the Benguiat is a real mystery (shows in preFlight, but not in FindFont.)  It does affect the export to x1a, because the "ghost font" has a restriction, and so the x1a flag is not set on export.

Seems to go to the printer all right, though.  Any way to excise the non-system Benguiat font?.

Thanks again.


Answer
Hi John,

To completely remove any remnants of this, you may have to remove it from your XP completely. Be sure to quit Illustrator and then search for an recycle Benguiat. If you want to keep this, back it up to a flash drive or CD first.

Then restart your computer and reopen AI.

Thanks

Kevin