Re: Preferred Font for Online Documents & Acrobat

Subject: Re: Preferred Font for Online Documents & Acrobat
From: Larry McGowan <lmmcgown -at- WINTERNET -dot- COM>
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995 17:03:14 GMT

John Alciere <jalciere -at- LTNPO1 -dot- XYPLEX -dot- COM> wrote Thu, 5 Oct 1995 13:48:00
EST

>The majority of the documents that my group produces use New Century
>Schoolbook font for body text. New Century looks good when printed
>but, being a serif font, does not look so good when viewed online
>through Adobe Acrobat.

>As an experiment, I changed to a sans-serif font, Arial (essentially
>identical to Helvetica). Contrary to my expectations, Arial looked
>even worse than New Century when viewed online.

>I would appreciate any recommendations for fonts that are easy on the
>eye
>when viewed online. At this point, I no longer have any preconceived
>notions about sans-serif fonts being preferable to serif!

And Kim Fawcett <kfawcett -at- DY4 -dot- COM> wrote Thu, 5 Oct 1995 14:31:00 DST

>I used to use Arial for my help systems, but recently I've switched to
>using
>MS Sans Serif (8pt for body text, 12 pt for major headings). I believe
>this
>is what Microsoft and Corel use too. So far I like the results -- the
>text
>seems much more readable than when I used Arial (although I couldn't
>explain why).

Kim and John,

This is the difference between fonts designed for print reproduction and
video reproduction. Yes a screen version of the New Century Schoolbook
and Arial both exist, but they are generated off the printer font
outline *on the fly* (as needed) to the monitor. The algorithms in the
software the do this make a best guess that is not always the best guess
(if you know what I mean).

John,

I have some other options for you. It sounds form your note that the
font is not being included in your Acrobat file. If Acrobat is not told
to include the font in the file you create it will substitute AdobeSerMM
or AdobeSanMM for the seif or sans-serif (respectively) you use. These,
I have found are not as readable as I would like either.

1) Some software programs, as PageMaker, allow you to download a font
outline to your print device when printing the job. If you are using the
PDF writer for Acrobat this may help as the font may be included in the
Acrobat file. Note: I have not tried this.

2) Acquire the Acrobat Distiller. The Distiller will allow PostScript
font embedding into Acrobat documents. If you have the Distiller, chose
the menu items [Distiller] --> [Font Locations] --> [Add Directory] and
browse your harddisk for the printer font outline directory (folder).
Then chose the menu items [Distiller] --> [Fonts Embedding] and indicate
the fonts you wish embedded. This has worked very well for me, though I
have not tried this with TrueType fonts. I think this may be your best
option.

Good Luck,


Larry McGowan
Freelance Illustrator, Designer and WebWonk
>>***---------------***---------------***<<
As important what you what you say is,
it's the presentation that helps gain
and maintain their attention.
>>***---------------***---------------***<<
lmmcgown -at- winternet -dot- com
CompuServe 73072,3275
www.winternet.com/~lmmcgown


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