topic Re: Font missing from published pdfs in Documentation

Font missing from published pdfs

Anonymous — Fri, 19 May 2023 13:56:35 GMT

I updated to AC 18 and now the font that I use (Neutraface) is not visible on any of my published drawings. I have used AC and this same font since 2004 without any issues.

I can "save to pdf" through the print dialog box and the text is visible. If I use publisher, all text in Neutraface disappears from the pdfs. I changed some of the text to Times New Roman and that text is visible on published pdfs.

This is my first post because I am always able to search and find the answers I am looking for, until now. Can someone help?

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 17:46:09 GMT

We have just updated and have the same problem (different font). Looks like we won't be using 18 until this is fixed or there's a way to change all text at once. We have too much info, notes, etc. that is standard boiler plate to go through and change.

Any new info, Graphisoft? I've seen other, older posts about this. Still no fix?

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Barry Kelly — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 01:42:21 GMT

I'm not sure about a fix but to select all text at once activate the text tool and then CTRL+A (or the Mac equivalent).
You could also use the find & select tool.

You will need to do this for each storey, section and elevation though as it is not possible to select all text in all views at once.

Do the same for your dimensions (dimension tool then CTRL+A).

If you have objects with text in them then you will have to select each one and change them manually.

Barry.

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Eduardo Rolon — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 12:54:02 GMT

Here's another thread complaining about the new PDF Engine…

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=28622&start=0

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Katalin Borszeki — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 09:18:13 GMT

Hi All,
the new PDF engine for ArchiCAD18 does not support PostScript font types. In most cases these are old fonts that are not used by many. PostScript font types will not be supported by newer versions of Archicad either, so when the files are opened in ArchiCAD - starting probably from version 19 - these types will be replaced or offered to the user to replace them with TrueType or OpenType fonts. For now, only the publish function does not support them, but this is what the users should expect later on.
Please consider replacing these fonts!

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Katalin Borszeki — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 14:23:22 GMT

Hi All, let me post a correction with regards to the previous comment on PostScript Font Types.
For now, the PDF engine does not support them, but Graphisoft is still discussing the future of how these Font Types will be handled.
Thanks!

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Dave Jochum — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 01:36:37 GMT

KatalinBorszeki wrote:
Hi All, let me post a correction with regards to the previous comment on PostScript Font Types.
For now, the PDF engine does not support them, but Graphisoft is still discussing the future of how these Font Types will be handled.
Thanks!

I'd sure like to hear the reasoning behind this. It's absurd on the face that a PDF engine would be limited to certain font types. Not exactly "portable". It was incredibly frustrating to discover this new non-feature today when trying to print drawings for a meeting minutes before having to walk out the office door.

Sorry for the rant. Did I miss this in the Graphisoft announcements of AC18? A heads up would have been nice.

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Thomas Holm — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:23:30 GMT

This bug bit us today. Just started using Archicad 18, installed the just released 4020 SWE, tried to publish a PDF layout book (transferred from AC17) with lots of layouts with carefully formatted text. We have several Postscript fonts that we're using as company standards.

Not very funny to find layouts completely empty from text. Seems the usual AC version upgrade issues this time is augmented with something that requires a company-wide reconfiguration.

I was expecting a substantial improvement to the PDF engine, because of the promised optimizations. Instead, a lot of trouble. And no previous information, despite that we last Friday attended the yearly version upgrade seminar at Graphisoft Sweden's office.

I simply cannot find any excuse for an OSX app not to support all the font types that the MacOSX system supports.

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Dave Jochum — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:36:02 GMT

Thomas wrote:
...I simply cannot find any excuse for an OSX app not to support all the font types that the MacOSX system supports.

I wholeheartedly agree, Thomas. I've spent several hours now reworking an AC17 project brought into 18 as well as our office template. Very frustrating. At the least, there should have been a very visible announcement with the release of 18, but it shouldn't have happened at all.

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Thomas Holm — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:48:33 GMT

Dave wrote:
At the least, there should have been a very visible announcement with the release of 18, but it shouldn't have happened at all.

Exactly.

I think Graphisoft doesn't really understand the full scope of Archicad. Some years ago, I used to use Indesign when I wanted full graphic page layout capabilities and compatibility with every font type and other picture and drawing formats, like jpeg, tiff, pdf.

With the development of the Publisher's pdf engine, Archicad has completely replaced Indesign for me, with even greater precision in layouts. The only thing that's missing (is-I mean) was multi-page text flow, and that is something I rarely need these days.

This new decision is crippling the application!

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Dave Jochum — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 18:57:19 GMT

It looks like we may be on the way to a comprehensive solution to this and more with Nemetschek's acquisition of Bluebeam. Let's hope it comes soon.

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:46:16 GMT

Barry wrote:
I'm not sure about a fix but to select all text at once activate the text tool and then CTRL+A (or the Mac equivalent).
You could also use the find & select tool.

You will need to do this for each storey, section and elevation though as it is not possible to select all text in all views at once.

Do the same for your dimensions (dimension tool then CTRL+A).

If you have objects with text in them then you will have to select each one and change them manually.

Barry.

..and every master layout that hasn't caught up with your new 'compatible' template,

and every layout that has text on it (e.g. revision notes).

Oh joy!

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Thomas Holm — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 13:25:11 GMT

KatalinBorszeki wrote:
Hi All, let me post a correction with regards to the previous comment on PostScript Font Types.
For now, the PDF engine does not support them, but Graphisoft is still discussing the future of how these Font Types will be handled.
Thanks!

I'd like to raise this issue again. I haven't seen the final result of Graphisoft's discussion, and I don't know its status in Archicad 19, but the problem still bites us. We have projects dating all the way back to the early 1990-ies (Archicad4 something), and now and then some of them pop up for a revision or addition.

Since we've been using Postscript type 1 fonts as company standards for a long way this problem shows up every time an old project is awakened.
I realize I have to accept that time goes on and sometimes we need to change habits, but Archicad 18's way of handling the issue hits you in the head all the time - you can work a long time, edit and insert text, and Print, using these fonts all the time, without any warnings whatsoever, but when you finally hit Publish the layouts come blank - still without warnings. Since the MacOSX system, Adobe PDF etc all handle the fonts without problems the issue becomes incomprehensible for newbies.

So please, Graphisoft, I'd like some information. What will you do?

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 18:34:12 GMT

Thomas wrote:
So please, Graphisoft, I'd like some information. What will you do?

I am constantly running into this issue as well. We are not going to change fonts. Too many projects to change. It's a total pain having to manually save each and every sheet. I need each sheet to be an individual PDF otherwise saving multiple sheets as one PDF works fine - all fonts show up but this is not our way. Graphisoft/Progammers/Makers of ArchiCAD - What's the status on this?

I see there is a workaround for Windows but none for Macs (though I can't say I like the idea of increased PDF file sizes as result of this fix): Missing text in PDF published from ArchiCAD 11 or higher

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Thomas Holm — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 13:28:41 GMT

junior wrote:
Thomas wrote:
So please, Graphisoft, I'd like some information. What will you do?
...I see there is a workaround for Windows but none for Macs (though I can't say I like the idea of increased PDF file sizes as result of this fix): Missing text in PDF published from ArchiCAD 11 or higher

If that works the same on the Mac, it should be possible to edit some .plist file to the same avail.

But I'm thinking Graphisoft has inserted it's own (I guess they've bought some third-party thing) PDF engine in AC18/Mac, and thus doesn't rely on OSX's built-in PDF support anymore. That's why AC's font support is limited compared to the system. For us this is a big issue.

Maybe they want something else (like layer support in PDFs) but I'm not sure about how many users really need that. If we use layer management seriously I really can't see why we should.

Instead I think it's a big drawback, with possibly serious implications later. Since PDF is so integrated into the OSX system, I only see problems in not using the system support för PDFs.

I'd like Graphisoft to inform us better: How does this really work?

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Katalin Borszeki — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 11:50:17 GMT

Hi All,
This was a problem that was caused by the new PDF engine built into ARCHICAD 18. As for the process involved, the "publish PDF" is using the PDF engine, while the simple "print PDF" command is completed by the operation system. That is why the print command did not cause the fonts to be lost in the PDF.

WE have listened and heard the complaints of our users and went around the problem in ARCHICAD 19. The fix had an ARCHICAD 19 target and is not planned to be implemented in ARCHICAD 18.
Let us know if you have any more questions or comments,
k

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 16:37:27 GMT

Hi Katalin,

I was testing this in AC19 and publishing now works well and font is displayed on PDFs, however when we print them from the PDF created the fonts gets all shifted on top of each other. Any one else experience this issue?

I found this thread and it helped me get my published pdf to print correctly. Is there something else that I need to do besides print as image using Adobe?
http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/troubleshooting/import-export/pdf/

I believe this is only an adobe and print driver issue at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent

KatalinBorszeki wrote:
Hi All,
This was a problem that was caused by the new PDF engine built into ARCHICAD 18. As for the process involved, the "publish PDF" is using the PDF engine, while the simple "print PDF" command is completed by the operation system. That is why the print command did not cause the fonts to be lost in the PDF.

WE have listened and heard the complaints of our users and went around the problem in ARCHICAD 19. The fix had an ARCHICAD 19 target and is not planned to be implemented in ARCHICAD 18.
Let us know if you have any more questions or comments,
k

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

genarch — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 18:40:46 GMT

Was this fixed for anyone in ArchiCAD 19? I'm using 19 and I still have the missing font issue.

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

Dave Jochum — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 18:50:31 GMT

genarch wrote:
Was this fixed for anyone in ArchiCAD 19? I'm using 19 and I still have the missing font issue.

It was not fixed in 19, though it seems to be fixed with the latest version of 20 (6005). No issue in 21, so I think we can finally lay this one to rest. (Not if you are still in 19, however.)

Re: Font missing from published pdfs

genarch — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 18:55:03 GMT

I just noticed the comment that the fix was "targeted for ArchiCAD 19" but I guess they missed... Sadly, I'm still on v19. I do a workaround, which I've been doing since v18, of printing to PDF. It works, but it doesn't have the convenience of the Publisher. It works, of course, by SKIPPING Graphisoft's PDF faulty engine and using Apple's 😉 Seems ridiculous to have to wait 2 versions for this to be fixed.