pdf's don't always print with embedded fonts

[Erika Epstein]

I routinely send pdfs rather than plts to get prints.
Some blueprinters around the US produce prints from pdfs with not the embedded fonts. This occurs even with Arial and Arial Narrow. Has anyone else had this happen and/or know why?
Is there something I can instruct them to do other than use the embedded fonts?

thanks.

[Anonymous]

When you create your .pdf files, you can make them so that they cannot be altered/changed at all. What is happening is that the printer/rip that they are using has a setting checked on it to replace ALL fonts with a certain font.

Take a look at this to make sure that you're embedding fonts properly.

[Erika Epstein]

I've checked all that and we send out from several different computers with same result.

What is even odder is that on the same sheet different sections of text will turn into several different fonts. I haven't been able to find any rhyme or reason as to why one section of text stays arial narrow and another turns to something else. On some sheets it seems related to what font the segment of text was originally typed in, yet on another sheet it font that didn't change does and vice versa.

I am fairly certain (never say never) that it is a problem on the printers' end as when I send it to my local printer, all is ok. When I ask them what they are doing, they say nothing special, they don't change the embedded fonts...

One day I took my laptop into a problem printer and said I was going to stay until we got the settings right at which point they fessed up that it wasn't just us, it happens to some other firms' work.

They said they would get a repair person in; I'll believe that when I see it. Seems they must have some setting off. I was hoping someone here might have some ideas or have been through this with happier results.

shoot, this post will up my words-per-post statistic

[Anonymous]

Do you know what type of setup they are using? Most print shops think that it's necessary to run all .pdfs that they get through distiller, before they send it to the printer. Some chains. . .rhymes with Stinko's. . .have a drag and drop .pdf print setup for their knuckle dragging employees, too try and 'help' them print jobs faster and more efficiently. However; as you are probably aware. . .this is hardly the case.

We had the same problem as you. . .the conclusion we came to was to buy a Designjet 5500 UV. The ink doesn't fade in the sun, all of our plans are in color, and we can print some fantastic photo-renderings with it. The thing is pretty bullet-proof too, we run at least 200' of paper through it a day.