Trying to solve font issues in PPT2007

[Joh:Reh]

I'm creating our new corporate ppt tempelate (Office 2007) and our art
director is firmly set on using two OpenType fonts that we now bought
licenses for.

But of course this causes problem when opening the presentation on a
computer without the fonts (where the presentation looks horrible). My AD is
not really concerned - he thinks we can solve the issue with only sending out
..pdf files of the presentations - but that would make it impossible for
clients to edit and would loose all other effects.

None of the fonts come as TrueType which I understand might be embedded in
the PowerPoint file (depending on license issues).

Is there a way I can control what standard fonts PowerPoint will replace my
original fonts with? I.e. can I "preset" a "replace font" in some way so that
the font Whitney Book (as is our body font) with Calibri when opened on a PC
without Whitney Book? Right now it seems PowerPoint makes it's own decision
on what font to use.

Or is there any other way to embed an OpenType in a presentation?

 

[Joh:Reh]

Thanks!!

Yes, none of my OpenType fonts could be embedded, had tried a couple of
others, downloaded as TrueType and it worked. But if they are licensed you
can only open the file as a read-only file, even if they are embedded - so it
didn't do much for my problem. Converted everything I could to bitmaps, but
is stuck with what to do with the body font.

At least now I can let go of thinking I could control "replacement fonts" -
and have to find another way. Renegotiation with the art director is probably
the easiest... ;-)

I need to either convince him to deal with the standard fonts or find a
TrueType font that is free (or can be bought to) to embed.

Ticking off my list of possible solutions... and you helped me with one!
Thanks!

 

[Ute Simon]

At least now I can let go of thinking I could control "replacement

fonts" -
and have to find another way. Renegotiation with the art director is
probably
the easiest... ;-)

I am working with an advertising agency and faced the same problem when our
new Corporate Identity was introduced some years ago. The art director was a
Mac guy who was not aware that PC users have a smaller number of standard
fonts on their computers. I showed him an example of what it looks like, if
the template is opened on a machine without the font installed and suggested
to use Arial instead. Now we have a CI specifying two standard fonts: One
for printing (business cards, letterhead, etc.) and one for online use
(presentations, e-mail, etc.).

I think something similar could be the solution in your case, too. And
Calibri is very close to Whitney Book.

Best regards,
Ute

 

[Joh:Reh]

It might be worth contacting the font's creator to see if a more fully embeddable
version is available.

Yes, that's on my list for Monday - but as you also said - I'm still out of
luck with the Mac issues... but right now I'm almost ready to stick my head
in the sand regarding that little detail- to many issues to get the fonts to
work on PCs...

Prying their favorite font out of their cold, dead fingers can be tough work, but we
gotta do what we gotta do. It's the cow^H^H^HPPTboy Way.
;-)

embedding, there's this:

Embedding fonts
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00076.htm

Yes - that's actually were I found the most substantial info on types until
posting here when I ran out of luck with my embedding attempts. Great source!
Thanks again! New to this forum - got to hang out here more when I go nuts on
the AD people, trying to explain that "no, an fancy InDesign PDF file won't
to much for a working PPT-file..

 

[Joh:Reh]

I am working with an advertising agency and faced the same problem when our
new Corporate Identity was introduced some years ago. The art director was a
Mac guy who was not aware that PC users have a smaller number of standard
fonts on their computers. I showed him an example of what it looks like, if
the template is opened on a machine without the font installed and suggested
to use Arial instead. Now we have a CI specifying two standard fonts: One
for printing (business cards, letterhead, etc.) and one for online use
(presentations, e-mail, etc.).

This AD seems to think the answer to the problem is to have everyone just
send out PDF files... I'm slowly, slowly moving him in the right direction
even though he sure hated me for a couple of days when I had to toss his nice
sketches made in InDesign, obvious of what you can and can't do with
PowerPoint. But going with two standard fonts is what I have suggested
without luck so far.

I think something similar could be the solution in your case, too. And
Calibri is very close to Whitney Book.

Yes, it sure is - and that's why I was crossing my fingers for a way to
control PowerPoint to have PCs without replacing with Calibri. The
differences would have been pretty small - even though you would see that it
was another font - but at least I would keep most of the line spacing etc...
But as Steven wrote above - I'm out of luck there. I doubt I can get the AD
to toss Whitney for Calibri - but maybe when I've shown him a couple of
screen captures of what things look like on PCs wthout the font.

Thanks for you reply - appreciate it!

Best regards.

/Joh

 

[Echo S]

Yes - that's actually were I found the most substantial info on types
until
posting here when I ran out of luck with my embedding attempts. Great
source!
Thanks again! New to this forum - got to hang out here more when I go nuts
on
the AD people, trying to explain that "no, an fancy InDesign PDF file
won't
to much for a working PPT-file..

heh, welcome to our world.

I'm glad Steve's given you solutions. I just wanted to post, "Your AD is an
idiot." (Yikes, did I say that?)

 

[Ute Simon]

This AD seems to think the answer to the problem is to have everyone just

send out PDF files... I'm slowly, slowly moving him in the right
direction
even though he sure hated me for a couple of days when I had to toss his
nice
sketches made in InDesign, obvious of what you can and can't do with
PowerPoint. But going with two standard fonts is what I have suggested
without luck so far.

I recently spent an afternoon with some of our creative people showing them
what is possible in PowerPoint - and what not. And pointing out some
differences between Mac and PC versions. That opened their eyes a bit.

Using PDF files for presentation seems to be a growing trend. But we have to
clearly point out the difficulties that arise if last-minute changes are
necessary.

Best regards,
Ute