Determining the Fonts Used in a Power Point Presentation

[pc]

I am preparing a PDF file on an XP machine from a couple of dozen Power
Point 2003 (11.5529.xxx) and Word 2003 (11.5604.xxxx) documents created
over the years by a wide number of authors.

When I render the PDF document from Distiller 7.0, I get font
substitution problems that may be causing some of our production
printers to go bonkers.

I thought I could eliminate the problem by removing the offending fonts
from the source materials. But lo! There doesn't seem to be a way to
either get a list of fonts used in a PPT presentation (or, for that
matter, a Word document), or find all instances of a particular font
type.

Am I S.O.L. here, or have I overlooked something?

thanks.

pc

 

[Troy @ TLC Creative]

What fonts were used in a presentation is fairly easy. Open the presentation
go to FILE >> PROPERTIES >> CONTENTS tab. The first item shows the fonts
used in the presentation.

As for being able to locate where the fonts where used. There you are "so
out of luck"...

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

What Troy said.

Or choose Format, Replace Fonts which not only gives you a list of used fonts
but allows you to substitute other fonts for them if you like.

When I render the PDF document from Distiller 7.0, I get font
substitution problems that may be causing some of our production
printers to go bonkers.

What specific font substitution problems?

And while I'm happy to accept "go bonkers" as an apt description of abnormal
printer behavior, it's a bit hard to go anyplace useful, diagnostically
speaking, from there. Can you be a bit more specific? ;-)

 

[pc]

Thanks for your replies.

Troy: Nice trick about finding the fonts used. Too bard WORD doesn't
work the same way.

Steve: That's good to know, too.

This is all better than nothing, but man, it would sure be nice to be
able to identify exactly where they are used. These documents are
instructional material that has evolved for over a decade with many
different authors and so on. It's a miracle they look as good as they
do.

As far as 'bonkers' goes, most of the printers at our print shop crash
when rendering the Acrobat 7 rendered docs. We've got a new Canon
printer that can do the job, but it's slow, and I'd rather not have to
depend on a person who doesn't know the pecularities of this particular
PDF package sending out a dozen nasty copies the day before a training
engagement begins.

I need to find a good site on making Acrobat documents. I've never had
this many problems before.

pc

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

This is all better than nothing, but man, it would sure be nice to be

able to identify exactly where they are used.

One trick is to pick a suspicious font in the Replace Fonts dialog box and
replace it with something you KNOW will never be used in the document and
that's distinctive in appearance.

Algerian's a good example. It really stands out in a crowd(ed slide)

As far as 'bonkers' goes, most of the printers at our print shop crash
when rendering the Acrobat 7 rendered docs. We've got a new Canon
printer that can do the job, but it's slow, and I'd rather not have to
depend on a person who doesn't know the pecularities of this particular
PDF package sending out a dozen nasty copies the day before a training
engagement begins.

Lots of non-PS printers seem to have a high "bonkerosity" factor when printing
from Acrobat. Try the Print as Image option when printing. In Reader 7, click
Advanced in the Print dialog and put a check next to "Print as image"

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that you can set this as the default for the
app; the user has to hit the Advanced button and click it every time. Not very
useful, that.

I need to find a good site on making Acrobat documents. I've never had
this many problems before.

The user to user forum on adobe.com can be pretty useful. Don't feed the

 

[pc]

Well, thanks.

I went down to Acrobat 4.0, made sure all my source docs had embedded
fonts, changed out fonts that could not be embedded, embedded fonts all
through the production chain, and the result is looking nice. Sent a
test package to the doc center to see what's what.

Interesting thing.... the rendered PDF file looks like dog shit in
acrobat 4 on the screen, but in Acro 7/Acro 7 reader, it looks great on
the screen. I only care because occasionally I am required to open the
PDF while presenting. It prints ok to my local PS printers, in any
event. We'll see what the doc production center has to say.

pc