Word 2010 problem with PostScript Type 1 fonts and PDF export

Anonymous

I have been using Office 2010 since the Beta period and I am now using the release build.

I use Adobe Postscript Type 1 fonts regularly in my documents, and I have found that Word 2010 (and presumably all of the Office 2010 applications) has several problems working with PostScript fonts.

Most notably, the "Save as PDF" function will create documents with an odd gradient effect applied to all PostScript fonts.

Secondarily, the Word editor frequently glitches and renders PostScript fonts using a sans-serif font that looks to be Arial.

The following are a demonstration of the issue:

![](http://www.tsotech.com/images/office2010/original-doc-small.jpg)

This is an original document typed in Minion, an Adobe PostScript Type 1 font.

![](http://www.tsotech.com/images/office2010/pdf-version-small.jpg)

This is the document as rendered by muPDF, a very lightweight PDF reader. Note that the official Adobe Acrobat Reader will render the document correctly. I suspect Microsoft only tested the PDF export functionality with the Adobe Reader and concluded that it was functioning correctly. But please note that alternative readers are fairly commonplace, especially with so many security issues being found daily in Adobe's products.

![](http://www.tsotech.com/images/office2010/mac-small.jpg)

I don't have access to a Mac, but the above screenshot was from a Mac's PDF reader attempting to display a different PDF document I had sent a colleague.

Finally, during regular use of Word 2010, the editor will fail to render PostScript Type 1 fonts correctly, falling back on a sens-serif font that I believe to be Arial. See below:

![](http://www.tsotech.com/images/office2010/display-glitch-small.jpg)

Please investigate these issues, Microsoft!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

There are 4 issues in this thread for Word 2010 RTM:

Some PostScript fonts display incorrectly after being edited in Word's Print Layout.
Documents with some (but not all) fonts containing PostScript outline data (Ex: Helvetica, Times) crash on open.
Documents using fonts with PostScript Outline data saved as a PDF in Word render correctly in Adobe Reader but incorrectly in some other PDF Viewers.
Documents using fonts with PostScript outline data saved as a PDF in Word render the text as a static image rather than selectable text.

Issue #1

To assist us in solving this issue, please answer the following questions. Thank you.

What is the full name for the printers you have installed? Which of these is the default printer? [Start -> Type "Devices and Printers"]
What editing languages do you have enabled in Word? [Open Word -> File -> Options -> Language]
When in a corrupt state, does changing to a different printer (and back) fix the issue? [File -> Print]
Can you reproduce the issue in *.doc files? [File -> Save As -> Save as type = "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)"]
Can you reproduce the issue in *.docx files? [File -> Save As -> Save as type = "Word Document (*.docx)"]
Can you reproduce the issue in Draft View? [View ->Draft View]
Can you reproduce the issue in both Portrait and Landscape orientations? [Page Layout -> Orientation]
Can you reproduce the issue in a version of Windows earlier than Windows 7 / Windows 2008?
Can you reproduce the issue in a version of Word earlier than Word 2010?

===

Here are several workarounds for this issue from my other thread, but please continue to assist us by answering the questions above. Workarounds in order of most convenient to least convenient are:

Add a Right-to-Left language, such as Hindi, to your list of editing languages. [(In Word) File -> Options -> Language -> [Add aditional editing languages] -> Hindi -> Add]
Each time a document is opened with the incorrect font being displayed change to a different printer (and back). [(In Word) File -> Print]
Uninstall all printers from Windows. [(In Windows) Start -> Devices and Printers]

Issue #2

Problem A – Use one of these workarounds if you are crashing when opening documents with fonts Helvetica or Times.

Remove offending PostScript font substitutions from the registry location. Restart computer.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]

Install the OpenType versions of the offending PostScript fonts.
Uninstall the offending PostScript fonts.
Open the Font Dialog Box (Ctrl + D) before attempting to display an offending PostScript font. This fix lasts until Word is closed.

Problem B – Use one of these workarounds if you are crashing when opening documents with fonts other than Helvetica or Times. In this case you are most likely crashing due to your printer driver.

Change your default printer to another printer that does not crash (ex: Microsoft XPS Document Writer).
Uninstall your printer (or all printers).

Issue #3

Currently the best workaround is the one already given by the original poster: Open your PDF documents in Adobe Reader rather than muPDF or the Mac's default PDF reader.

Issue #4

When saving documents using fonts with PostScript outline data, Word 2010 only supports outputting the text as a static image, and does not support outputting the text as selectable text. Currently the best workaround is the one already given by the original poster: Use a printer driver that outputs to PDF such as Adobe Acrobat or CutePDF.

-Omega

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61 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-06-22T05:53:50+00:00

My problem is that Word completely crashes when it encounters certain Postscript fonts. Unusual fonts...like Helvetica!

I am running Windows 7 and I did a clean install of Office 2010. I then loaded the basic Postscript fonts I got years ago from Adobe. Fonts that worked just fine with Word 2003 and 2007. When I attempt to open a document that includes Helvetica, Word crashes. As a test, I opened Word and using the default new document page I went to the font bar and selected Helvetica. Word crashed.

So, I have uninstalled all of the Postscript fonts until Microsoft has a solultion of some type. This is not good.
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Anonymous

2010-06-21T14:38:37+00:00

This is nonsense. I use PS fonts in my Word documents all the time!

Agreed. The boilerplate response about Postscript fonts not shipping as part of the Word installation betrays a confusion of two completely unrelated concepts.

It's not that I am complaining that when I installed Word 2010, it didn't install some new Postscript fonts for me to use.

No, the problem is that when I use my preexisting Postscript fonts with Word 2010, Word exhibits several bugs. This problem is made all the more frustrating by the fact that Word 2003 (the version I had been using until the 2010 Beta) worked just fine and did not have any rendering problems with Postscript fonts. Now, mind you, Word 2003 didn't have a built-in "Save as PDF" function. So that's an unfair comparison. But it never exhibited the editor rendering glitch I demonstrated in my last screen shot of Word 2010.
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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2010-06-19T12:48:40+00:00

This is nonsense. I use PS fonts in my Word documents all the time!
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Anonymous

2010-06-19T09:38:39+00:00

Postscript fonts are not available by default in word, so when you try to convert the file to PDF format it converts the Postscript font to the one that is available and has a close match in word.
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