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FontSync Concepts

This chapter introduces FontSync and provides an overview of this technology. You can use FontSync to determine whether fonts in a document on one machine are the same as the fonts on another machine.

FontSync addresses one of the most critical font management issues among Apple's high-end publishing customers--output errors caused by font mismatches. In these cases, the prepress company gets different results from the content creator because the font on the screen of the content creator isn't used or doesn't work when printed on a raster image processor (that is, a high-end printer).

Some of the reasons that fonts don't match include:

  • Use of TrueType fonts. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with TrueType, but most high-end printers cannot render them properly (a problem with the rasterized image printer, not Mac OS or applications). Also, there is no way to distinguish between the TrueType and Type 1 versions of a font if they have the same name (e.g., "Times"). Though they have the same name, the metrics are often different, causing reflow. Installers may replace one version with another.
  • Different versions of fonts. Even if both the content creator and the prepress company use the same type technology, and think they are using the same font, the fonts may not contain the same data. Metrics, kerning, and appearance can differ, causing reflows. Fonts can be corrupted or changed by users.
  • Silent failures to access the font. If the LaserWriter driver cannot access the requested font (for example, if the limit on the number of open files in Mac OS is exceeded) it will silently substitute a bitmap version.
  • The following sections provide an introduction to programming the URL Access Manager:


    © 2000 Apple Computer, Inc. (Last Updated 30 June 2000)