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If I could choose one singular topic about printing that drives me crazy every single day of my life, it would be fonts. Fonts are the different typefaces (like Arial, Times, Helvetica, etc…) that we use in our emails, reports, memos, and all visual or written communication mediums. You probably knew that already, but in case you didn’t, there you go.

Why do fonts cause so much grief? I will tell you. I suppose the lack of strict or managed standards in the print industry have caused this to a certain extent, but honestly there should be no reason to have 20 different versions of Helvetica made by 20 different font designers that are mostly all incompatible with each other. Seriously. There should be 1. Just 1. My prepress department is highly efficient and very productive with the exception of this one stumbling block that I see no real solution for.

Let’s say you send in your beautiful brochure that took you days to finalize and everyone loves it. We open the file and have an error message right away that tells us we’re missing Helvetica. We have Helvetica. We have several variations of Helvetica. Probably 15 or more that all LOOK essentially the same, but when we try all of them and discover that the one you have is not the same as any of the ones we have, we have only two choices…call you and ask you to send us the one you used, or substitute one of ours. Well…logic would suggest that we could substitute one of ours. So, in order to keep the process smooth for you and get a proof out as soon as possible, we substitute one of ours. Now, since the document opened with the missing font, we really don’t know what the text flow and line endings are supposed to look like, so we sub the font and send you a proof.

Now even though we made the decision based on our desire to make this process easy for you and get your proof out quickly and efficiently, you receive your proof and the text has changed. You’re unhappy and now have a negative view on our shop. If we had called you in the beginning and asked for the font, you would have come to that same opinion at that point too. Either way, we’re in a tough spot because of something so seemingly simple as a font.

From the designer’s viewpoint, they don’t understand what the problem is. It’s Helvetica, EVERYONE has Helvetica. It comes with the computer, right? If the guys (or girls) at the print shop can’t even get a good proof out because of this one, simple, common font, then why should the designer have faith that the rest of the project will turn out well?

This is why fonts are such a pain in commercial printing.

Obviously there are ways around this issue and we will talk about those in-depth at another time, but fonts can be the most time-consuming part of working on any design job for a prepress department. And it really shouldn’t be that way. Check back for another post on how to avoid this issue and what you can do to ensure a smooth experience when you send files to your print shop.

Tags: Card Template Business, Commercial Printing, Design Software, Designing for Print, Fonts, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Printing, Layout Graphic Design