when printing a file, font is being substituted

[Helge Blischke]

Chris wrote:

>> Chris wrote:
>>
>> > I feel like I probably should have been able to find an answer for
>> > this, but couldn't.
>> >
>> > I have a pdf that uses the Tahoma font. The font is not embedded. When
>> > it's sent to cups for printing (on a printer, not cups-pdf), the font
>> > gets substituted with something else and the formatting gets messed up
>> > a little. I am not creating and don't have control over the creation of
>> > these documents so I can't embed the fonts.
>> >
>> > I assume I need to install the tahoma font on the cups box. So I copied
>> > the tahoma.ttf file to /usr/share/cups/fonts/ Didn't work. I'm using
>> > Ubuntu 10.04 so I opened the font file and clicked 'install font'.
>> > Didn't work. Tried a number of other methods for installing fonts.
>> > Didn't work.
>> >
>> > So, what's a guy gotta do to get a pdf to print with the proper fonts?
>> >
>> > Chris
>>
>> Please post more details about the printer and how it is configured in
>> CUPS.
>>
>> Helge
>>
> 
> Printer is a Ricoh 1356EX. I am running cups 1.4.3
> This is what the printer.conf looks like for that printer.
> 
> Info PrintStation3
> MakeModel Ricoh Pro 1356EX PXL
> DeviceURI socket://192.168.1.228
> State Idle
> StateTime 1303837048
> Reason toner-low-report
> Type 8400948
> Filter application/vnd.cups-raw 0 -
> Filter application/vnd.cups-postscript 100 foomatic-rip
> Filter application/vnd.cups-pdf 0 foomatic-rip
> Accepting Yes
> etc....
> 
> I have no idea where I got the ppd from (it's been some time ago).
> 
> I'm guessing it has something to do with the filter? Do I need to run a
> pdftops filter? or should I be using a different ppd?
> 
> Thanks for your help.
> Chris

Well, it seems that the PDF has been created on a Windows box and the fonts 
are not embedded (Tahoma is a font designed by or in favour of Microsoft).
As the foomatic-rip does not provide font embedding, it substitutes not 
embedded fonts by some other fonts (using a highly heuristic algorithm).

To settle this issue, it is not sufficient to install the Tahoma font on the 
box cups in running on, but you need in addition configure your Ghostscript 
to use it (either by adding a directive in Ghostscript's Fontmap file or by 
puting the Tahoma font into one of the directories where Ghostscript looks 
for fonts not specified in the Fontmap file).

Helge