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Fonts in linked images cause printing problems

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This is not a question as I have already solved this issue, I just wanted to save someone else the time.

 

Problem: Print job stops half way through document

Error Code: 49.4C02

Printer: HP line (3 different models)

Program used: InDesign CS6 from Creative Cloud

 

I had printed this job before and never had an issue. Then one day after many textual edits, the PDF stopped printing and would send the printers into a Fatal error which caused them to reboot. I had no idea what had happened or why. All I could remember changing was text. It was printing on some printers, but none of the printers on my floor. At first I thought the file was corrupt, so I resaved it. And resaved it, and resaved it. I saved it out with every type of export setting. I even replaced vector illustrations with crummy jpeg images. Still, not working. My boss is kind of an important guy for the government, so when he started to get upset, we all started to scramble for a solution.

 

Research suggested that we update the firmware which did not work.

 

I was suspicious of potential problem fonts, though it confused me as they had printed before. I opened the PDF and went to Properties > Fonts and saw a Type 1 font. Not familiar with this, I Googled it and after reading a bajillion websites, still could not find the answer in removing it.

 

Now at this point, I had removed all of that font family (Type > Find Font > Replace), exported, opened PDF, still there! WTF, really? InDesign could no longer find this font.

 

Here's what happened.

 

Well, because in the new CS6, Preflight is no longer something that you have to manually go to, it works automatically similar to dynamic spell checking. My document did not have any errors, but I knew it HAS to have some sort of error. I went to the Preflight window (Window > Output > Preflight), clicked on the menu tab and went to "Define Profiles...". Well, well, well. Because the 'Default' setting put in place by Adobe does not actively have "Font Types Not Allowed" selected, it was not catching the Type 1 font that was causing a day of wasted IT resources and my sanity.

 

I made a new Profile, checked "Font Types Not Allowed", checked ALL of the "Type 1" options, saved and let it scan. What's this?! 1 error!? Hmmmm... it was coming from a linked .eps file! I opened the file, I must have forgotten to outline the font during all of the changes. And I'm assuming that because the font was linked via an element, that when InDesign went to export all of the fonts, it did not have access or did not know what to do with the font that was in my .eps file, so what it did was turned it INTO a Type 1 font (or as I learned, a PostScript font) and embedded it along with all of my other fonts into the PDF. Which is why when I was trying to find this font earlier, it couldn't be found because it wasn't IN the document, it was LINKED to the document. This font on its own prints fine, but it gets converted to a PostScript font when it is within a linked element within InDesign.

 

My whole office did a dance of victory once we fixed the problem. Ridiculous. So I hope now, if someone ends up having the same problem I did, now they know where to look to find the problem! It would have saved everyone here some time if the default "basic" preflight wasn't so "basic".


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