Font Substitution Table

[Papabjoe]

I've posted this in a different forum, not realizing this forum existed. Does anyone know of a plugin that will act as a font substitution table. I have given up on some of my layout choices because I can't always be sure what fonts are going to be loaded on the various user stations that access my file. Whenevery they access it filemaker not only replaces the font with one of the fonts loaded on the user machine, it makes the change directly to the file. The original font choice is lost.

I need something like the font substitution tables found in desktop publishing products. Does one exist?

[SteveB]

I think you're looking at it from the wrong end. You should load the fonts that your app uses on each user's machine. This is easy to do if you use an installer, as it will register the necessary fonts upon installation.

Steve

[Papabjoe]

Well, I don't think the issue is weather or not I should go around checking every machine for the fonts the solution may or may not be using. Ten years ago, we told our graphic design clients that in order for their output to come out correctly they had to make sure fonts were installed, as well as set up a post-script print driver, as well as supply their font files (a violation of the license agreement) to us when the job was ready for output. The solution was a font substitution table in ALL professional applications (Quark, Pagemaker, Illustrator, Corel etc...).

I can manage the font files in my office. But I can't manage the font files of those consultants who work on my files. Even then, if a solution is being used by a larger company with 10, 20 or more workstations, they can kiss corporate identity and form continuity good-bye. It only takes one workstation to change the entire solution.

I think filemaker has provided some pretty basic layout tools. Honestly it's one of the more seductive elements of the app - The fact that you can create designs and reports with relative ease. The more that can be done with filemaker, the more this type of tool is necessary. In my situation I am replacing existing government forms with fm layouts. Some of the agencies I deal with can give me latitude, others offer none. My forms have to be exact.

It is a painful realization that I can do so much - almost. Font substitution is a very basic feature in any other professional layout application. I'm sure it's not to complicated to be incorporated either in the app or as a plugin.

[Vaughan]

"Font substitution is a very basic feature in any other professional layout application."

I dunno. It's often pretty useless. I open a document withFranklin Gothic Ultra Black, what's it going to substitute for that? Arial Bold Extended? Even with font substitution, the converted document won't be right.

But FileMaker Pro is not a layout program anyway, it's a relational database development environment with built-in interface design tools.

I think that Steve's advice is good: the developer has to take responsibility for defining the desktop environment, and that includes specifing and installing fonts onto each workstation if necessary.

[SteveB]

Just look at the problems with fonts such as Verdana and Arial: You might have room in a field and its associated label for Arial. Change to Verdana and you might be out of room. As Vaughan notes, FM is not designed to work as a graphics tool.

Steve

[Papabjoe]

Well I'm not all that interested in making filemaker a design tool. Font substitution tables at the very least allow you the opportunity to catch a problem and manage it. If a user for whatever reason looses his type face, he could inadvertanly change the layout for the entire solution. By getting a warning message and the opportunity to substitute or quit that could save a lot of heart-ache.

"FM is not designed to work as a graphics tool" Well FM should stop wasting code building in T-squares, snap-to guides and object grids, ojbect-size window, and the ability to change the measurement system from inches, cm, or px, alignment of objects and the ability to lock their xy position. All of which are some pretty fundamental design tools.

In the design world, you often do not use font substitution in order find a face that comes close enough. Most graphic artists don't expect their work to look right after it's been substituted. We used it to identify area's of docs, especially large text documents, where fonts were inadvertanly being used. For instance, when a doc warned us that a particular font was not available and we were not expecting that font to be available in the first place, we might substitute it with Wingdings. It doesn't take long to scan a doc and find some wingdings that don't belong. Now it's an easy fix.

Or sometimes the user might have a string of type that is set to arial. He might decide to change it to something else. When he selects the typ, he only selects the characters and inadvertantly omits a few of the blank spaces trailing the text. That extra line space can effect line spacing, tracking and kerning etc....

I must say I'm surprised by the responses I've gotten. God knows I have no interest turning the app into design and layout program. Then I'd be here talking about color space, points and picas and how well FM rips separations, and cmyk to pms conversion tables. FM has a lot of market-share based on it's ability to build a sophisticated database and allow the average joe the ability to design a comparable report. I would think that a utility that would help the designer keep what was designed or at least serve as a usefule tool for managing his design would be a welcome idea.