Spent 4 hours fixing a font substitution issue in a wedding invite PDF

Client said the names looked 'off' on the printed proofs. Turns out the wedding script font I used didn't have a bold weight, so the printer's software swapped it with something completely wrong. Has anyone else gotten burned by hidden font family issues like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

adams821mo ago

and @emma_ramirez makes a good point but I think the real killer here is how inconsistent the font naming is across different systems. like the same font can be called "WeddingScript" in one place and "Weddingscript Regular" in another and the printer's software just picks whichever it finds first. that mismatch alone couldve caused the whole thing even if the bold weight was there.

emma_ramirez1mo ago

Yeah I gotta say I see this a little different. "Spent 4 hours fixing" sounds like you could have caught this way earlier if you checked the font's actual specs before sending it off. Wedding invites are high stakes, you gotta do a test print with that specific printer setup, not just trust the PDF preview. A little extra prep saves a ton of headache, right?

diana_bell746d ago

Wait, was the font actually installed on the printer's end or did they just do a straight swap? Because that's a huge difference. @adams82 is totally right about the naming mess, I had a similar thing happen with a script font that showed up as "script demo" on my end but "Script Bold" on the print shop's system, and it completely ruined the kerning on the couple's names. My go-to now is to convert all text to outlines before sending any PDF to a printer, especially for wedding stuff where every curve matters. That way there's no guessing what font the printer's software will grab, no matter how the names look on their end.