Easily the most common problems with electronic files are font related. Font problems have been known to cause delays, additional labor charges, replacement film costs, or have even ruined entire jobs, causing them to be printed over again. The good news is that font problems are among the easiest to prevent. The two most common of these problems are missing fonts and stylized fonts.

Always include your fonts with your job. We can’t stress the importance of this enough. Even if you’re just using ‘standard’ typefaces like Times or Arial, you should always include them with your file. Why? Because there are many different versions of any typeface, as many as there are font companies, and every company’s version is slightly different.

If you don’t include your fonts we’ll try our best to match them to fonts that we have on file but doing this creates the potential for reflow of your copy, mismatched type elements, and other problems. This may cost you delays, increased labor costs, or even charges for additional proofs.

Whenever possible, do not create your bold or italic type by highlighting the type and styling the roman face from a style menu or palatte. This can lead to substitution errors and other unpredictable results. If given the choice always use the Bold, Italic, or Bold-Italic versions of your typeface. All of the best typefaces come in ‘Families’ of fonts that include these styles.

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