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Why no response or update from Apple over 10.6.7 Opentype issues ?

ssmed

ssmed

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 28, 2009
894
432
UK
A post of frustration and to request any information.

10.6.7 has been out a few weeks, but many of us using postscript opentype fonts have had to perform elaborate work-rounds or go back to 10.6.6. I know bugs happen, but some kind of acknowledgement from Apple would be useful. Do I need to ditch all my expensively purchased fonts, change the corporate image and consider Verdana and Times New Roman to safely create PDFs and print?

Apple's recent commitment to 'business' looks pretty thin when it will be mostly business users who will be affected by this set of problems.
 
miles01110 said:
What commitment to business is that? ....
Click to expand...

I was referring, somewhat tongue in cheek, to the fact you can now pay to be completely frustrated by the lack of business knowledge (Joint Venture).
 
Here is something I saw over at macintouch.com.

I have NOT tried it (I held off upgrading to 10.6.7) and I CANNOT verify whether it works or not.

But it looks like a relatively simple "fix", _IF_ you still have access to a working copy of 10.6.6.

Here it is:
=============
POSSIBLE FIX FOR 10.6.7
victor leuci
Here's another solution noted by KJK555 on Apple's discussion board:
I've narrowed it down to one module:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ATS.framework

Replacing the ATS.framework package, with one from a working 10.6.6 installation, relieves the problem and PDF's work again as expected.
===========
 
They are too busy counting their money and selling the location info from your iPhone to care. ;)

Desktop publishing was one of the few areas where Apple made a push into the business world, but I am not sure they see it as a large part of their future.

Rob
 
Why does everyone want a response from Apple for every little glitch? Microsoft doesn't do it, neither does any other company. They fix things and release patches.

Not to mention its obvious none of you realize the kind of work that goes in to patching software.
 
chrono1081 said:
Why does everyone want a response from Apple for every little glitch? Microsoft doesn't do it, neither does any other company. They fix things and release patches.

Not to mention its obvious none of you realize the kind of work that goes in to patching software.
Click to expand...

Why? Because some of us hold companies to higher standards than their fanboys do. You don't have to agree, of course. Apple once tried to differentiate itself from MS by extolling its reliability; you apparently believe they've sunk to the same level. I'd like them to be better than that.

And yeah, we know about "patching" software. I don't think that changes anyone's opinion.
 
robgendreau said:
Why? Because some of us hold companies to higher standards than their fanboys do. You don't have to agree, of course. Apple once tried to differentiate itself from MS by extolling its reliability; you apparently believe they've sunk to the same level. I'd like them to be better than that.

And yeah, we know about "patching" software. I don't think that changes anyone's opinion.
Click to expand...

Don't wave the "fanboy" flag when all I was doing was stating that you guys are wanting something that no company does. You can play the "we hold Apple to a higher standard" violin all day but in the end your simply wanting something no company does.
 
hoosker said:
Just posted:

The Snow Leopard Font Update contains fixes for Mac OS X v10.6.7 that address issues displaying and printing OpenType fonts

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4605
Click to expand...

After some careful testing, this does deal with my issues of incorrectly rendered fonts in PDFs generated by the business databases in 10.6.7 when using postscript opentype fonts, Avenir Std being the most important for me.
 
ssmed said:
After some careful testing, this does deal with my issues of incorrectly rendered fonts in PDFs generated by the business databases in 10.6.7 when using postscript opentype fonts, Avenir Std being the most important for me.
Click to expand...

That is good news. I was holding off on 10.6.7 because of this problem. Anybody still having these problems or does this fix everything?
 
ssmed said:
After some careful testing, this does deal with my issues of incorrectly rendered fonts in PDFs generated by the business databases in 10.6.7 when using postscript opentype fonts, Avenir Std being the most important for me.
Click to expand...

Good to hear. Might want to mark the thread as resolved then.
 
robgendreau said:
Why? Because some of us hold companies to higher standards than their fanboys do. You don't have to agree, of course.
Click to expand...
When do you start taking the responsibility that comes with holding a company? One should always be cautious when updating anything if it is their core business and have any kind of backup ready when updating. You can't just blame everybody else for everything. Yes, the update did break something which is Apples fault but you could have tested it first. If you stumble upon a problem notify the company (Apple). Fixing the mess you have when things break is very stressful, something you'd want to avoid at all costs.
 
It's Apple. They rarely acknowledge issues nor do they quickly act to fix them unless absolutely crucial. They'll get to it but it's not going to be a priority unless it effects a very large number of users.
 
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
It's Apple. They rarely acknowledge issues nor do they quickly act to fix them unless absolutely crucial. They'll get to it but it's not going to be a priority unless it effects a very large number of users.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry that is just incorrect. Apple is very fast at releasing updates. Want slow? Try Windows. I fix Windows for a living and its very frustrating waiting for oh say, a service pack to fix a critical volume shadow copy error (Windows Vista), or say this bug: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-windows-dos-bug-patch,9598.html
 
ssmed said:
After some careful testing, this does deal with my issues of incorrectly rendered fonts in PDFs generated by the business databases in 10.6.7 when using postscript opentype fonts, Avenir Std being the most important for me.
Click to expand...
I have printing issue after installing the 10.6.7 Font Update, this time it's with Avenir-Black.

The printer (a Dell 3115cn in this case) spits back the following error:
---------------------------------------
ERROR: invalidfont
OFFENDING COMMAND: definefont

STACK:

/Font
-dictionary-
/VUXOEV+Avenir-Black
----------------------------------------

This is something that has been working for a long time and only get broken after installing the 10.6.7 Font Update (as far as I can tell).

Would appreciate any ideas/pointer on how to fix/workaround this.
Thanks in advance.
 
Update to my post above:

It seems the issue is limited to the Dell 3115cn.
I tried printing the same thing to a HP LaserJet 1518ni and it worked fine.

(Before installing the 10.6.7 Snow Leopard Font Update, it worked on both printers.)

Now on to investigating what the difference is between the two printers ...
 
Further update:

It worked on the HP 1518ni because (I think) the HP 1518ni's native driver is PCL-based. But the Dell 3115cn's native driver is PostScript based. If I force OS X to print to the Dell 3115cn using the "Generic PCL" driver, it works (but the output doesn't look as pretty as before). If I force OS X to print to the Dell 3115cn using the "Generic PS" driver, I run into the same problem as before.

So: PCL = good; PostScript = not as good.

Then I looked into the the font details in the document concerned. It turns out the document was using a bunch of embedded Type-1 Avenir fonts with Roman encoding. Off chance, I changed the encoding type to ANSI, and it worked!

So now my theory is that the 10.6.7 Font Update broke something when it comes to printing Roman-encoded Type-1 fonts using a PostScript driver. It's OK when printing using a PCL driver; it's OK when printing ANSI-encoded Type-1 font.

I don't expect Dell to release driver update for the Mac to fix this (their last Mac OS X driver for the 3115cn was released in 2007!). But for now, I'm glad I don't have to retire the 3115cn just yet over this issue.
 
You should never have to retire a printer unless the OS changes its print sub-system. If an OS update broke the driver, that's up to Apple to fix, not Dell, just as you wouldn't expect Dell to update their driver if Microsoft introduced a bug.
 
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