Fonts out of Alphabetical order

[varxtis]

A client just sent me a brochure of their company and they need me to do a few 15sec slide show presentations. One of the key ellements they want me to carry over is the font. Their marketing designer(? the guy who designed their logo, brochures, and cards) Isn't available to send me the fonts. So, of course when I open the brochure project file, it can't find the fonts. Luckily it's a standard free font called Futura. I downloaded and installed the set of Futura fonts, but I'm running into two problems.

1st: The fonts are coming up with different names than theyre file name. (Futura Heavy.ttf is listed as Futura Hv BT Heavy) So of course, the project still doesn't recognize them,

2nd: the Futura Fonts are out of order in the font list in Photoshop and mixed with "G" labeled fonts.

All in all, I was able to I was able to create a new text layer and then manually select the correspond text (Futura Heavy) and it matches up fine for the most part*. But that means I have to do the same with all the other text fields. And when I try to do it for an existing text field, the font is the same, but any property parameters are reset to the fonts default.

Does anyone know why my Futura fonts are out of order?

*So, the font matches up for the most part, but there seems to be custom parameters for the text options. Is there a quick way to adjust these to make another layer?

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

Not a "standard free font". Futura comes in many versions. Many are commercial. Some might be free. You need the SAME font, from the same foundry. It's also not allowed for the designer to share their copy, but they can tell you which one they have.

[varxtis]

thaaaaank you!!! i had no idea that you cant share fonts even when working together (collaborating) on same project. definitely saved me from major legal issues.

but in regards to the font thing, that makes sense. any ideas why theyre mixed in with the "g"s though?

[Test Screen Name]

Here’s a thought. I’ve noticed that fonts called Adobe Caslon appear under “C”. Nobody much minds but it isn’t obvious how it happens. My guess though is that the fonts are shown by the font name but ordered by the family name. But that doesn’t explain your result where your Furura fonts are mixed freely with the Gs. I wonder if the family names are made up rather randomly with Gs. Free fonts are often made By unauthorised copying by people who don’t know the full details of font design and classification.

The BT in the name stands for bitstream, a major font house. But their fonts are generally carefully made and certainly aren’t free, so your free font source is unfortunately rather suspect here.

The designer may have used a different commercial font, a different free font, or one they found in their system. ”Found on the system” fonts are often a problem for collaborating.

[varxtis]

That sucks. Well I have no idea about the family names. That makes perfect sense. I've opened the font through window font folder and scanned through the properties and none of them have a first letter "g" in any part of their name.

Please don't misunderstand, I don't think you were implying anything malicious, but just to reassure (Cause I do like this community and value the respect shown in it)

I just searched "free fonts futura" and came across 2 or 3 sites that have it.

I know anyone can search "pirating" and start on the path of darkness, lol, but usually there's a bit more involved. I figure if I search "free fonts..." with the font name, and it comes up in the first 3 hits in google, then its probably not licensed and is free.

Then how am I supposed to really know when a font is truly free, or if its a bootleg copy of sorts?

[Test Screen Name]

I wouldn't try to imply anything malicious, fonts are a minefield. My view of Google is different: people with bad stuff on the web are often really good at gaming Google. It's much easier to end up with pirate/counterfeit goods than you might think. Google don't do any checks for legality or piracy so far as I know. Add to that, some people simply assume all fonts are free and try to make sites with the biggest collection of "free" fonts that they can - often to make money from advertising, but not always.

To answer your question: buy fonts from a reputable supplier. Such as Adobe, or a font maker like Bitstream or Linotype.

One model if you and the client are both on CC is to use only Adobe's fonts that you get with the subscription. This may change over time, but for a short duration project it's pretty safe.

Another point: many clients, printers, service providers, designers and others will tell you it is perfectly ok to share fonts for the purposes of a project. This, I'm afraid, is nothing but a convenient untruth, because the alternative is both time consuming and potentially expensive. A service provider who keeps their fonts legal may struggle to compete with one who does not.

[varxtis]

I searched adobe typekit and found it through that. Thank you!

I gotcha. Ya, I want to try to keep things legit. Not just for me... it'd suck if the client was dragged into something.

So, when I open the clients brochure, it says it can't find "Futura Heavy" but says its on typekit. So based on the new info you gave me, I uninstalled the previous "Futura Fonts" I was telling you about, headed over to typekit, and searched Futura. It just comes up with "Futura PT" Family and thats it. So, I activate, reopen photoshop and the brochure, and it still cant find them. Probably because it doesnt recognize the "PT" extension? In anycase, I still have to manually change it, which is fine. At least now, its legit. But odd thing is that the Futura PT font family is doing the same thing as Futua BT... its mixed in with "G"s. so weird.

[Test Screen Name]

Just as BT is bitstream, PT is Paratype. This is their take on Futura, a font designed in the 1920s, which was then cast in metal for typesetting a letter at a time. So each digital Futura font is a reference and redesign going back to the original design by Paul Renner (than you Wikipedia!) They will have tried to keep the spirit of the original font so they are likely to look pretty similar. But the font metrics (widths of each letter) are likely to be different, perhaps noticeably so. This is why agreeing on an exact font is important.

So, once you have the right font and you've converted it you need to refer to the client's intention to see if the text still fits where it needs to. But since you are doing a major repurposing (brochure to presentation) that's probably ok. If you want to include exact images of the brochure, there are better ways to do that (using their stuff as a placed PDF).

[varxtis]

You are beautiful, wonderful and Magical!

Thank you very very much for all of this!!!