Virtual Helvetica Fonts Appearing

[albeter]

I recently noticed the following strange behavior that has me baffled.

I have a Type 1 (postscript) font (Helvetica by Adobe). This font was provided by my printer manufacturer (HP) with my Laser Jet 4M printer, along with 34 other Type 1 fonts. As with all Type 1 fonts, there are 2 associated font files; a .pfm and a .pfb file for each font. For this Helvetica font these file sizes are 1,676 and 28,777 bytes.

When this font is installed by MainType, I notice that the Active file list pane shows the Helvetica font as I would normally expect. However, it also shows 4 other fonts installed (hereafter referred to as virtual fonts) which I have no idea why or where they came from: Helvetica Regular, Helvetica Italic, Helvetica Bold, and Helvetica Bold Italic.

Details for the expected Helvetica font indicate: 1) File Name and Folder match font files I installed; 2) Font Type: “Postscript Type 1”; 3) Naming Copyright: “Adobe Systems Inc”; 4) Character Set: “Adobe Western 2 (245 characters)”.

Details for the unexpected Helvetica Regular font indicate: 1) File Name and Folder: none shown; 2) Font Type: “TrueType”; 3) Naming Copyright: none shown; 4) Character Set: “Ansi character set (246 characters)”.

Details for the unexpected Helvetica Italic, Helvetica Bold, and Helvetica Bold Italic fonts indicate: 1) File Name and Folder: none shown; 2) Font Type: “OpenType TT”; 3) Naming Copyright: “The Monotype Corp”; 4) Character Ranges (unicode): 26 ranges for a total of 949 characters.

It is interesting to note that all 4 of the virtual fonts show a Font Status of “Loaded” while the expected font Helvetica shows a Font Status of “Installed”. If I re-start the OS and immediately launch MainType, it still shows a Font Status of “Loaded” for the 4 virtual fonts.

Using MainType, I tried to “uninstall” and “unload” the 4 virtual fonts, but was unable to. An error message would appear: “Failed to uninstall the font” and “Failed to unload because the font file is unknown” respectively.

If I uninstall the expected font Helvetica, it along with the 4 virtual fonts disappear.

So, does anyone have any idea from where and why these 4 virtual fonts are appearing?

My PC is running Windows XP Pro, SP3.

[Dave Crosby]

I'm not the sharpest marble here, but I think you are using a font family all bundled together.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_family_(HTML)

They are possibly in a sub folder in your folder file, therefore hard to get to.

BTW, Type One fonts are fast becoming extinct.

[albeter]

Dave, thank you for your thoughts on this matter.

I do not follow how your Wikipedia reference relates to my problem. [BTW, you should edit the url to include the ending “)” as otherwise the hot link fails]. The Wikipedia reference only has to do with which fonts are displayed in an HTML page.

I do believe the virtual fonts are a “family” but I believe they are distinct from the font family to which the expected Helvetica font belongs. I can load/install the other 3 fonts in its family (Helvetica Bold, Helvetica Italic, and Helvetica Bold Italic) and they show up as distinct items in the MainType Active file list pane. The virtual fonts show in addition, even though they have the same names.

Installing/loading nor uninstalling/unloading these other 3 fonts in the Helvetica family has no affect on the appearance of the virtual fonts displayed in MainType. As mentioned, the virtual fonts are only affected by installing/loading or uninstalling/unloading the roman Helvetica font.

And yes I do know that Type 1 fonts are being replaced by more modern Open Type fonts, but for now (and hopefully for the rest of my lifetime) Type 1 fonts are supported in the current Windows OSes. I have thousands of Type 1 fonts, including the entire Adobe Font Folio 7 and 7.1, which I would hate to abandon.

[albeter]

Upon further investigation into the matter of my post, I find that a similar behavior is being exhibited by MainType for another Type 1 font: Times. As with the Helvetica font, this font was provided by HP for my Laser Jet printer. Its .pfm and a .pfb file sizes are 1,806 and 32,976 bytes.

Installing/loading or uninstalling/unloading the roman Times font causes 4 virtual fonts to appear in the MainType Active file list pane: Times, Times Bold, Times Italic, and Times Bold Italic. These virtual fonts are distinct from the 3 other fonts in the Times family. I can load/install these other 3 fonts in its family (Times Bold, Times Italic, and Times Bold Italic), all postscript Type 1 fonts, and they show up as distinct items in the MainType Active file list pane. The virtual fonts show in addition, even though they have the same names.

Details for the real roman Times font indicate: 1) File Name and Folder match font files I installed; 2) Font Type: “Postscript Type 1”; 3) Naming Copyright: “Adobe Systems Inc”; 4) Character Sets: 29 ranges with a total of 1,419 characters.

Details for the unexpected virtual roman Times font and the virtual Times Bold font indicate: 1) File Name and Folder: none shown; 2) Font Type: “OpenType TT”; 3) Naming Copyright: “The Monotype Corp”; 4) Character Sets: 29 ranges with a total of 1,419 characters. Details for the unexpected virtual Times Italic font and the virtual Times Bold Italic font indicate: 1) File Name and Folder: none shown; 2) Font Type: “OpenType TT”; 3) Naming Copyright: “The Monotype Corp”; 4) Character Sets: 26 ranges with a total of 933 characters.

All virtual fonts show a Font Status of “Loaded.” If I re-start the OS and immediately launch MainType, it still shows a Font Status of “Loaded” for the all virtual fonts.

As far as I can tell currently, only the Type 1 (postscript) fonts Helvetica and Times cause these virtual fonts to appear in MainType. I also observe that none of my applications that have a font choice box (e.g., WorkPad) show these virtual (True Type or Open Type) fonts as being available. Only the “real” Type 1 fonts are shown as being available. This leads me to believe that the display of these virtual fonts is a bug in MainType and they don’t really exist outside of MainType. Furthermore, I cannot locate any item in the Windows Registry related to these virtual fonts.

Since this thread was started in the MainType - Support forum, whereas I now think it should have been located in the MainType - Bug Reports forum, should I start a new topic there and point to this thread?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

There is no need to start a new thread. Erwin will move this thread if this is a bug.

[Erwin Denissen]

Details for the unexpected Helvetica Regular font indicate: 1) File Name and Folder: none shown; 2) Font Type: “TrueType”; 3) Naming Copyright: none shown; 4) Character Set: “Ansi character set (246 characters)”.

Can you save the font files through MainType?

[albeter]

Can you save the font files through MainType?

I was able to save all the virtual fonts (main menu: File | Save Font As ... ).

When I examined the Helvetica family of virtual fonts which were saved with MainType, they appear to be identical to the *.pfb files for the corresponding Helvetica Type 1 fonts I installed. The virtual files have the same file size, and examining the files with a text editor they appear to be identical.

When I examined the Times family of virtual fonts which were saved with MainType, they appear to be identical to the Times New Roman family of font files (*.ttf) that were originally installed by Windows XP. The virtual files have the same file size and examining the files with a text editor they appear to be identical [but, it is difficult to tell since .ttf files opened in a text editor are difficult to interpret].

The file names and creation dates of the virtual font files which were saved with MainType are different to their counterparts for which they appear identical with. This is expected.

[Erwin Denissen]

Do send me both virtual and original postscript font files and I'll see what I can find out. Also do let me know if you have Adobe Type Manager installed, or had it installed.

[Erwin Denissen]

I've just received the font files, and will look into this issue later next week.

One thing I would like to know is, what version of MainType you are running.

[albeter]

One thing I would like to know is, what version of MainType you are running.

Ver 2.1.1 (build 38)

[Erwin Denissen]

The virtual fonts are in fact font substitutes automatically added by Windows as soon as the specific font(s) are activated. We have a newer release that hides these substitutes from within MainType. Do send me a message which proof of your license, and I'll send you a link to the latest release.

[srivet]

When a User sends an e-mail to another user with the Helvetica Font the recipient gets the following error

Faulting application OUTLOOK.EXE, version 14.0.4760.1000, time stamp 0x4ba8fefd, faulting module USP10.DLL, version 1.626.7600.20602, time stamp 0x4b304c27, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00027466, process id 0x4e8, application start time 0x01cb746b546d3603.

once the font as been changed the error stops.
will the fix you talk about alsl fix this error?