Fonts won't embed when saving to eBook

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 3:02 am

Lately I have been having trouble with title fonts in our eBooks. Is there a reason why certain fonts will not embed in the eBooks saved from Atlantis.

Before anyone answers, please refrain from answers like "is it a commercial font" or "is it a font that has limited embedding restrictions" Not only do I check that the font is fully installable and has "everything allowed" set for the embedding perimeters. But I also make sure that most are fully licensed.

Currently I am using a font for a book that is the used for the title of the book, and the chapter titles. I have opened it up in Fontlab and checked to make sure there are no restirctions and that embedding is set to "Everything Allowed."

Yet after messing with it all day, I cannot get the font to embed. The font is not checked off in the exceptions. I embeds just font e in pdfs. And I have only just started to run into the problem with Atlantis sine the last few versions?

I should mention that this is happening a lot more now. It seems that fo some reason Atlantis is not embedding fonts like it used to. This has happened now with three different fonts. Something is buggy here.

Also just to clarify, I'm not talking about the fonts not showing on devices, I'm talking about opening the ePub up and looking in the font folder. And not finding the font at all, and not finding embedding code in the CSS either. Yet the body fonts are there. And so are special fonts used for section breaks that use dingbats. All that gets embedded included the wayward fonts attributed by paragraph markers. Just not the title fonts.

Post by **Robert** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 3:46 am

First, note that Atlantis embeds fonts in EPUB files irrespective of any possible embedding restrictions. You have to make sure you can do it.

Also note that embedded fonts have to be “redistributable” to be redistributed with any EPUB files. Very few fonts are actually “redistributable”, except for a price.

You say that “certain fonts will not embed in the eBooks saved from Atlantis”. How do you determine that they are not saved with the EPUB file?

If this is only happening with certain fonts, could you please name a few, or tell us which extension they use? In other words, are they TTF, OTF, or other font types?

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 3:55 am

In the construction of my eBooks I always open them back up to add the various code needed for different vendors such as Kindle and Apple. I am fully capable of writing code for eBooks. Anyway the reason I know they are not being embedded is because of their absence in the font folder in the Ops file of the ePub. and Because the CSS does contain the usual embedding code.

Yes I am fully aware that the font has to be commercially licensed and redistributable. I mentioned that at the beginning of my note here. There are four restrictions settings in any font.
1. Only Printing and Previewing allowed (read Only)
2. Editing of the document is allowed
3. Everything is allowed (Installable mode)
4. Embedding not allowed.
The third option allows everything, editing, installation, etc.

So the question of which fonts is irrelevant. I wouldn't use a font that isn't licensed and redistributable because I work for commercial publishers. But to satisfy your question League Gothic is one. It is a font that has been offered as part of the open type movement. Originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders Company in 1903. Was redesigned and offered in Open type. My version is "3. Everything is allowed (Installable mode)" So like all other fonts that have no embedding restrictions it should embed.

It is also why I asked people to refrain from such common answers. I do hold a Masters Degree from Portland State University's book publishing program with a special focus on print and digital eBook design. Plus my years of experience building ebooks for publishers. This has only been an issue lately.

The thing that is bugging me is that I did not have this problem previously with embedding fonts in eBooks from Atlantis. Only in recent editions or updates has this problem arose.

In my opinion it is not up to Atlantis to dictate what fonts are embedded, that is on the publisher and the designer. And making the software reject certain fonts might be beneficial to the amateur designer, to the professional it is just bloody irritating.

Post by **Robert** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:21 am

I hope you’ll be able to find it in your heart to forgive me for asking such stupid questions and responding with such “common” answers.

I take it that you are sure that “certain fonts” are not embedded. But, could you please tell us which fonts? There must be something special about these fonts. I just saved a RTF document to EPUB. The fonts got embedded normally.

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:37 am

Hi Robert. I have edited the previous messages to include one of the fonts that gave me trouble. League Gothic was one and I have a version that is fully installable with no restrictions. And Believe it or not I had some trouble with Arial Black and finally had to hand code it into the an ePub.

You must understand though, I have been building eBooks for publishers for about seven years now. Most of those years I have used Atlantis as my choice for conversion. I do a lot of extra coding after the fact and repackage my ePubs and test them. But Atlantis until now has been flawless.

I have used many different fonts over that period of time. It has only been lately with the latest version of Atlantis that fonts don't always embed.

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:39 am

I have been saving from docx lately, is that a problem should I go to RTF always?

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 5:35 am

Here I have an installable licensed version of the "Intro rust G Base 2 Line" I have attached a screenshot showing that unlike the free versions on the web this i=one is installable, see screen shot. And while I was indeed able to get the League Gothic font embedded eventually this one will not embed.

I have opened the font up in font lab, to ensure that the settings are what they say, and they are, it's set to "everything is allowed." But Atlantis won't embed it.

Please note that this font will embed in a pdf from Indesign or from word. It will subset and is in our print version of the book that uses it.

But for whatever reason, it will not embed in the epub generated from Atlantis.

[/img]

Post by **Robert** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:33 am

As I said, Atlantis is never concerned with the “redistributable” or “installable” status of the fonts that you ask it to embed. If you ask Atlantis to embed fonts, they should normally get embedded. “Embeddability” is a licensing property. Atlantis is never concerned with this. You have to take care of the consequences of embedding protected fonts yourself.

Now I have just saved a document in both RTF and DOCX format to EPUB. Both these EPUB files included all of the font files that were saved and embedded in them, with the exception of the Intro Rust G Base 2 Line font (which I got from http://fontsup.com/font/intro-rust-g-base-2-line.html). The fonts involved were Times New Roman, Arial Black, League Gothic, Code2000, Calibri, DejaVu Sans, Intro Rust G Base 2 Line font, Symbol and Liberation Sans.
I gather that Atlantis has issues with the Intro Rust G Base 2 Line font.
I am sure that the Atlantis developers will look into this promptly.

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 11:12 am

Thanks Robert and I must have misunderstood your previous comment. I didn't think Atlantis was worried about redistribution of fonts. Etc. I don't know why this is happening on my end though because League Gothic was really giving a problem. I almost wonder if it is something wonky with the latest MS word. At any rate I need to solve this we do a lot of high dollar limited edition books. And the artists are quite adamant about the digital editions sometimes. Thanks for your efforts.

Post by **Robert** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 11:39 am

As far as the Intro Rust G Base 2 Line font is concerned, it is a rather special font with very few characters in it. This might be a factor. Let’s wait till the Atlantis developers make comments about this particular font.

I had no problems embedding Arial Black or League Gothic on my system (Windows 10 Anniversary 64bit). Possibly, you might have problems with UAC permissions. Have you tried running Atlantis with Administrative rights? Is your Internet Security application over-protecting your system? Just brainstorming…

dudleymosh · Post by **dudleymosh** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 2:26 pm

I'm just going to have to ell my client that the eBook will not be able to use that font. This is super disappointing however. I wish I could find a solution to force it. The anthology has authors like Stephen King and Jack Ketchum in it. I really wanted continuity between the eBooks and the print version. Oh well that is the way to cookie crumbles I guess. I'll try running Atlantis with admin. See if that helps. I really appreciate the time you took with this its an important book.

Post by **admin** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 4:52 pm

The problem with this particular font ("Intro Rust G Base 2 Line") is that its "name" table includes two different names. This table contains the non-Unicode name "Intro Rust G Base" and the Unicode name "Intro Rust G Base 2 Line". Atlantis uses the first name in the font's "name" table – "Intro Rust G Base". This name does not match the font name used in the document itself – "Intro Rust G Base 2 Line". This is why Atlantis assumes that the font file for "Intro Rust G Base 2 Line" cannot be found and embedded.

The next release of Atlantis will check for such name conflicts in the font's "name" table. But I am not sure that a properly designed font should include such a font name mismatch.