StylusRIP, bitmap fonts...

Lazzo

Lazzo

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I'm being driven batty by this!

Last week, for no apparent reason (no installs etc.), fonts began printing bitmapped when a Quark Xpress doc is printed through the StylusRIP to an Epson 1520. Images are fine.

I booted into OS9 and reinstalled the printer driver, the fonts and the RIP but no go. Turning off ATM doesn't help. It does all work properly in OS9 though, so I don't think there are any corrupt fonts.

G4 450 DP
Xpress 4.11
Font Reserve
Separate fonts folder in /users/xxxx
ATM Lite
10.2.3 / 9.2.2 Classic

It's all been perfect for over a year, darn it.

Does anyone have a clue about this?
 
Have you installed anything new just before this happened? I wonder if it is the printer driver in OS X you need to re-install.
 
I didn't do any new installs. As I use this machine to run the business, I don't even install Apple software until I'm positive it works!

I re-installed the drivers, still bitmapped. I'll try the DTP forums, thanks, I always forget about that place.
 
Thanks Cheryl, Toast. I've solved the problem, though something wierd is still going on.

Somehow the software that drives the Epson USB to parallel cabling got deleted from the Mac. I traced that back to attempting and failing to get Font Reserve to load Garamond condensed.

At 3.30am this morning (urg) I reloaded the cabling software and, yippee, everything works including the font. Out of curiosity I removed the Garamond cond, reloaded it and the driver software vanished again.

After I crawled out of my pit later, I installed the 10.2.4 update, tried to duplicate the problem but it doesn't happen anymore!

Strange, eh? No apparent corruption in the font, either.
 
Yep. The other aggravation is that I'll be keeping this G4 for some time, as I have to boot into 9 in order to load the USB-Parallel drivers. It's all Epson, so no updates of course!
 
Epson printers and software, in my opinion have always sucked. Why sell a printer with it's own driver/RIP that's not Postscript native?! It doesn't make sense to me except for the fact that Epson may not want to jump on the Postscript bandwagon. I always have printer problems when I try to print my placed illustrator files in quark through my Epson printer. The fonts in illustrator never come out right unless I make a pdf file or change them to outlines.
 
Hello Natobasso, the only time I don't get decent prints through the RIP is when somebody's sent in Illustrator a/w without the fonts, for instance they haven't outlined them. Are you using the StylusRIP, Birmy's PowerRIP or another?

I am considering buying the Birmy product for X.
 
Lazzo

I should have added that when I place an illustrator file in quark and then try to print it, it never works--whether the fonts are converted to outlines or not...more a rant/vent than anything else. Not sure if I have helped you at all...
 
The ??? reply

Natobasso, which versions of Illus and QX are you using? I am also wondering if your Xpress installer didn't quite finish the job. I don't know if one of the Quark Xtensions handles Illus import?

Or maybe the other way round, with the Illus installer and an export function?

Opening a lot of PC Illus files in the Mac version can have a negative effect in the long run.

Simple things that Should Just Work are flabbergasting and difficult to nail down.

(PS: I solved the original problem, thanks!)
 
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