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I am using the Mac system font Avenir Next Condensed.ttc in Adobe InDesign and Acrobat for a client. The font is not reproducing well--the lower case "u" has a larger X height than other lower case letters when the document is saved to PDF and this is especially bad on lower resolution screens, though it is also visible on my iMac 27 inch. The problem disappears when zoomed in to about 200%.

My iMac OS and my Adobe are all up to date.

I have contacted Monotype, who are handling Linotype fonts, and they said there is nothing wrong with the font, the problem is with Adobe.

I have spent a week communicating with Adobe who say that Avenir Next Condensed.ttc is a restricted font in Adobe products and they can't offer any support. They recommend that I get a .ttf or .otf version of the font. However, I can't deactivate the .ttc system font on my Mac so Adobe will always use that version, as far as I can tell. I don't even know if that would make any difference, since a .ttc is a TrueType font collection, it should be fine.

This is my client's brand font. My client is not happy with how it looks in the PDFs.

The end usage will be PDF online, users will be viewing the PDFs on their computers, not printing them. Workarounds like saving to Photoshop and writing the PDF from there aren't viable.

Has anyone else had this problem and what did they do about it?

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    This looks like an on-screen font rendering problem/bug. Does it go away when zooming in or out? Are you and your client using Adobe Acrobat/Reader to view the file? What happens if you convert the font to outlines? I'm not sure a fix is really possible or even if installing another version of the font would work. Too many unknowns here.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Apr 22 at 11:36
  • Yes, it goes away when zoomed in at about 200%. Converting to outlines does solve the problem but my client wants to be able to make small edits to the copy when they want and I can't send them outlined PDFs. Many people will be viewing the file, it is impossible to know exactly what PDF viewer they will be using, but it is certain that many will be using Acrobat. I have been communicating with Monotype, Apple and Adobe about this for over a week now and they are all pointing at each other or offering up workarounds that are not viable.
    – Yelda55
    Commented Apr 22 at 11:56
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    If it goes away when zooming in, then it's an on-screen rendering problem. AFAIK, there's not much you can do about it.
    – user183813
    Commented Apr 22 at 13:45
  • Ok, thank you for the input, I'll let my client know.
    – Yelda55
    Commented Apr 22 at 13:58
  • That means it's definitely a font rendering problem. Is your client using Adobe Acrobat? If so, then one possible work around would be to send them the PDF which they can edit. Then, once they have made the edits, save the changes, but then they (or you) could convert the type to outlines and save a separate copy for publication purposes only. Obviously, making sure to keep the editable PDF for future edits, and a separate outlined PDF for publication.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Apr 22 at 15:43

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