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Ashaki Hamlett wondered: <<We currently use the Lucida font family to
produce our written documentation (Lucida Sans for headings, Lucida
Bright for body text, Lucida Typewriter for commands). However, when we
post our documents to Web portals, our users' default font (typically
Times or Arial) overrides the Lucida font.>>
If you're talking Web pages, then this is the way HTML is designed to
work. There's not much you can do about this, unfortunately; even with
CSS, your users will generally be able to override your font choices.
That's a good thing, actually, since I suspect that relatively few
people have Lucida installed, and even those who do should have the
right to substitute what they consider a more legible font.
Much the same problem occurs if you're posting Word documents, with the
additional complication that Word formats documents based on the
printer driver specified when you create the document.
However, if you're talking PDF:
<<This change in font usually produces other issues, such as, random
page breaks and truncated text. Does anyone have any suggestions for
font families (san serif and serif)? What do you currently use that
looks good when converted from Word to PDF and posted to an Intranet.>>
Layout should not change in PDF documents. The built-in font
substitution rules should (almost?) always preserve the layout at the
expense of font fidelity. So if your PDF layouts are changing on you,
I'm not at all sure what the problem is. If you're on an intranet, and
that's the sole use of your documents, one solution might be to install
the Lucida fonts on all computers in the building. Many fonts are
licensed "per printer" rather than per computer, so this probably isn't
a copyright violation.
If you're actually using HTML, then you should never try complex
layouts that include such things as column and page breaks. HTML simply
can't handle this task; you can fake it to some extent with CSS, but
it's still not as elegant a solution as PDF, and you shouldn't try.
That's not what the tool is designed for.
By the way, it's a serious discourtesy and usually highly ineffective
design to simply dump printed documents online for use online--which is
what it sounds like you're doing, and pardon me if I misinterpreted
your descriptions. It really doesn't take much effort to produce
effective online-only designs (usually HTML, but PDF formatted to fit
the screen is also possible).
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
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