A couple of aggravating issues...

I'm a total newbie to the whole "VDP" universe and I'm trying to learn to use FusionPro by going through the tutorials included with the application, but I keep encountering problems with it that I cannot overcome. I'm not sure if it's a incompatibility problems or something else.

 

I'm running the latest version of FusionPro through Quark 7.3 and Acrobat Professional 8.1.2, on a Mac OS 10.4.11 1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4 with 764 MB DDR SDRAM

 

We are currently using Suitcase X1 as our fonts management utility. We also have FontBook for system fonts.

 

I have been using the tutorial file for the post card, that has variable frames for text and graphics. I have no problem with the Quark file, setting up variable frame export options, using the template that comes with the FusionPro software.

 

I have no problem exporting the document from Quark through the FusionPro plug-in.

 

However, when the PDF opens in Acrobat 8.0, one of the text boxes that holds variable data has shifted position and is now over on the right-hand side of the document, in the pasteboard area. I can manually move it back into position, but I'm quite certain it should not be moving at all. I've tried using an earlier version of Acrobat Profession (7), and it does the same things.

 

I have no problem defining data sources and associate images. But when I get to the "Variable Text Editor", I cannot get any fonts to show up on the dropdown menu. When I try using FusionPro's "Load Fonts" command, FusionPro will quit every single time. EVERY time. No matter what version of Acrobat Professional I use. It will start right back up, but it does not work when I try to load fonts.

 

I have tried going into Suitcase and deactivating every font except the ones I'm using in the tutorial file, but FusionPro still quits when I go to "Load Fonts".

 

I have tried uninstalling (following the instructions on "How to Uninstall"), and re-installing FusionPro, and have gone so far as to get a completely new download of the software to do it.

 

Lastly, there is a font being referenced in the tutorial that I do not have (but was supposedly supplied with FusionPro). Its called "IDAutomationPOSTNET". I have several other "IDAutomation" barcode fonts, but not that one.

 

Any assistance and guidance and wisdom I would greatly appreciate.

Thanks for posting this - look for a reply shortly from our support guys.

Hello,

We are currently investigating this issue with the repositioning of the frames in the tutorial file. As far as the font being referenced, the correct

name as listed in FusionPro is "AdVPNet".

 

We apologize for any inconvenience experience using our tutorial.

 

regards,

Alex Marshall

Application Support

As far as using fonts go, I've had luck with this process:

-Deactivate all fonts turned on by suitcase

-turn on fonts needed for fusion using an option click (to get the green dot. These fonts will stay on through a restart as opposed to the yellow dot)

-restart the machine and wait for suitcase to load all fonts

-load fonts into fusion using the "Load Fonts" option in the Fusion Pro App (do this step prior to launching any apps.

 

I still have this quit on me quite often, but I've been successful using the above method. Fusion and Fonts don't like to get along too well on the mac.

Hello Jeffrey,

Part of the font issue problem maybe attributed to the fact that Fusionpro does not directly interface with third party, i.e. font management software such as suitcase.

By default, FusionPro looks to the "Library: font" folder for all fonts.

This system resource works quite well with our program. Once you have surrendered control of these resources for use in your Macintosh system

to Xtensis Suitcase, we try our best to capture this information when it becomes available. Though it is not a perfect process, we hope that these resources are made available to the program without error. We are currently tweaking the plugin to ensure we do a better job when retreiving this information. We thank you for working with us while we improve these processes.

 

-Alex

Thanks for the info Alex. I know Fusion only supports Fonts in the Fonts folder, so I know using Third Party Apps is at my own risk. The above method works pretty well with suitcase, and the reality of most print houses is there are many many fonts to manage. Not using a Font Management tool is next to impossible. Worst case scenario for me, I load the fonts as you mentioned.

I use fusion pro 5.8 on a 10.4.11 mac os with font reserve for font management.

In acrobat I went to fusion pro/advanced/advanced settings and changed my fonts directory to the directory that font reserve feeds to.

In my case:/Library/Application Support/Font Reserve/Databases/{server location}/FontServer/Active Fonts

hope this helps

I use fusion pro 5.8 on a 10.4.11 mac os with font reserve for font management.

In acrobat I went to fusion pro/advanced/advanced settings and changed my fonts directory to the directory that font reserve feeds to.

In my case:/Library/Application Support/Font Reserve/Databases/{server location}/FontServer/Active Fonts

hope this helps

 

I don't think that will help to solve the stated problem. That setting only changes the directory where FusionPro writes its own cached font metrics files when it loads fonts. It doesn't affect where it load fonts from. Internally, FusionPro uses operating system API functions which iterate through all installed fonts on the machine to get the list of installed fonts. So there's no single directory you can point to. It's up to the operating system to tell FusionPro which fonts are installed, and those are the fonts that FusionPro tries to load. Exactly how the operating system knows which folders to look in to find installed fonts varies by OS platform and version. If third-party font management software notifies the operating system to change its set of installed fonts, then you have to re-load fonts in FusionPro to keep it synchronized with the operating system.