I received a .pdf file that is our phone bill.
When I try to print it I get a message
GPL Ghostscript 10.02.1: Failed to interpret TT instructions in font ADGDIC+TelstraBillIconsv3. Continue ignoring instructions of the font.
[TRPB_1_1905167919.pdf (pdf, delegated to pdf2ps): 3 pages on 3 sheets]
request id is OKI-99 (0 file(s))
[Total: 3 pages on 3 sheets] sent to the default printer
and nothing prints. The file stays in the print queue forever.
I can print other files… the print system is working.
I assume this means the .pdf file contains some font that Ghostscript can not deal with .
I tried filtering the .pdf file thru qpdf … no difference.
I cant find any print mechanism that avoids Ghostscript.
I tried converting to .ps and got the same message
$ pdf2ps -dNOPLATFONTS out.pdf out.ps
GPL Ghostscript 10.00.0: Failed to interpret TT instructions in font ADGDIC+TelstraBillIconsv3. Continue ignoring instructions of the font.
Is there anything I can do to patch this file to make it printable?
I can open it with qpdfview, and other viewers.
Will try LO Draw… have never used it so wait on while I learn…
The problem is gs cant convert it from .pdf to .ps
Yeah, it is hard to escape from gs
I think Telstra need to get their pdf files in order
It is bad enough filling up pdf files with embedded fonts, but if you embed broken fonts it is a disaster… imagine how many Telstra customers cant print their bill
Hi Laszlo,
Yes, I can read the pdf file into LibreOffice Draw
and
it will print from there
but
there are some distorted items in the LO screen and the printout
for example
is meant to be a barcode.
Other screwed up things are a QR code and some logos.
Thank you,
problem solved.
I have never liked the idea of embedding fonts in a pdf document.
It bloats the size and leads to repeated transmission of fonts all over the internet. A better way would be to have a decent collection of fonts in all machines.
and
if they embed a corrupted font… well you have seen what happens.
It used to be on apple mac with either quark express or pagemaker when you sent a file to a real printer outside for mass production, you had to identify the fonts used and put them into a suitcase to send to the printer (on a zip drive) to print to get over the need for each print company buy that font.
Desktop publishing started off mostly people using PostScript fonts and printing to PostScript printers and sending jobs to shops with PostScript printing facilities…
Some applications could generate a PostScript file (*.ps) - think Adobe Illustrator maybe?
And before Windows 3.1 - i.e. before “TrueType” - every single (windows 3.0) computer you’d go to - would be running a pirate copy of Adobe Type Manager …
I still have one… an Oki Microline 12i
They are the easiest type of printer to configure in Linux or BSD
You can generate a .ps file from Latex, but the modern trend is to generate a .pdf file because they are smaller.
I’ve actually created fonts from scratch… Truetype… I used CorelDraw - even as early as version 3, it had built in features (and a tutorial in the user guide) how to create a truetype font…
Later on I used another product called “Fontographer”
I also created a couple of monospace fonts for sh!ts’n’giggles (with appropriately peurile scatalogical names) e.g. here’s “Butthole Console” :
I went on a course about typography and fonts, learning pairing, spacing, x height, leading, kerning etc with a design company many years ago and was able to use those skills many times, but never got to a level of being able to design one to use.
Anyway whats wrong with comic sans, i use it on my web site without issues. Like the shape.
It’s a common theme / meme - the over-user of comic sans…
I once did a ticket writing course around 1980 - learned some typography skills with a stylus pen, and paintbrush - I hated the calligraphy with a paintbrush stuff - but doing serif writing, or “old English” with a stylus (i.e. like a vintage pen with a feather you dip into the inkwell - sans feather) was fun and I found it reasonably easy…
Ticket writing via that method died out sometime in the late 1980’s… (ticket writing was those cardboard things announcing stuff on special et cetera in supermarkets, and other retail outlets)…
One thing that is a CRIME - is all those tattoos in ALL CAPS in Old English or other gothic script - that is a typography crime that should be a capital (sic) offence.
“signwriter” was one job I was interested, and a vocational teacher took me, a mate and another “peer” to a tech school - and I was assessed for colour blindness (I already knew the answer) and was told bluntly I wouldn’t be admitted for a signwriting apprenticeship because of that… Great! Ruled out of being a pilot, a train driver, a policeman (not that I wanted to be one), a sparkie OR signwriter! What was there left for me?
My next younger brother was also colour blind (brother #3 isn’t) - and we both did assessments for defence force careers - and - the only career path for colour-blind army, navy or airfoce? A grunt with a gun in the army - that’s it!
…