[lug] LaTeX and distilling to PDF

[Ronald Kumon]

On Fri, 18 May 2001, J. Wayde Allen wrote:

> If I hit the "List all Fonts" button this expands to:
> 
>    A           	Type 3 Custom  A                Type 3
>    B           	Type 3 Custom  B                Type 3
>    Helvetica	Type 1 Standard
>    C		Type 3 Custom  C		Type 3
> 
> Not sure what this all means?

The tech support document which explains all this seems to have
been moved or removed from Adobe's web site.  However, it is still cached
with Google:  

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:ad38ca92e039b620:www.adobe.com/
supportservice/custsupport/SOLUTIONS/
543e.htm+Embedding+Type+1+fonts+in+LaTeX&hl=en

Basically, Type 1 is good for PDF and Type 3 is not.  Of course, the 
Adobe document suggests using an Adobe product to do the distillation, 
which seems like where you are having your problem.  In the configuration 
process for PStill, you specifically set up a directory which contains 
all the files need to include the Type 1 fonts in the PDF file.  I'm sure
there are other approaches, but this is the only one I'm familiar with.

Admittedly, all this messing around with fonts is a pain.  If
you're just using the "standard" fonts which install with Acrobat Reader,
then this problem goes away.  However, the difficulty with LaTeX is that
Computer Modern is not among this standard set.  
--Ron