Jetform 5.2 font printing problems

We have one designer who uses JetForm ver. 5.2.8. running on a Windows XP Pro
client machine for much of her work. Everything worked fine when she as using an
hp 5000 LaserJet to print her forms; when our organization got rid of that
printer some time ago, she found that when she delegated any other printer as
her 'default' printer, her fonts got all messed up. My predecessor solved the
problem by keeping the dscarded printer as her default printer, which then
allowed her to print correctly on other printers. The old printer is no longer
on our network, but somehow this has worked for her. In her absence someone
selected another default printer for her machine; she could not undo the change
by adding the old printer as it no longer exists. I performed a restore on her
system back to the day before the default printer was changed and this solved
the problem, but there has GOT to be a better way. Can someone enlighten me? I
am not a graphic designer...I just troubleshoot IT problems.

Thank You!

Does this have anything to do with the Adobe Type Manager or for that matter,
anything in the Adobe Type Library? :-)

Very likely, the LaserJet driver was introducing “phantom fonts” into the
system. In other words, the driver tells Windows about all the “printer
resident” fonts, many (or most) of which the user does not actually have
installed on their system. The application (if it isn't too smart) allows use of
such fonts and Windows fakes the display of same. Delete the particular printer
driver and those phantom fonts disappear, making all reference to such fonts
come out as invalid font references.

Thans, Dov! Your explanation sounds correct...however, the problem is that those
phantom fonts have been incorporated into many of our clients' forms and
documents and are thus still very much needed. It would seem that we need to
find a way to make those fonts available on the graphic designer's client
machine so that she is not dependent on that deceased printer.

I'm pretty new at this. Any ideas on how I should accomplish this?

Thanks Again,

The only way you can accomplish that is by (1) seeing what fonts are being used
in Jetforms, (2) licensing those fonts from whatever type foundry produced them,
and (3) installing those fonts on the affected systems. As an alternative, you
could modify the forms to use different fonts that you know are already actually
installed on all your systems.

If you have the installation disks for the original printer, the fonts may be on
those disks. You would have to check the licensing to see if you can legally use
them now that you do not have that printer. I suspect that the license is only
valid as long as you are using that printer. But those disks might be a place to
start for obtaining a valid license.

Stan Wetherald
Quality Quickprint