FusionPro 6.2P1a Crashes when 'Load All Fonts'

I am numbering a project which is basically a repeat of another project, so the numbering needs to look the same. However, when I launch FusionPro 6.2P1a for Macintosh on 10.5.8 Power PC (8GB RAM), it crashes when selecting the "Load All Fonts' OR 'Load New Fonts' options. I am running Acrobat 8. If I ignore this feature, when I impose my project, I do not have any font options - when complete it has defaulted to Helvetica, which I do not want.

 

I have rebooted my machine and it does not help. I have quit Acrobat and restarted Acrobat and it does not help. I have reinstalled FusionPro 6.2P1a and it does not help. I ALWAYS run FusionPro and load fonts PRIOR to ever launching Acrobat - it's not like I have the file open and then try to load fonts.

 

I only recently did the 6.2P1a upgrade; prior I had been running a previous version without issue.

 

I am able to number and impose the job, and switch the font using PitStop, but I shouldn't have to.

Please contact Support for all font- and installation-related issues. You may also want to check your fonts.err file.

What's the point of having the "support forum" if you're just going to tell me to call in? My guess is so that you can charge me for support. What usually happens to me is that it's a faulty upgrade and a known issue that I get to spin my wheels on for a few days. Either that or it's an "unknown" conflict with another necessary piece of software on my machine and I'm left to figure it out on my own. Like I don't have enough stress and pressure to turn this job around without having to devote an unknown amount of time on the phone while all my other work sits idle. Thanks!

With the help of a friend on another forum, isolated the problem to a conflict between FusionPro and Extensis Suitcase. Turned off Suitcase and used Linotype Font Explorer and the problem went away. Just thought someone out there might want to be aware of this.

What's the point of having the "support forum" if you're just going to tell me to call in?

I sincerely apologize for the trouble. But to clarify, this isn't a "support forum," it's the "Printable User Community." It was never intended to be a proxy or substitute for Support. While Printable employees like me do monitor the forum and attempt to answer questions when we can, and we do use it to communicate with users, it's primarily intended as a place for users to exchange information with other users.

 

In my experience, when you're having a problem specific to your system configuration, it's unlikely that another user is going to be able to help with that. And the level of detailed knowledge of your system and its configuration required to troubleshoot such problems is probably more than you want to share publicly anyway. Support has access to a wide range of troubleshooting tools and techniques that other users simply don't have.

My guess is so that you can charge me for support.

FusionPro customers have various levels of free and paid support available. I'm not sure exactly what the pricing structure is, but it's my understanding that certain issues related to installation are not charged for. We don't try to make money from Support, but I'm sure you can understand that we do need to have some limits on the number of requests made to our Support staff, especially since the line between Support and Consulting-type work such as template building can get fuzzy.

What usually happens to me is that it's a faulty upgrade and a known issue that I get to spin my wheels on for a few days. Either that or it's an "unknown" conflict with another necessary piece of software on my machine and I'm left to figure it out on my own. Like I don't have enough stress and pressure to turn this job around without having to devote an unknown amount of time on the phone while all my other work sits idle. Thanks!

Again, I apologize for the trouble. Conflicts between software from different third-party vendors are frustrating to us as well, and we try to address them when we find them.

With the help of a friend on another forum, isolated the problem to a conflict between FusionPro and Extensis Suitcase. Turned off Suitcase and used Linotype Font Explorer and the problem went away. Just thought someone out there might want to be aware of this.

Third-party font management tools, such as Extensis Suitcase, bypass the operating system's font handling in ways that are not easily detectable through the system API calls which we rely upon, and we don't really have a way of predicting that. (And the system APIs have changed a lot over the course of various releases of Mac OS, going back to the OS 9 days.)

 

OS X, especially Snow Leopard, actually simplifies font handling in a way because it only wants to support TrueType fonts, and drops support for Type 1 fonts. However, despite Apple's guidelines, users still want to use Type 1 fonts, so third-party font utilities try to work around the system limitations and provide them anyway, but again, this is very difficult to handle properly when you're using the system APIs, and bypassing the APIs has its own set of problems. So this is an ongoing challenge.

Hi Christian,

 

Just my personal opinion, but I think you kinda misdirected your frustration onto Dan. Dan's one of the most helpful and knowledgeable people you'll find here and I for one appreciate the time he spends in this forum and his amazing JS knowledge. He rarely steers you wrong.

 

I also think fonts have gotten ever more problematic in OS X and with each upgrade. So, I do understand your frustration. I find that font problems are usually an issue with font caches in OS X. Sometimes a manual clean of Fusion's font cache (manual b/c the various font cache cleaners I use won't see it) is the key.

 

I don't know that it's fair to toss Suitcase under the bus. I use Suitcase every day and find it works well and does not conflict with Fusion on my setup. Extensis had its share of trouble in the beginning on OS X with earlier versions of Suitcase, but the latest version of Suitcase has been behaving well for me and I like it. I do know someone else who swears by Font Explorer -- but both of us find that periodic cleaning of font caches is required for either program. Perhaps you already know all that, but just in case you have any future font issues or problems, thought I'd suggest looking at clearing caches as another possible fix.

-kim

Well said Kim. Dan has been extremely helpful to many people on the forums. Thanks for your time Dan! I have been proudly displaying a magnent in my office I received as a promotional item. "Proudly" as sarcastically as possible that says "I <heart> FONTS". I can't stand the "darn" things. They are the number one cause of all my problems in our production of customer's jobs.

Just to clarify, last October we bought a new Power PC Mac. You would literally not believe the number of problems we had, specifically with FusionPro. I spent weeks trying to troubleshoot it, which eventually resulted in having to upgrade to the latest version of FusionPro. We lost dozens upon dozens of man hours searching for a solution, to which there was none other than to upgrade. The stress and pressure of putting off clients was unreal; not a good business decision in today's economy.

 

I had recently upgraded my FusionPro to the newest release only to have the problem repeat itself and despite the previous pleasantness and attentiveness of the FusionPro staff, I was not eager to call in and go through weeks of troubleshooting, uninstalling and reinstalling, webex meetings, etc., plus I did not have the luxury of time on this job; I needed an immediate solution. Since we do not have a support contract with Printables, I was really in a bind and was relying on the help of this forum, to which I received none. Of course I was frustrated. Especially since I found my solution within minutes on a third-party forum. I responded with a legitimate concern and to alert others lest they run into the same problem I have and spare them the pain.

 

I appreciate your loyalty to Printables; they are a fine company, and other than my unfortunate experience last year, I have nothing negative to say about them - I think I have a unique configuration on my Mac that is troublesome. I am a 1-man show in a 4-man shop, and a hiccup like this can shut our doors for good. Spending hours on a phone is not a luxury I can afford; if a solution is not available on a forum quickly, so I can continue to work on other projects, I am up a creek without a paddle.

last October we bought a new Power PC Mac.

Christian - I hope this doesn't come out troll-ish, but I gotta know...

Did you buy a NEW PowerPC G5 Macintosh (that is in your signature) last October?

Christian - I hope this doesn't come out troll-ish, but I gotta know...

Did you buy a NEW PowerPC G5 Macintosh (that is in your signature) last October?

 

No - it was a refurbished one we got for $400-500... I forget. It was cheap, and we got it for CS4... didn't know at the time CS5 would require Intel.

didn't know at the time CS5 would require Intel.

 

Our shop has to buy all new Macs in-order to deal with CS5 coming-out. There goes my raise.....