Extensis Suitcase Fusion: Distorted fonts; Problems creating PDFs in Adobe apps -- solution

UPDATE: These issues have been resolved in a new version of Suitcase Fusion, numbered 12.0.1.

Distorted fonts MacFixIt reader Tony Knight reports an issue where fonts become distorted upon printing with the presence of Suitcase Fusion, a new font management utility from Extensis.

Tony writes:

"The worst issue is font anomalies at print out. A font will look correct on the screen, but when printed it will smash the letters close together. Even the same font on the same page...one text box will print fine and another will smash together. If you print the same document out of a machine where we have reverted to Suitcase X1, INSTEAD of Fusion it prints fine. We have tested several documents on 7 different printers all PostScript level 3 except the Apple 16/600's, (Xerox Phaser 8500, 2 Apple 8500's one with all the fonts on an attached hard drive one without, Xantee ScreenWriter 3, and 2 16/600's. It seems to do it on almost any font no matter if it is Adobe or Digital Type. Again it looks great on the screen. I've tried deleting the Suitcase Vault in the Users/person/Library/Application Support then reloading font where it doesn't copy into the vault. (no difference) I've deleted preferences. (no difference) so far only reverting to Suitcase X1 has fixed the strange anomalies."

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.

Problems creating PDFs in Adobe apps -- solution Some users have reported issues creating PDF files in Adobe applications after installing Suitcase Fusion.

One reader writes:

"I've determined that with Suitcase Fusion active, creating a PDF file of any kind (PDF-X, Press, etc) by exporting from InDesign CS2 or by Save As in Illustrator CS2 results in a damaged PDF file. Opening the file in Acrobat brings up a "damaged file" message and Acrobat instantly repairs the file. You can verify that the file was changed by the fact that you are prompted o Save when you close the file. Unfortunately, the repaired file is not longer compliant with the initial PDF type (PDF-X1a in my case.)"

Extensis offers a solution for this issue, as follows:

"Try generating a PDF (using fonts activated by Suitcase Fusion), but turn off the 'Enable FontSense Support' option in the Suitcase Fusion plugin. We've heard some reports that that setting is causing errors in PDFs generated with that option turned on in the plugin. Please let us know if that makes a difference."

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