General Questions

1. I installed my fonts but only some of them appear in the Fonts menu. What happened?

2. Using some fonts makes my program crash. How can I avoid this?

3. My E-mail address has changed.

4. I forgot my Linotype Webshop password.

5. I forgot my Linotype Webshop login name.

6. I have inadvertently purchased a licence for the wrong version of a font. Can I change it?

7. Can I still cancel my order?

8. I am a registered customer, but I get an error message when I try to sign in with my customer name and password? What can I do?

9. I live in Taiwan. Can I still order products from Linotype?

10. What is a font?

11. What is the difference between ordering different cuts of a font and just ordering the regular cut and pressing the ‘Bold’ and ‘Italic’?

12. I found the font I would like to use as my company’s signature font. How do I have it customized and renamed?

13. I installed my fonts, but I cannot find them. I use Adobe Indesign CS. What happened?

14. I use the German version of Adobe Indesign CS. When I click on “Kapitälchen”, even the capital letters become Small Caps. What happened?

15. I received an OpenType font with the file-ending “otf”, another one with the file-ending “ttf”. What is the difference?

16. Is Windows Vista supported by Linotype Fonts?

17. Does Linotype offer Barcode Fonts?

18. How are the fonts delivered when I purchase them online at www.linotype.com?

19. The font I ordered does not display clearly when I look at it on my screen. What can I do?

20. What is the meaning of “OCR?”

21. I heard that the Adobe Type Manager is a discontinued product. What are the alternatives?

22. What is a Pi-Font and how do I use it?

23. How can I customize fonts on my MySpace Page?

24. I purchased OpenType, but received TFF. Why is that so?

25. What is the difference between STD, PRO and COM?

26. My Bold/Italic font is displayed as Roman/Light – why is this?

27. My fonts disappear after I restart the computer – what can I do?

28. Can I also use my fonts in Microsoft Office documents?

29. The sales tax was added on although I shouldn’t have had to pay any. What can I do?


1. I installed my fonts but only some of them appear in the Fonts menu. What happened?
Windows: Unlike on the Macintosh, font styles are classified in "families" under Windows. A type family can contain a maximum of four members, for example, regular, italic, bold and bold italic. One of these is specified as the default font. Only this default font appears in the Font menus of application programs. The three other variations are linked to the default font and are only activated by selecting the font styles "italic", "bold" and "bold italic", for instance, with the buttons in a MSWord window.

Example: You have installed Frutiger Light, Frutiger LightItalic, Frutiger Bold and Frutiger BoldItalic, however only Frutiger 45 Light appears in the font menu of the application program. Select the following settings in your application program in order to obtain the individual styles.

Desired font style: Font to be selected: Font style to be selected:
Frutiger 45 Light Frutiger 45 Light normal, regular
Frutiger 46 Light Italic Frutiger 45 Light Italic
Frutiger 65 Bold Frutiger 45 Light Bold
Frutiger 66 Bold Italic Frutiger 45 Light Bold Italic or Bold and Italic

Mac
Mac fonts can be organized by family but unlike under Windows, you can also organize them by their individual names. That is, you can access linked fonts with the style buttons, but you can choose as well a particular font directly from the fonts menue.



2. Using some fonts makes my program crash. How can I avoid this?
Contact the Linotype Support Team if you think there is a technical problem with your fonts.



3. My E-mail address has changed.
To change the email address you gave to Linotype go to the site “Change Personal Information” in the “My Account” area and simply overwrite your old e-mail address. Click the “Submit” button your e-mail will be changed.



4. I forgot my password.
Please contact us if you forgot your password. We are able to provide you with a new password, which you should then change the next time you visit Linotype’s Webshop.



5. I forgot my login name.
Please contact us if you forgot your login name. We are able to provide with a new login name, which you can then change the next time you visit Linotype’s Webshop.



6. I have inadvertently purchased a licence for the wrong version of a font. Can I change it?
As a general rule, yes, assuming that your order is not more than 30 days old. Simply buy the licence for the font you want to use. Send us both your new and your old order reference number and we will cancel the order placed in error. Your money will be refunded. Your new purchase must be of a similar product at a comparable price. You will need to delete the font you purchased by mistake as the licence for this font will be cancelled, meaning that you are no longer authorised to use it.




7. Can I still cancel my order?
As long as you did not confirm your order by clicking the “Submit Order” button within the ordering process, you can remove any font from your shopping cart by clicking into the trash symbol of the appropriate line.



8. I am a registered customer, but I get an error message when I try to sign in with my customer name and password? What can I do?
If you are unable to log in with your personal data, please contact us at [email protected]. We will check your data and provide you with information on how to get back into the system.



9. I live in Taiwan. Can I still order products from Linotype?
Of course. After the payment the fonts will be delivered directly to you by http download or e-mail. If you have Internet access, it is quick and easy to order fonts from Linotype from anywhere in the world at any time from the Linotype Webshop.



10. What is a font?
Traditionally (hot metal), a complete set of characters for one typeface at one particular type size. Today often wrongly used as a synonym for “typeface”. In fact a typeface like Helvetica Roman becomes a font when it is converted to a file format installable on a computer, then called e. g., Helvetica Roman PC TT. Fonts can have different formats (OpenType, TrueType, PostScript) and be for different platforms (Windows, Mac OS), and the organization of the file varies depending on both. Regarding the content, a font is a collection of graphic characters in digital form which is used for the production of electronic texts. These characters are usually, though not always, letters, numerals, punctuation signs, etc., and together they make up the character set of the font.



11. What is the difference between ordering different weights of a font and just ordering the regular weight and pressing the ‘Bold’ and ‘Italic’?
When you buy just one weight of a font and use the commands for bold, italic and bold italic in your word processor, you may or may not notice a difference on your screen. If you do notice a difference, it is because your word processor electronically altered the appearance of your font to look like a bold, italic or bold italic weight. The appearance of such electronically altered fonts, both on the screen and on a printout, can vary, and some printers will not print them at all. When you buy the bold, italic and bold italic weights of a font, you are buying the versions which have been designed, constructed and mastered to best work with the regular weight, both on screen and on printouts.



12. I found the font I would like to use as my company’s corporate identity. How do I have it customized and renamed?
Just contact us at [email protected] and we will discuss with you how we can best customize the font for you, complete with new name.



13. I installed my fonts, but I cannot find them. I use Adobe Indesign CS. What happened?
Adobe Indesign CS has a bug, which causes some OpenType fonts not to appear where they should be concerning the alphabetical order. Please scroll to the very end of the font selection. More often than not, these OpenTypes appear at the very end of the font selection. Version CS 2 has fixed this problem.



14. I use the German version of Adobe Indesign CS. When I click on “Kapitälchen”, even the capital letters become Small Caps. What happened?
In the English version of InDesign, the feature in the OpenType menu is called "all small caps" (all letters are changed to their small cap variant) while the button in the paragraph palette represents the feature “small caps” (only lower case letters are changed to small cap variant). There is a translation error in the German version of Adobe Indesign CS. Both features are translated to the word “Kapitälchen”, which means “small caps”.



15. I received an OpenType font with the file-ending “otf”, another one with the file-ending “ttf”. What is the difference?
The file-ending ““otf” is used when the font has PostScript outlines, while “ttf” (also used for TrueType Fonts) indicates that the font has TrueType outlines. Both formats are true OpenType formates having absolutely no impact on the quality of the font. The Unicode-typical extended character set is included as well as the standard Macintosh and Windows compatibility.



16. Is Windows Vista supported by Linotype Fonts?
Yes, all of our fonts have been tested and are compatible to Windows Vista.
Installing fonts under Vista is not much different from installing them under Windows XP:

1. Click on the Start button
2. Click on Control Panel
3. Click on Fonts (should you be unable to find them, change to classic view)
4. Drag & Drop the font file into the font list

You can now open up any application, select the font, and work with it.



17. Does Linotype offer Barcode Fonts?
We currently do not sell any barcode fonts, but our partner Fontware is offering several barcode fonts at www.fontware.com. Please contact Fontware directly, should you be interested.



18. How are the fonts delivered when I purchase them online at www.linotype.com?
If you buy fonts from Linotype, you can usually download them directly after payment (with the exception of physical goods such as CDs). You have the option to choose the method of compression required by your operation system. The files containing your fonts have to be decompressed with a program such as StuffIt Expander (available at www.stuffit.com). We use these compressed files to reduce the file size and increase the security of the file contents.



19. The font I ordered does not display clearly when I look at it on my screen. What can I do?
In most cases, this problem is related to the monitor resolution, which should be around 1600 dpi, depending in the type of monitor you are using.



20. What is the meaning of “OCR?”
OCR stands for “Optical Character Recognition” and is part of many Document Management Systems. OCR allows you to scan a page with font characters, which will then be displayed as text instead of a bitmap black and white image.



21. I heard that the Adobe Type Manager is a discontinued product. What are the alternatives?
Linotype has created an excellent Font Management Solution called Linotype FontExplorer™ X, which allows you to install, manage, purchase and activate fonts. Please have a look at our Linotype FontExplorerX web pages.



22. What is a Pi-Font and how do I use it?
A Pi-Font does not have any standard letters. Instead, it has symbols, decorative elements and images. For example, if you select the letter “a”, but the font does not have a letter “a” in its character set, an empty space is created and the letter is not displayed. Older TrueType and PostScript fonts solved this problem by using the symbols, elements or images for the standard letters of the keyboard. However, this led to major compatibility problems. As a result, OpenTypes do not have this function. In order to use Pi-Font in your documents, you need to open the glyph table and operate and select the font that way. If you use Microsoft Word, for example, select “Insert” from your menu. Next, select “Symbol” and “More Symbols”. Now you can select the font and see all the elements of the font displayed that you can use in your document. Take a look at our selection of various Pi-Fonts.



23. How can I customize fonts on my MySpace Page?
Changing fonts is one of the easiest ways to customize the profile and comment sections of your MySpace® page. But how do you choose which fonts to use? With thousands of fonts to choose from, the choices can seem endless. The first thing you will need to determine is which type of font you plan to use.

Using System Fonts
The most common method of customizing the fonts on your MySpace page is by using “system”fonts – or the fonts that come pre-loaded on most popular operating systems. Since most people will already have access to these fonts, you will not need to purchase any additional fonts or font licensing. To learn more about how to customize your MySpace page with system fonts, go here.

Using Non-System Fonts Through EOT Technology
Embedded OpenType® (EOT) is a compact font format designed for embedding fonts on Web pages. EOT fonts will need to be purchased and subsequently “hosted” at a domain of your choice. The advantage of using EOT fonts to customize your MySpace page is that you can choose from any of the thousands of fonts in the Linotype, Monotype, and ITC libraries. To learn more about how to customize your MySpace page with EOT fonts, go here.



24. I purchased OpenType, but received TFF. Why is that so?
There are two types of OpenType: TrueType OpenTypes, which end in .ttf, and PostScript OpenTypes, which end in .otf. Both OpenType versions have the usual Macintosh and Windows compatibility. In addition, both function without issue in current OpenType standard programs. The differences between the two types are evident when using older applications. Older Windows applications that can only work with TrueType can only use TrueType OpenTypes. The reverse is true for the PostScript OpenTypes. Older Macintosh applications recognize them, since they can only work with PostScript. Since the Macintosh software no longer pays any attention to the ending of the file, it was possible to assign the PostScript OpenType a new ending (.otf). However, Windows applications identify software by its ending, so TrueType OpenTypes must have the same ending as TrueTypes. In any case, when you open your file you will see that it is OpenType and that your operating system identifies it as such.



25. What is the difference between STD, PRO and COM?
The differences are related to language support. OpenType Std supports the Western European languages like German, English, French, Spanish and many others. OpenType Pro, on the other hand, not only supports the Western, but also the Latin-based, Eastern European languages – like Turkish, for example. When it contains a font, OpenType Pro also supports layout-specific special characters. OpenType Com supports the same languages as OpenType Pro, but also contains specific Office signs and letters, if the font contains them.



26. My Bold/Italic font is displayed as Roman/Light – why is this?
In general, fonts are grouped into so-called “families” in Windows. A font family can have up to four family members, e.g. Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic. One of these fonts is defined as the base font, which is the only one to appear in the menu of a program. The three other fonts are linked to the base font and can be activated by way of the styles “Bold” or “Italic” in the given program (e.g. in Microsoft Word).

An example: You have installed Frutiger 45 Light, Frutiger 46 Light Italic, Frutiger 65 Bold and Frutiger 66 Bold Italic. Frutiger 45 Light appears in the menu bar of your program. The other fonts do not appear, because you need to select them in the corresponding application area for the font style.

It is completely normal that Frutiger 65 Bold displays as Frutiger 45 Light – this is its family name. When you install this font along with Frutiger 45 Light, then you can select Frutiger 45 Light directly. When you want to switch to Frutiger 65 Bold, you have to click the “B” for bold. If you have not installed Frutiger 45 Light, Frutiger 65 Bold activates directly when you select the family name.



27. My fonts disappear after I restart the computer – what can I do?
This is a known error that occurs sporadically in Windows systems. Unfortunately, fonts are sometimes encrypted during installation so that they are no longer read after a reset. In this case, please proceed as follows: Delete the font, then restart your computer and install the font once more. After installation, go to your font folder and click on the font with your right mouse button. Go to “Properties” and click on “Advanced”. Look for the setting “Encrypt contents to secure data” – you need to deactivate this. When you restart your computer, the problem should be gone.



28. Can I also use my fonts in Microsoft Office documents?
The short answer to that question is: Yes, you can integrate fonts into Office documents and send them to someone. That person can open the document, but cannot modify it, since the font has not been installed on his or her computer. The long answer to that question would be that sending fonts in Office documents is not recommended. Many factors play a role here in the display of fonts on your computer – for example, other versions of Microsoft Office, a different configuration, a different operating system, etc. We therefore recommend that our customers convert their documents to PDF files and send them, since a PDF is a closed document and is a lot more reliable than an Office file.



29. The sales tax was added on although I shouldn’t have had to pay any. What can I do?
Please go to our website and update your account – simply log in and click on account information. Enter your sales tax identification number and the associated address. As soon as you save these entries, the information is sent to the revenue office of your country, which compares and confirms your data once more. This process takes only a few seconds. You are then informed of your new status. If you receive a red warning, your sales tax identification number was not accepted. In this case, contact the revenue office in order to verify your data. The problem may result from a typo or some other input problem. As soon as your account has been equipped with the correct sales tax identification number, enter your order again. Please take care that the sales tax is not listed when you send off your order. If this does happen, please send us an email, so that we can cancel your original order and refund your money. This offer is valid for 30 days after the creation of the original order. After this time, we are no longer able to cancel the order, unfortunately.