Beware of Faux Bold and Faux Italics

It’s so easy to just press that “b”

We all know that DTP is done with WYSIWYG applications. Aside from the colours of your images which might shift if you used the wrong colour mode or didn’t properly colour manage them, not considering the font reflows which happen if you don’t provide the font files to your printer and without mentioning those lines that don’t come up right because you chose the airline setting instead of a weight .25 pt, well… We all know that DTP is a WYSIWYG affair.

One of the little things that makes DTP quick is the fact that you don’t have to type <strong> word </strong> every time you want to make something bold, or you don’t have to type <em> word </em> whenever you want to make something italics, right? You just have to press that “b” or that “i” in your formatting/measurements whatever your palette/toolbar is called, correct?

You bunch of word processing corrupts!

If you want to have another instance of WYSINWYG just carry on using those evil shortcuts. The truth is that unless you have the bold and/or italics versions of those fonts installed that “b” and that “i” buttons will only deceive you by pleasing your sight and eluding your paper.

Before you, rightly, think that I am babbling along, let me explain what I mean: if the bold and/or italics versions of your font are not installed they won’t print, period. That’s it. Your program will fake your bold and/or italics making you believe they are there, but in actual fact they won’t print. So just beware of that and you’ll have an easier life. Trust me, there are more important things you need to have grays for in the DTP world.