strange boxes showing up in PDF print and normal printing

I was attempting this fix, but I can't get the quartz package to install.

Running El Capitan v10.11.4

XQuartz-2.7.8

System is listed as MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

The download will mount the dmg. But, opening the dmg and double clicking the package to install Quartz it brings up a progress bar stating it is verifying. After 10 minutes, its still verifying. I brought down multiple versions and tried them independently and same thing.

I finally got XQuartz to install, there was a network interference at the office it seems, took it home and good to go.

Now, however, I can't follow your path, as it is not literal to what displays. Your instructions here I paste in...

- Copy the fonts that do not work into a folder for easy access.

- Start FontForge.

- Open one of the font suitcases ("File" - "Open", set the filter to "All Files"). You can then select one of the containing fonts (if there are more than one).

- Select the first of the fonts.

- Don't change anything in the font.

- Select "File" - "Generate Fonts...". Select "TrueType" in the dialog, press "Generate".

I get down to that last line and I select "File" - "Generate Fonts..." just fine. But where it says "Select TrueType in the dialog". There is no dialog. I can poke around to different locations and get the only window that mentions trueType at all, but that actually says TrueType Hints. But there is no dialog or other obvious drop down that lets me select TrueType.

Is there a step left out? Or what does a screen shot look like at each step.

My version of FontForge is newer, perhaps that is the reason, it is...

FontForge version 20160402 based on sources from 18:35 PDT 2-Apr-2016 git:94038cd93f463ae5020b722a518c65abc843a79a

Thanks, any help is appreciated. I have about about 42,500 files representing work back into the mid 1990s that use New Century Schoolbook. So I would sure like to know a solution to this. To put it another way, these are architectural specification manuals for the construction documents of about 340 buildings.

Thanks!

I had this problem after updating to El Capitan. It turned out I had old copies of some system fonts in my ~/Library/Fonts folder. The one that caused this problem was Times. Removing that font fixed it (the system already has an updated copy).

Another tip--go into the Font Book application and look for fonts with a caution symbol next to them. That often indicates you have more than one copy of the font installed. If you click the offending fonts and click the "Resolve Automatically" button, the system will remove the offending copy of the font for you.

I'm having a similar problem:

Some PDFs that I downloaded from the internet (i.e. electricity bills) are displayed correctly in preview, but when I try to print them or save them as PDF/Postscript from the print dialog box, the fonts are printed as boxes.

I tried to "Restore Standard Fonts..." from the Font Book, but it didn't find any errors and it didn't fix the issue either.

I bypassed the issue by downloading the latest Adobe Reader application and I was able to print the PDFs correctly using that.

The Preview still has the same issue so the problematic fonts are still there (either on my system or embedded on the PDFs).

Perhaps the Adobe Reader when it comes to font issues like this, it switches automatically to "Print The True Type as Bitmaps" to resolve it - I don't know...

It has an option to treat the whole PDF as an image when it prints it, but I hadn't it checked when I've got the results.

I hope this helps.

I have found the same problem as skesinis in that my electricity bills look fine on the screen but if you try to print them,all characters are replaced with squares. Also, if I edit the PDF i.e. insert some text such as when it was paid and then save it, the resulting pdf is corrupt.

I have tried a few things. One was to save the file from a Chrome browser and that still had the same problems. I then tried loading in Windows 10 and printed it from there and it was OK. Another test was to load it into PDFPen Pro 8. I then exported it as a PDF/A-1b file format. That file prints fine with no problems.

The last two options are not a suitable solution but they do work.

I also tried a number of options in Preview using different Quartz Filters but none of them worked.

I suspect it has something to with the embedded fonts in the PDF as it only happens from the PDFs from my energy provider and not from any others.

This doesnt work. Sorry.

What about the non standard fonts that worked fine with Yosemite and now show up as boxes.

Having the same issues with electricity bills however the boxes appear in preview, haven't even tried to print them. Are there any permanent fixes out there?

This problem just seems to have disappeared on my machine. (Now using Sierra). I think Apple must have fixed it.