Fixing Style Linking on a Retail Font

Adam King
Adam King Posts: 9
in Font Technology
Is there a way to FIX the style linking on a purchased retail font? When in a Microsoft application on a Windows PC, like Powerpoint, and you change the weight of the type to Bold using the "B" it selects the demi-bold weight of the font.

Another odd issue is that a user on a Windows PC doesn't even see the Bold weight in the font menu.

Comments

  • Paul Miller
    Paul Miller Posts: 273
    Does the font have a Bold weight ?
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,898
    edited August 2019
    Paul's question seems like a good check. Or whether the user has that Bold installed.

    Normally, a user on a Windows PC doesn't see the Bold weight in the font menu, if it IS style linked. At least, that's the classic Windows way of showing fonts, some apps do it differently nowadays. So that part doesn't seem odd at all.

    But that combined with the other thing... that is odd.

    And yes, it is technically possible to go in and surgically change the naming and style linking. It would involve unlinking the demi-bold and linking the bold in its place—modifying both of those files. Which in most cases with “purchased retail fonts” is not allowed by their license terms. So, I would contact the vendor/foundry/designer for support.
  • Adam King
    Adam King Posts: 9
    Yes @Paul Miller the font does have a bold weight.

    Thank you @Thomas Phinney for your insight. 

    The typeface is Avenir Next LT Pro, with a full complement of weights and widths, was purchased as a corporate-wide license. The reason I asked about fixing the style linking is that the foundry, has so far been unresponsive to any support requests.
  • Micha Mirck
    Micha Mirck Posts: 23
    I once had a client that had used a macro or a routine in VisualBasic to get the right font when using the bold-button or ctrl+B. 
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,898
    Unfortunately, Monotype/Linotype is one of those foundries that absolutely forbids font modifications. So you are out of luck, at least in what can be done legally.

    Also, in a corporate environment, this would be a tricky thing; you need to make sure every single copy is fixed. And there can be complications with outside vendors. So in cases when one can and does make a change, best to also tweak the family name. 
  • Artur Schmal
    Artur Schmal Posts: 74
    edited August 2019
    Families like Avenir or Frutiger don't necessarily follow the logic of a Regular weight linking to the Bold weight, so if the Regular weight (I'm assuming you are using the Regular weight) links to the Demi weight that might be exactly what the foundry intended.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,998
    Avenir has a regular and a medium. So regular is probably linked to demi and medium is is linked to bold. 
  • Gerry Kowarsky
    Gerry Kowarsky Posts: 3
    I can confirm James's surmise about the medium and bold weights in Avenir Next LT Pro. I obtained these two weights a few years ago in Monotype's Foundation Collection. I just installed them on a Mac, and the medium and bold weights are indeed style linked. It's been years since I used Windows, but perhaps the style linkage between medium and bold is the reason why the bold does not show up independently in the font menu. 

    I did not install the fonts before because the Mac came with its own version of Avenir Next (not LT Pro). This Mac version style links regular and bold. The contrast between them is unusually large. I prefer the linkage of medium and bold.

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