I was just perusing the latest issue of HOW Magazine this morning (I’m a little behind), which curiously, is all about type. When I came across this ad for Fonts.com:

They’ve run this ad several times in the past, and I never really paid much attention to it until this morning. Maybe it was because type was the subject of the issue, but I noticed how bad the kerning actually is on the ad. I sincerely hope the font was missing when this went to press because for a font company this is the worst display of kerning.

Sigh!

So why am I posting this? Because it’s a perfect example at what can go wrong with some of the simplest projects. Obviously, this is not what the font is suppose to look at on the sheet, and anyone (designer or not) can see that something is wrong here. The most likely culprit, the font wasn’t included in the PDF file, or the PDF file dropped the font. It happens from time to time! What’s the best way to catch this? Always check your proofs!