Missing Fonts in a Letterhead

Pat is trying to make a letterhead document for her office. The document is simple, consisting only of text. However, Pat noticed that the fonts used in the letterhead (to get the look she wants) aren't available on all systems. If she sends the document to someone who does not have the font, then it does not look right. Pat wonders if there is a way to create a letterhead document that will look correct on other systems, whether they have the font or not.

There are a few approaches you can take to getting the letterhead to work properly. The first thing you should try is to embed the fonts used in the document. You can accomplish this by following these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Save tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Save tab of the Options dialog box.

3. Ensure the Embed TrueType Fonts check box is selected.
4. If your letterhead uses only a small number of characters in a particular font, choose the Embed Characters In Use Only check box.
5. Click on OK.

When you next save your letterhead document, Word includes the fonts used in the document in the file. Thus, when you share the letterhead with others, they will automatically have the fonts and the letterhead will look correct.

It is possible, however, that embedding fonts won't work in all instances. Some fonts are restricted, by their creators, in how they can be shared. If the creator has limited what can be done with the font, then embedding it won't really work. In that instance, you should consider changing to a different font that can be embedded in your document.

If changing to a different font is not possible, you might consider doing an "end run" around the whole font issue. You could create the textual portion of your letterhead in a graphics program, save it out as a graphic, and then add the graphic to your document in Word. As a graphic, it will print correctly, regardless of the machine on which you use it.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9737) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Missing Fonts in a Letterhead.