using same fonts on Mac and PC?

[Mr Downtown]

My biggest client has asked for my help in figuring out how the two of us (and another contractor) can all be using the exact same fonts so that we don't get asked for fonts when we open InDesign or Illustrator documents we've passed back and forth. The materials are all in Helvetica, which is of course a minefield for machines having a bunch of different versions installed, having conflicts with Mac OS, etc.

First, what format (OTF, TrueType, Type 1 or Type 3) fonts can be shared by PC and Mac? Will the names be exactly the same on both platforms, or will there be differences in spacing, capitalization, etc., that will trip us up?

[jdc]

All of them work with either OS.

[Randalls]

They are on the PC's? I used to do some cross platform. If they could send you the fonts they want to use you could use a good font manager like Suitcase and make a set specifically for their fonts. Test their fonts before hand obviously and use that set when you need it. You can check and see if there are any conflicts and suppress the fonts you do not want on in the utility. Think this would work, or at least it used to.

[ka jowct]

OTF fonts are compatible cross-platform. Anything Apple uses as a system font can be a problem, though. Not using Helvetica at all and using instead a similar OTF font would be easier: something like Neue Haas Unica Pro. You'd have to buy it, of course.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Exactly how many people does this involve, is this three people at three companies or 60 people that occasionally work on content and rotate in and out of design work? Is it worth buying a cross-platform suitcase of a set number of fonts?

Edit: It could also help to know a little about which apps are used, and the work flow.

[Mr Downtown]

I guess there are 6-8 people who might at some point want to open and make use of the Illustrator and InDesign files I maintain. I'm on Mac, the client folks are on PCs, don't know what platform the signage contractor(s) are on.

Main client contact and I supposedly both have Helvetica Neue from Linotype, but apparently his font names (on PC) have spaces and mine don't.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Wow, that's bad when your foundry screws up the font names. I'm tempted to post the Picard/Riker double face palm.

[C(-)ris]

Use OTF fonts, buy new versions and distribute the same .otf files to everyone.