I'm doing layout for a client at their office, where they have a Windows terminal running Adobe apps & Quark 6. The laser prints of the newsletter I've been putting together look fine, but in trying to print a PDF of the 8-page Quark doc, I'm getting a document in which everything's in place except for one font, which doesn't print at all.

Now, full disclosure: this is a font that I know perfectly well is expensive, and was surprised to find on their terminal (Neutraface - first version, all iterations [I think] ). It seems most likely to me that another part-timer left it behind as he whizzed through. So it won't surprise or disappoint me if I have to work around it (though boy, it does look snazzy). I don't understand Quark's behavior, though.

Quark doesn't stop me to tell me that there's a conflicting permission bit, and it doesn't put another font in its place – it just leaves blank space. Is this how "permission bits" work - that you can use the font for quick in & out stuff, bathroom signs, no problem, but it won't spin down to your actual workflow?

The other reason I'm surprised is that I took the project home last weekend and worked on it on my Mac, and generated a PDF (to send to them) that looked fine. At home I'm running Adobe CS2, with Acrobat 8.1.1; at this office they're running CS3.

So if it sounds like I'm just trolling for an explanation of how font companies are starting to protect themselves, that's not coincidental.