Managing Font Resource Problems
One of the biggest hindrances to a successful file conversion is the lack of required resources. Missing resources include formdefs, character sets and code pages, but most commonly missing are fonts. And missing fonts result in the failure of the conversion or the incorrect representation of the output due to substitution. There are a number of ways to address font resource problems. A production person would simply run the conversion, then make an analysis of the error messages produced and systematically eliminate these messages one by one. Another approach is to initially analyze the input file to extract the complete list of resources needed and then insure all are available for the conversion.
However, another faster and more operationally practical path is to be found in the DocBridge Mill. DocBridge Mill reads the input file, identifies the missing resources and creates a template for the configuration file. To utilize this functionally, simply run "cpmcopy" with the parameter "fontentries". An example is:
cpmcopy -i <input file> -o <output file> ... -fontentries fontlist.xml
The result from this run, contained in the file “fontlist.xml” is a complete list of the font resources required by the input file in a format which can be used directly by the DocBridge Mill configuration file (mff profile). The user needs only add a reference to the physical resources (file and path).
Using this approach assures that all required resources are listed and are syntactically correctly specified in the configuration.