[OS X TeX] PDF translation (Mac->Windows) problems

[Christopher Allen]

Recently I've run into some problems when I send my .pdf files to  
Windows users. The biggest problem in identifying the problem is its  
inconsistency. I have one student running Vista who never has a  
problem reading any of the files I send. Another teacher has been able  
to read some but not others on the earlier (right before Vista, but I  
can't remember which that was) Windows. (Note, in his case every time  
he tries to update his Acrobat Reader and goes to check new updates,  
it looks like he still needs the same updates he just loaded.) Some  
others always have problems; some others never do. (And these are the  
same files, not different files each time.)

I use LaTeX with Tex+Ghostscript (because I've had better luck with  
PSTricks; PDFTricks had trouble reproducing some things) on TeXShop to  
create .pdf files. I use the default font. The problems, however, seem  
to be coming later. That doesn't seem to be the culprit, though.  
Typically I'm trying to send someone one chapter from a 50-page or 180- 
page lab book I've written. I open the book in Preview 4.1 on Mac OS X  
10.5.2. I then print to .pdf whatever pages I want and send that  
smaller .pdf file.

When an error occurs, the parts that are written in bold show up along  
with the general formatting. However, the rest of the characters show  
up as dots, as with option-8 on a Mac. Acrobat Reader says there is a  
problem with the embedded font.

Has anyone else seen this happen? Is there a known bug somewhere in  
all of this?

Thanks,
Chris