In order to minimize file sizes, can we assume that certain fonts are standard (such as Times Roman, etc.)?
A. Minimizing file size is important, but takes second place in a trade-off with universality in viewing technical content such as the IEEE publishes. To ensure that the IEEE has an “archival” copy of an electronic file, the file must be able to stand alone without assumption of what fonts might be standard in the viewing software. There is a definite need to embed and subset all the fonts that an author might use. Experience shows that we may not assume that the global community of authors submitting manuscripts to IEEE conferences uses a constant, standard set of fonts. Even in Microsoft Word, for instance, base fonts vary from one version to another, varying in some cases by global region (the so-called “Asian font problem”). If font options are selected as displayed in 2.3 of the requirements (“Font Options”), that submission should be compliant.
