I've recently inherited a brand which uses Avenir Next as its primary font. Looking through previous documents I have noticed the height of certain characters seem to be off, with the u being the most noticable.

enter image description here

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    What software are you using? Which software did you use to render that image? – Billy Kerr Jun 25 '18 at 10:24
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    And, more importantly, at what zoom size? Drawing text on the screen always distorts the font. (Unless your font happens to be drawn as a bitmap to start with. But even then it might.) If this is to be printed: do not worry about it at all. It's your screen. – usr2564301 Jun 25 '18 at 10:29
  • Is the u definitely in the same font as the other letters? Not a character with an unusual accent or something that has defaulted? You can test this by re-typing the word and seeing if it looks different. – Westside Jun 25 '18 at 13:38
  • Response to all - The font is Avenir, same size etc. This happens when zooming out in some software (InDesign, Acrobat). Retyping the word doesnt change the character. This is a screenshot. – Jack Jun 25 '18 at 14:48
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    Possible duplicate of Why do some letters look odd at 100% but not 200%? – zeethreepio Jun 26 '18 at 14:14

Avenir is a professional typeface family used by many, so its very likely that your copy may have been corrupted in some way. If the copy has been legally purchased this will not happen. You should check with whoever paid for this and make sure you have the right files.

  • We have a Monotype library subscription, so this copy was legally obtained :) – Jack Jun 25 '18 at 8:34
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    Still very unlikely to have this happening on Monotype. Make sure its not a preview issue or something related to your software. The font looks fine on their web preview: catalog.monotype.com/family/linotype/avenir-next. Ultimately, contact their support team. – Lucian Jun 25 '18 at 8:36

Adobe apps often use custom font rendering algorithms intended to work very fast to cope with complex documents. Unfortunately, they aren't always completely accurate. If this is the issue, a fix is to select View ▸ Display Performance ▸ High Quality Display. Although this will slow your computer down a bit, on modern computers for simple documents it's actually not much of an issue.


Use font-size unit pt instead of px and you'll get a more consistent and crisp result

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    Welcome to FD.SE! Why? Please explain better! – Mensch Nov 21 '18 at 19:10

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