[ms office - 2016] Print mismatches print preview when using certain OTF (PostScript Outlines) fonts

[karlr]

We have an Office 2016 roll-out scheduled for the summer, and have installed it on some select machines to gather feedback from staff on any problems. One problem we've had reported is documents not printing "WYSIWYG" - that is, the layout isn't quite right, and printed text may appear on the previous/next page when compared to the print preview.

 

I have attached an image demonstrating this behavior - note that in print preview the last number on the first page is 31, whereas it ends at 32 in the PDF. Printing the document results in the same output as the PDF, which I believe is the "correct" layout.

This is on word 16.0.4639.1000, volume channel, latest updates installed through WSUS as of 22nd June 2018.

 

After doing some research it appears that this is something that people have been encountering problems with for several years, but Microsoft still haven't been able to resolve despite attempts at fixes. Specifically the issue seems to present when using certain OpenType fonts (with PostScript Outlines). For example, we use "Helvetica Neue LT Standard 55 Roman" as our default font per our brand guidelines. The issue does not present if using a standard Office font, e.g. Arial.

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_win10/bug-word-2016-fails-to-print-margins-correctly/22b484d4-f808-42e1-a2c0-b04de305edb3

https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/10992303-word-2016-fails-to-print-margins-correctly-messe?page=1&per_page=20

 

There do appear to be some workarounds available, for example forcing compatibility mode and enabling the "Use printer metrics to lay out document" however this may well cause additional side effects and could be a difficult setting to deploy, especially when it comes to existing documents.

 

Is anyone else encountering this issue? Are you using Office 2016 successfully with purchased fonts? this older topic seems to describe the issue.