Why this font layouts differently between AE and Microsoft Word?

Question

I'm new to this website so I'll try to be as clear as possible.

I downloaded a font online and I want to use it in my AE CS6 composition. When I wrote something using this font, I noticed that it appeared differently from what was shown in the preview from the website.

I tried opening a Word document and write something using the same font, and I confirmed my doubts: the font is right, but AE shows it in a simil-italic style for un unknown reason. The images below show the difference between Word and AE.

The font is not equipped with an Italic version, and (as you can see from the screenshots) I wrote using the only option available: "Regular".

Do you know what may cause this issue? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This looks like you have the Faux Italic option activated. You can turn that option on and off using the switch at the bottom of the Character panel. Here's a screenshot of that panel with Faux Italic turned on.

You can use that option to simulate an italic (slanted) version of a font that doesn't come in that style. It's generally a bad idea to use this option, as it is subpar to an actual italic font style. The difference is that the italic style variant of a font-family is specifically designed for that purpose and differs from the regular style in more ways than just being slanted. The Faux Italics option merely distorts the individual characters, which can lead to unwanted artifacts such as illegible characters, altered grey values and aliasing.

Another possible cause of your distortion problem is any sort of distortion effect that is applied to the text layer or a superordinate adjustment layer, but I find that unlikely.