Embedding fonts

[Westat1]

I just created a pdf from a visio flow chart I create. One the receipts sent the text looked funny (arial) and that I needed to
"embed your fonts when you create a PDF" I am not sure what that means nor how to do it.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

[Marcia]

Westat, Microsoft was encouraging the use of embedded fonts a few years ago, but it never really took off. I'm not sure if what you're asking is the same thing or is peculiar to the application you're using, but you can find some information at Microsoft's site, at least as a starter.

[DiAMOndDavE]

Westat1,

The whole idea of PDFs if that the document you create looks exactly as you intended to the person you deliver it to. Well, that's the idea anyway but doesn't always work.

Scenario 1: let's say you sent the client a word document typed in the font Arial but the other person did NOT have Arial installed on their computer. The font would be substituted - perhaps to another sans serif face.

Scenario 2: If you now built the same document but saved as a PDF (portable document format) it would 'embed' the font into the document. This takes advantage of the PostScript driver contained on just about every desktop computer in the world and will create an "electronic format" of the document at the output stage.

I have heard of 2 problems with PDFs. The first is where you use a TrueType font instead of PostScript. Adobe invented PostScript and PDFs so do you think they wanted TrueType fonts (a Microsoft/Apple format) to be used? Let's just say they don't have quite the same degree of accuracy as PostScript fonts.

The second issue is where a document is created with the latest version 5 of Adobe Acrobat and the client only has say version 3 of Acrobat Reader. Some quirks happen here.

I'm sure other folks can add more to this...?
HTH - DiAMOndDavE

[SmallTime]

You can configure what fonts you want to embed in the document, which you want not to, or embed all. Obviously the more you embed, the larger the file size.

Settings are done in Distiller, or Pdfwriter, whichever you are using to produce the document.

[edit_g]

If there are version differences the viewer will usually prompt for an update.

[Lingerboy]

Here is some useful info concerning font embedding.....

[agfamonotype.com...]