2 ms·

Unless I'm missing something, if the fonts aren't embedded in the first place then it shouldn't make any difference. The text should be encoded properly so that

by aidos 4y ago

Unless I'm missing something, if the fonts aren't embedded in the first place then it shouldn't make any difference. The text should be encoded properly so that it can render now without the fonts (in which case we know which glyphs to use), the same will be true later.

Someone 4y ago
From what I understand, currently, if the font (actually: the parts of it needed to render the PDF) isn’t embedded, but you have the font installed, the renderer will use that font, an you’ll see the document as intended. When support is removed, the renderer will look for/guess at the best replacement you have installed. As the article says, that may have subtle or not so subtle differences. I don’t think it will be that bad, though. If you care, I think you’ll already have embedded fonts in your PDFs for decades, even for fonts that ‘everybody’ already has, because the probability that ‘my Font’ is exactly the same font as ‘your Font’ is fairly slim.
- actionfromafar 4y ago
  I don't have a dog in this fight, but this sounds to me like an optimistic view of people and their behaviour.
  - Someone 4y ago
    Your typical “save as PDF” will embed fonts nowadays. I think only professional (typically commercial, costing serious money) PDF writers have had a flag to NOT embed fonts in PDFs for decades.
- aidos 4y ago
  As you say, I feel like it probably doesn't really matter that much. If you're relying on a PDF rendering correctly based on an unusual local font then you're in trouble as soon as you send the document to another machine. If you have the Type1 font locally, you could always convert it. You could have a situation where your font has really weird cmaps and without that specific font the text becomes garbled. More likely, you can substitute it for another font and it's mostly fine. Keep in mind that the PDF standard has 14 base fonts that are used for a lot of documents that people send about. https://appligent.com/what-are-the-base-14-fonts/ https://appligent.com/what-are-the-base-14-fonts/

by aidos 4y ago

Someone 4y ago

From what I understand, currently, if the font (actually: the parts of it needed to render the PDF) isn’t embedded, but you have the font installed, the renderer will use that font, an you’ll see the document as intended. When support is removed, the renderer will look for/guess at the best replacement you have installed. As the article says, that may have subtle or not so subtle differences. I don’t think it will be that bad, though. If you care, I think you’ll already have embedded fonts in your PDFs for decades, even for fonts that ‘everybody’ already has, because the probability that ‘my Font’ is exactly the same font as ‘your Font’ is fairly slim.

actionfromafar 4y ago
I don't have a dog in this fight, but this sounds to me like an optimistic view of people and their behaviour.
- Someone 4y ago
  Your typical “save as PDF” will embed fonts nowadays. I think only professional (typically commercial, costing serious money) PDF writers have had a flag to NOT embed fonts in PDFs for decades.
aidos 4y ago
As you say, I feel like it probably doesn't really matter that much. If you're relying on a PDF rendering correctly based on an unusual local font then you're in trouble as soon as you send the document to another machine. If you have the Type1 font locally, you could always convert it. You could have a situation where your font has really weird cmaps and without that specific font the text becomes garbled. More likely, you can substitute it for another font and it's mostly fine. Keep in mind that the PDF standard has 14 base fonts that are used for a lot of documents that people send about. https://appligent.com/what-are-the-base-14-fonts/ https://appligent.com/what-are-the-base-14-fonts/