Embed custom font in PDF file
I inserted text into a PDF document with Preview in a custom font I had installed on my Mac. When I transferred it to my iPad and opened it with Notability, to my horror all the text had been removed. When I opened it in PDF Expert, it was there but the font had reverted to Helvetica. Naturally this isn't something I want, as I expect the recipient to see exactly what I'm seeing in a PDF file.
I presume this happened because Preview wasn't embedding the font into the PDF (although strangely the file size became significantly larger, suggesting that it had). What am I doing wrong, and what's the correct way to embed a font that you use in a PDF file?
Solution 1:
It appears as though to embed a font in Preview (or at least to ensure that it shows up on an iPad when the iPad does not have the same font installed), you need to perform the following:
- Go to File > Print...
- Click PDF on the bottom let, and click Save as PDF
- Save as a new PDF file
The new PDF file will have the font correctly embedded in it. You may also be able to export as a PDF (again) directly from Preview, although I have not tried this.
The reason that it doesn't get "embedded" upon saving likely has something to do with the text fields staying editable in the PDF. Once you export the PDF, you are unable to edit the text fields any longer in Preview, but the fonts are embedded.