Embedding text in a PDF file 1

[Lyell]

I'm working on my first job for a commercial publisher, so there may be a lot of things I don't know. I'm using a particular font on some artwork, but Idon't know whether or not the publisher has that font. So I think what I need to to is make sure the font is embedded.

I think the following paragraph is what I'm looking for, but I have read it over and over again:

Subset Embedded Fonts When Percent Of Characters Used Is Less Than (percent) Specifies when to embed the entire font (as opposed to just the characters used in the document) based on how many of the font’s characters are used in the document. For instance, if a font contains 1,000 characters but the document only uses 10 of those characters, you may decide that embedding the font is not worth the extra file size.

and I can't figure out whether I need to specify 100% or 0% to make sure the font is embedded.

I'm not quite sure I'm even looking in the right place. Feeling stupid and needing help!
[insert icon of someone drowning and waving frantically for help here]

 

[eugenetyson]

100% will only embed the glyphs that are used in the document.

So say for example, if you send the file the printer and you decide that there's a last minute change and you want a "%" sign included somewhere (or any glyph you haven't used) somewhere in the document. If the printer doesn't have this font, then they can't insert this change.

100% is ideal for most fonts, but fonts, like Kanji fonts or asian fonts, can have 10,000's of glyph characters.

So 0% will embed all the glyphs of the font. This can potentially increase the file size, as some fonts have only a 1000 glyphs, some have 10,000 or 100,000 glyphs and this will significantly increase your file size.

To recap

100% will embed only the glyphs used from the fonts.

0% will embed all the glyphs from the fonts.

You should note the restrictions on font usage too, as some type foundries don't allow the embedding of the entire font, for fear of the font being ripped off or stolen.


And if you're unsure if all the fonts or glyphs are used you can always send the printers the set of fonts that you have used.

You can usually do a File>Pacakage from InDesign or File>Collect for Output from Quark, that will package/collect all the fonts.


I've made 1000's of pdfs over the years and I've only ever used the 100% percent option, simply because you do only ever need to embed just the glyphs used. And, 9/10 times a printing company will refuse to make changes to a pdf that is supplied, so given this, they will ask for a pdf or a replacement for that page.

You can always set it to 0% but this will increase your file size, as all the glyphs are included.

Hope that helps.

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[Lyell]

Thank you -- it is most comforting to know my files are OK, and I've learned a lot.