How-to

B Y T E R I PAT R I C K & TA M I S N O R D L I N G • I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y R O B E R T Z I M M E R M A N

Packing Light. Using Acrobat’s font

features to create PDFs that travel well
The hardest part of getting ready for a trip is volved. Due to space constraints, we won’t be able to
often packing—you want the comforts of home with review the specifics of how you use these features, but
you on the road, but you don’t want to have to lug these steps are well explained in the PDF files in the
those comforts around with you. What you do and Help folder within your Acrobat folder.
don’t bring will surely depend on your personal priori-
ties, where you’re going, and how you’ll get there: if Why pack a typeface?
you’re going car-camping, you could probably cram Before we get into a detailed explanation of Acrobat’s
half your kitchen into the back seat specific font options, let’s go over why this is worth
and whip up some first-class discussing. Why do you need to put a typeface in a
meals en route. But if you’re PDF file?
backpacking, you’d be bet- If you’ve had the chance to work with various files
ter off learning to be cre- from people working on other systems, you’ve prob-
ative with a single knife, ably seen what can happen if you don’t have the same
a fork, and some freeze- typefaces they used to lay out a document. Depending
dried rations. on the program and your setup, you might have re-
Every time you turn a docu- ceived an alert message about a missing font. Or your
ment into a PDF file, it’s a bit like software may have automatically assigned a substitute
packing for a trip. If that PDF will typeface—perhaps one that wasn’t at all similar to the
be traveling extensively original—that significantly changed the layout by
via the World Wide altering line endings and column breaks, not to men-
Web, you probably tion the general look and feel of the document.
want it to stay as un- These problems are exactly what Acrobat is de-
encumbered by nones- signed to solve. Acrobat lets you turn your documents
sential data as possible, into PDF files that anyone on any system with Acrobat
so it’s easy for others to Reader or Exchange can view with their original layout
download. If it will be pub- intact. The text itself can display either in the original
lished on CD-ROM only, the typeface or in a simulation of that typeface.
PDF file can probably stand to The key to understanding how Acrobat handles
carry a little more data. typefaces is simple—you have three basic choices. You
Fortunately, Adobe Acrobat can do any one of the following to each typeface you
gives you a lot of flexibility in how want to use in your PDF file:
you “pack” your PDF files, and offers • Pack (embed) the entire typeface in the PDF file
compression features that let you in- • Embed just the characters you’ve used from that
clude quite a lot of data in PDF files with- typeface (this is called subsetting)
out making them unwieldy. One of the most • Not embed the typeface at all
powerful sets of tools it offers for this is its font- Each option has a different effect on typographic fidel-
handling capabilities. Acrobat will let you pack as ity, the size of the PDF file, and how easy it is to edit
many or as few of your typefaces as you really need that PDF file later.
in the PDF. Understanding these features will help you
produce compact PDF files that still offer as much Embedding a typeface
typographic fidelity and editing flexibility as you need. There are several benefits to fully embedding a type-
What follows is an overview of what these options face in a PDF file. First, you get maximum typographic
do, when to use them, and the trade-offs that are in- fidelity—your text will appear in the PDF file exactly

Adobe Magazine | Winter 1998 41

How-to
as it did in the original document, regardless of which Exchange and Reader and therefore should be avail-
typefaces are installed on the system that’s used to able on all systems with those applications, so there’s
view the PDF file. no need to embed them.
Fully embedding a typeface also gives you the most
flexibility for editing the PDF file later in Acrobat Ex- Subsetting a typeface
change (version . comes with a TouchUp plug-in Subsetting is a great option if you need maximum
that lets you edit individual lines of text under certain typographic fidelity with minimal impact on file size.
circumstances). If you open the PDF file on a system If you use only a few characters of a given typeface
on which the embedded typeface is available, you’ll (you’ve italized a couple of words—or used a unique
be able to make any changes to individual lines of text font for a few short headings), you can embed in a PDF
without altering the typeface in which those lines dis- file only the characters you’ve actually used. When you
play and print. If you want to edit the PDF file on a do so, Acrobat embeds an abbreviated version of the
system that doesn’t have the embedded typeface in- typeface in the PDF file. As with full embedding, any
stalled, you’ll receive the alert “Warning: This embed- subsetted typefaces will appear exactly as the original
ded font is not installed on your system. To edit text typeface, regardless of what typefaces are installed on
in this font you must unembed the font. Unembed the system on which the PDF is viewed.
the font now?” By clicking Yes, you can edit the text, Subsetted typefaces can take up far less space in
which will be unembedded thereafter. In other words, a PDF file than a fully embedded typeface does. If you
it will be simulated with Adobe Sans MM or Adobe embed less than  percent of a typeface (Acrobat’s
Serif MM on any system that doesn’t have the original default), it will probably add between  and  k of
typeface installed (more on how that works later in data to your PDF file, depending on the typeface and
this article). how many characters you’re embedding.
The trade-off for the typographic fidelity and editing The trade-off with subsetting is that it can make
flexibility you get by fully embedding a typeface is file editing a PDF file later a bit more complicated. If you
size. Every time you fully embed a typeface, you’ll add try to edit text in a subsetted typeface that’s not in-
between  and  k to your PDF file— to  k for stalled on the system you’re using, you won’t be able
most typefaces. That might not sound like much, and to edit the text at all. If the typeface is installed on the
it isn’t if you’re not using many typefaces. But remem- system you’re using, Acrobat will let you edit the text
ber that every time you use a different style variation by using the installed typeface. But any text you add
on a typeface (such as the italic or bold variation), will be in an unembedded typeface, so it’ll display as a
you add another full-fledged typeface to your file. The variation on Adobe Sans MM or Adobe Serif MM if the
same goes for multiple-master instances—each is PDF file is later opened on a system that doesn’t have
treated as a separate typeface by Acrobat. the original typeface available. For example, say you
Note: If you’re planning to embed fonts in a PDF have the text “Your carry-on baggage should fit . . .” in
you’re creating from an Adobe Illustrator . file, don’t a subset of Garamond, and you try to edit it on a sys-
use the save-to-PDF option (it never embeds fonts). tem that has Garamond installed. If you change the
Instead, use PDF Writer to make text to “Your carry-on baggage must fit . . . ,” the word
must would not be in the Garamond subset. If you
later viewed the PDF on a system that didn’t have
Garamond available, the word must would appear
as a simulated version of Garamond.
Subsetting presents an-
other potential complica-
tion for PDF file editing. If
you combine several PDF
files that all contain sub-
sets of the same typeface,
Acrobat stores all the sub-
sets in the combined PDF.
You could end up with
redundant subsets—and
the PDF or create a Post- a larger PDF than you would have had if you had fully
Script or EPS file of your il- embedded the typeface.
lustration and then process it PDF Writer will subset a typeface if you’ve used less
through Acrobat Distiller. than  percent of its characters (approximately 
You should also be aware that Acrobat never em- characters in most roman typefaces). If you’ve used
beds Times, Helvetica, and Courier (or their bold, bold- more than that amount, it will fully embed the type-
italic, and italic variations), or Symbol and Zapf Ding- face. If you want to change the percentage threshold
bats. These typefaces are always installed with Acrobat at which your fonts get subsetted, use Acrobat Dis-

42 Adobe Magazine | Winter 1998

 How-to
tiller to create your PDF file instead. In the Font Em-
bedding section of Distiller’s Job Options dialog box,
you can adjust that threshold setting. (But we recom-
mend that you use the default  percent threshold
unless you’re doing something unusual.)

Not embedding a typeface

Acrobat gives you a third option for each typeface— edited, use
you can not embed them at all. subsetting
When you don’t embed a typeface, Acrobat adds to to take ad-
the PDF file some basic descriptive information about vantage of
the typeface, including its height, weight (thickness), the file-size
and spacing characteristics. Later, if that PDF file is savings that
viewed on a system that has the original typeface in- it offers.
stalled or available, Acrobat will display the text in • If you think the PDF
the original typeface. file will need to be edited, avoid subsetting your
If the system doesn’t have that typeface installed, typefaces. Choose full embedding if typographic
Acrobat will simulate the original typeface. To do so, fidelity is a priority; otherwise, don’t embed your
it uses one of two special multiple-master typefaces, fonts at all.
Adobe Serif MM (if the original typeface had serifs) or
Adobe Sans MM (if the original was a sans-serif face), Other traveling tips
and, based on the original typeface’s description em- Here are a few other things you can do to ensure that
bedded in the PDF file, adjusts the weight and width your PDF files stay as easy to transport as possible,
so that it matches the original typeface as closely as even if you want to embed fonts.
possible and positions the characters so the layout • If you add or replace PDF pages in Acrobat Ex-
will be preserved exactly. change, be sure to optimize your PDF files (in the
Not embedding typefaces can have some significant Save As dialog box, select Optimize). When you
benefits. First, it keeps your PDF file sizes to an abso- optimize your file, Exchange weeds out redundant
lute minimum. For each typeface you use in a PDF file images and page backgrounds—but not font sub-
but don’t embed, you add only about . to . k of sets, as we mentioned earlier.
data (for the typeface’s descriptive information). And • Whenever appropriate, save your PDF files with
it’s easy to edit text in a nonembedded typeface— Acrobat . Compatibility selected (this option is
whether or not the original typeface is available, you in the General section of Distiller’s Job Options dia-
can edit individual lines in the simulated typeface. log box or PDF Writer’s Compression dialog box).
The trade-off with not embedding fonts, of course, This allows Acrobat to use a more sophisticated
is typographic fidelity. The simulated typefaces gener- compression method than the one compatible with
ated from the Adobe Serif MM and Adobe Sans MM Acrobat .. However, don’t choose Acrobat . com-
typefaces can make excellent facsimiles of many type- patibility if you think anyone will need to view your
faces. But the individual characters never look exactly PDF file in Acrobat ..
like those of the original typefaces, and can look sig- • Keep the Compress Text and Line Art option se-
nificantly different from those of decorative or highly lected (it is by default) in the Compression section
stylized typefaces. of Distiller’s Job Options dialog box and the PDF
Writer’s Compression dialog box. This form of com-
Packing strategies pression has no negative side effects that we’re
So just how many of your typefaces should you pack? aware of and is particularly effective on text-heavy
Should you embed, subset, or not embed your fonts? It documents that don’t have a lot of font changes.
depends on where and how your PDF file will be travel-
ing. Here are some rough guidelines. Bon voyage
• If your PDF will be distributed via the Web, e-mail, Packing always involves trade-offs. If you want to
or any medium in which small files perform much travel light, you can’t bring your entire Fonts folder—
better than large ones, consider not embedding your or your entire closet. But such compromises have their
fonts or subsetting only decorative or stylized type- rewards. If you’re smart about what you pack, you’ll
faces that you’ve used sparingly (as in headlines). travel with ease and you’ll look good. ◆
• If the PDF will be used in such a way that a relatively
large file size won’t be a problem (if it will be distrib- Teri Patrick lives in Sunnyvale, Calif., where she’s the
uted on CD-ROM, via an intranet that offers fast digital publications manager for Coptech West (www.
download, or via a network), you might as well opt coptech.com) and produces digital publications for
for the typographic fidelity of full embedding or sub- CD-ROM. She can be reached at Epubs@Coptech.com.
setting. Unless you think the PDF will need to be Tamis Nordling is the editor of Adobe Magazine.

Adobe Magazine | Winter 1998 43