Fonts in PDF

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miker
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Finale Version: Finale 27.4
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Post by miker » Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:37 pm

Is there a difference in how fonts are embedded when you export as a PDF graphic, or by printing to PDF with the Mac print command?

Will a discrepancy show when viewing the PDF, or only on printing?

I had someone on Windows tell me that he got the funny characters when printing my document.
Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
Mac OS 13.2.1 Ventura
Copyist for Barbershop Harmony Society


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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:50 pm

I recently found a difference between using the Windows print to CutePDF option TrueType Font = "Substitute with Device Font" and "Download as Softfont" (difference was on the screen; didn't try physical printing).

BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:36 pm

I have heard someone say that Finale's Graphic Export doesn't always embed fonts [+/- properly].

I commend the Adobe PDF specification documentation to any insomniacs out there. Font embedding, subsetting, encoding and substitution is a lengthy topic.

However, I can certainly vouch that MacOS's font embedding is pretty reliable and conforms to spec.

If you send me a copy of the offending PDF, I'll give it the once-over.

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miker
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Post by miker » Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:08 pm

Sent. Thanks, BT.
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Copyist for Barbershop Harmony Society

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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:20 pm

If the Mac OS's PDF thing has options, check those.

BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:47 am

motet wrote:If the Mac OS's PDF thing has options, check those.
No: MacOS makes one flavour of PDF: Version 1.3, fonts embedded. Because the OS's graphics engine is almost PDF to start with, wrapping the data up in PDF is a minimal conversion.

These sorts of issues are why I still output as PostScript, and then run through Distiller. PostScript is, if you like, a subset of PDF that is entirely geared towards printing, so anything that can't be printed will get squished into something that can. (Or the problem will be made very apparent...) And of course Distiller lets you configure the type of PDF.

I've got GhostScript as a backup for when Distiller no longer works.

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