CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxpdffontspdf-generation
jelhan
jelhan

Reputation: 6338

Embed a font into PDF form

I have a PDF form generated by LibreOffice. Since to a known bug in LibreOffice only a font subset is embedded into PDF even when the font is used in form fields. Therefore the form is not usable or form fields are using a wrong front (depending on PDF viewer) if the font is not installed on computer.

So I have to replace form subset in PDF form by whole font after generation in LibreOffice. Normally using ps2pdf or gs is recommended to fix a font issue in a pdf. But both programs don't support PDF form. If using them on a PDF form the form fields are broken. I tested it with Ghostscript 9.10 under Unbunt 14.04 LTS.

I can use pdffonts to show fonts embedded in PDF. But is there also a command-line tool to embed another font into a PDF?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3033

Answers (4)

George Hopkins
George Hopkins

Reputation: 11

Until the bug gets resolved, you can use PDF Toolbelt to fix your forms.

After downloading the JAR file, the font of all fields can be reset to the default values of Adobe Acrobat:

java -jar ./pdf-toolbelt.jar form-font-defaults input.pdf output.pdf

Disclaimer: I'm the author of the above-mentioned tool.

Upvotes: 1

Petra Auwehla
Petra Auwehla

Reputation: 11

Libreoffice v5.2 embedding fonts for forms fields is easy:

Enable the font in the form field: () Right-click form field > Control > Font

Then tell your document to include the used fonts into its file: () File > Properties > Font tab > Embed fonts into document In my case filesize increases from 50k to 5000k (using one font with two styles).

At last check PDF options to include fonts into pdf: () File > Export to Pdf > General tab: x Enable Create PDF form (to make the form fields fill-in ready to the user). Not shure whether both of the following options are needed: x Tagged PDF and x Hybrid PDF: The later will enlarge pdf to the size of the LibreOffice file.

Upvotes: 1

David van Driessche
David van Driessche

Reputation: 7048

There are a number of commercial solutions that can fully embed a font in a PDF, if a commercial application is a viable option in your case (they will be expensive to "just" do this probably). The two major contenders are probably callas pdfToolbox (caution: I'm associated with this product) and Enfocus Pitstop.

Upvotes: 0

plinth
plinth

Reputation: 49179

This is just a workaround: place a text edit field on the page that is invisible and locked which contains a default string of your likely character set. While you will still get a subset font, it would be a substantially larger subset.

Upvotes: 0

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