Working with text and fonts in PDF files
You can determine how the text in your PDF file outputs by setting text and font options.
You can choose how text is encoded in a PDF file to accommodate the type of text your file contains and specific output requirements. For example, if you are creating a multilingual document that includes, English, German, and Japanese, choose the Unicode encoding option. Unicode is designed to support text characters from a wide range of languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. If you are creating an English or German document, ASCII encoding is commonly used. The default setting should work in most cases, but the type of software or hardware you are using to output your files can also influence which encoding option you need. For example, older raster image processors (RIP) may not support type that is defined in a Unicode format.
You can embed fonts in a PDF file, including PostScript base 14 fonts. Embedding increases the file size but makes a PDF file more portable, since the fonts do not have to reside on other systems. When you embed base 14 fonts, the fonts are added to your PDF file, thus eliminating font variances on different systems. The base 14 fonts are resident on all PostScript devices.
You can also convert TrueType fonts to Type 1 fonts, which can increase file size if there are many fonts in a file. When you convert fonts, you can reduce file size by subsetting fonts if you use only a smaller number of characters (for example, English characters A to E). You can also include a percentage of fonts used. For example, you can create a subset that contains 50 percent of the fonts. If the number of characters used in the document exceeds 50 percent, the whole set of characters is embedded. If the number of characters used in the document is less than 50 percent, only the characters used are embedded.
You can also eliminate font variances on different computers by exporting text as curves. For example, if you are using unusual text characters, you can export the text as curves. Exporting text as curves increases the complexity of the file and can increase file size. For general document publication, embed fonts in a document rather than convert text to curves.
To specify text encoding for a PDF file |
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ASCII — American Standard Code for Information Interchange. This format is generally more compatible with Latin-based languages than Unicode, but is not fully multilingual.
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To embed fonts in a PDF file |
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Enabling the Embed base 14 fonts check box increases file size, and, therefore, it is not recommended for publishing to the World Wide Web.
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To convert TrueType fonts to Type 1 fonts |
If you want to reduce file size, you can create a subset of fonts by enabling the Subset fonts check box and typing a percentage of fonts used in the Under% of charset box.
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If you create a subset of fonts, you should not edit or correct the PDF file by using Adobe Acrobat, because some characters from the font may not be present in the file.
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To export text as curves |