Convert fonts to type 1

[sPretzel]

Hi,

Is it possible to convert all fonts in a PDF file to Type 1 fonts? If so, how?

Thanks.

[Bernd Alheit]

Adobe Acrobat can't convert fonts.

[Dov Isaacs]

… and why would you want or need such a conversion? What format are the fonts currently?

          - Dov

[sPretzel]

Thanks Bernd and Dov for your replies. Interestingly, I read another thread and Dov's response in that thread in particular regarding fonts. TrueType font in printing

Part of my question may be due to some lack of understanding on my part on this topic. I have come to believe that Type 1 font is more "printer-friendly" or more robust at a printer, generally, than a TrueType font. Of course, that doesn't mean that the Type 1 font will encounter problems but that a Type 1 font is less likely to encounter a printing problem. The thread I mentioned debunks this idea.

That being said, I have noticed that printing a PDF file containing a TrueType font into another PDF file transforms that TrueType font into Type 1. I thought Acrobat can therefore convert a TrueType font into a Type 1 font and wanted to know if such operation can be performed on the initial PDF file without printing it to PDF again. Perhaps that question is still valid.

Any explanation and clarification will help. Thanks.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

OK. Thanks for letting us know what the thought process was.

(1)     As you have read from my “prolific” responses on these forums, font format is not the issue, but rather the quality of the font design and implementation. Type 1 fonts are no less error-prone for either printing or display than TrueType or for that matter OpenType in either of its TrueType or CFF (Type 1) flavors.

(2)     Unless you are printing to a truly ancient PostScript printer (at least over 10 years old and either PostScript language level 1 or some PostScript language level 2 implementations), PostScript and direct PDF printers directly consume TrueType fonts. Printing from Acrobat to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance under Windows (something called “refrying PDF”), for example, does not convert TrueType to Type 1. There are options in exporting PDF to PostScript in Acrobat on both MacOS and Windows for such conversion, but it is absolutely not recommended! Conversion of TrueType to Type 1 (or if one was to do the opposite conversion) is in fact a “lossy” conversion in which “hinting” for rendering at lower magnifications (combination of resolution and point size) is lost and rendering degrades accordingly.

As such, any font type conversions are really at best unnecessary and at worst very counterproductive.

Hopefully this answers your questions! Let us know if we can be of further assistance.

          - Dov

[sPretzel]

Hi Dov,

Thank you very much for this comprehensive response.

1- I couldn't edit my own post so this sentence should have read:

"Of course, that doesn't mean that the TrueType font will encounter problems but that a Type 1 font is less likely to encounter a printing problem."

2.1- In case there is a problem with a TrueType font during print, would the printer (the printing machine/system) or RIP notify the operator that there is a problem with the font or can such issue only be picked up during visual inspection of the printout?

2.2- I didn't understand what you meant by "Conversion of TrueType to Type 1 (or if one was to do the opposite conversion) is in fact a “lossy” conversion in which “hinting” for rendering at lower magnifications (combination of resolution and point size) is lost and rendering degrades accordingly." Does lower magnification mean to print the PDF to a smaller page size (and scaling accordingly) than the page size of the PDF?

3- Under what circumstances would "refrying a PDF" be useful? I am often told this is not recommended; I wonder why.

[Dov Isaacs]

1 — I assumed your correction was there already!  

2.1 — There is typically no difference between what a PostScript or PDF direct printer would do based on whether it is a TrueType or Type 1 font if there is a problem with a font. And what is done is printer model specific. If the device/RIP totally RIPs the file prior to imaging, you'll get an error message. Otherwise you may get an aborted job with partial printing. Again, this is implementation specific. And FWIW, if you can page through a PDF file on screen, it is exceptionally unlikely that you will have a problem printing the file in terms of font issues.

2.2 — Doesn't have to do with page size (PDF or printed) at all but rather, the printer's resolution and character point size. For example, loss of hinting information is more problematic at 600 dpi than at 1200 dpi and at a given resolution, more problematic at 10 pt text than at 14 pt text. Also, lack of hinting degrades quality more for decorative and/or serif fonts than for san serif fonts.

3 — There is no good use case for “refrying a PDF.” Some use this as a hack for flattening transparency or embedding fonts, etc. But all these functions are available natively within Acrobat. On the other hand, there are problems in this “refry” process. All color management is lost. All transparency is flattened (potentially losing the ability to search and modify text). All PDF tagging, accessibility, forms, hyperlinks, annotations, and bookmarks are lost. And finally, the PostScript generated is optimized for printing on a PostScript printer, not for conversion to PDF. Optimization for print yields PostScript that has fonts defined and downloaded in a manner that is not optimal for PDF creation and could result in encoding and optimization issues in the resultant PDF file. Enough already? 

          - Dov

[sPretzel]

Thanks Dov for the explanations, it's much appreciated. If Adobe has any documentation or application notes on the use/best practices and pitfalls of PDF in a printshop, please point me to them.

[Dov Isaacs]

I really wish we had such material, but regrettably, we don't. FWIW, occasionally I give talks / tutorials (typically 2 to 3 hours in length) on reliable PDF print publishing workflow at events such as Graph Expo (not this year) and other venues.

          - Dov

[KaiG]

Hi, Dov,

I have a pdf file and the font contained in the file is "CID TrueType", while I see others that have "TrueType", with encoding "WinAnsi" or "Identity-H". What is the fundamental difference between CID TrueType and TrueType? Is there any method that I can keep only TrueType in the pdf?

Thank you very much.

Kai

[Test Screen Name]

CID TrueType is a more powerful version of TrueType; think of it as OpenType. OpenType is really just a wrapper round type 1 or Truetype characters, same for CID. For example it can have more than 255 characters. Some apps will use them always; some will use them only if you use characters outside the Latin1 range (Western European characters). Sometimes it depends on the original type of font. In no case should it be a problem. UNLESS you have limited software that expects TrueType; there isn't really any way to support or help limited software like that.

[Dov Isaacs]

CID encoding is double-byte encoding typically used when fonts have very large character sets and character sets beyond simple ASCII and/or Western Latin.

What type of encoding is used for the fonts is typically determined by the application on the basis of what the application believes to be most efficient.

In Adobe applications, there is no way to specify one encoding or another (to eliminate CID-encoding, for example) or to change encoding after-the-fact in Acrobat.

          - Dov