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J
jackzuckerphotography
Participating Frequently
July 6, 2020
Question

Acrobat export to word (docx) not embedding fonts

  • July 6, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 7153 views

I am a music book author. My books are written in indesign with the music imported into frames as PDF files. I generate the PDF files from indesign using the package option and selecting to embed all fonts into the PDF files. I know the PDFs are correct because I sell the PDFs all over the world to users on android, iphone, mac and pc who don't have the fonts on their systems.

 

However, when I open the file in acrobat pro dc and export to docx, the fonts are not embedded into the PDF frames. See picture for details. On top is how is the docx file, on the bottom is the PDF.

 

i'm using indesign 15.1.1 and acrobat pro 20.0 (both latest versions according to creativecloud desktop

 

 

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1 reply

gary_sc
Community Expert
gary_scCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 6, 2020

Hi Jack,

 

It's not that the PDF is not exporting the fonts, it's that exporting into a Word document is not supposed to export the fonts. That would violate the copywrite of the fonts. The fonts are embeded into the PDF because that's the whole point of PDFs: digital printing. Imagine trying to print the documents from InDesign but not having the fonts show up on the printed page.

 

I have to admit that if you are converting the PDF to docx, why the Word version isn't picking up the music font from your computer I'm not all that sure of.

 

But just out of curiosity, why are you converting a PDF into Word? You have the original InDesign documents?

 

Oh, one other thought: is it possible that these fonts are ONLY supposed to work within InDesign (and in ID-created PDFs)?

J
jackzuckerphotographyAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 7, 2020

the reason I am converting from indesign to word is that I'm currently paying $60/month for the adobe products lease and just took a pay cut due to the Covid-19 economic downturn and can no longer justify spending that kind of dough on books that are in maintenance mode so I want to get them out of the proprietary format and into word. And no, the fonts have nothing to do with indesign. The fonts are part of finale music software and through the licensing agreement are able to be embedded in PDF files and other output generated by the tool.

 

And the point of PDFs is no longer just for printing. PDFs are used as a unversal distribution format for embedding, reviewing and commenting and in fact it makes no sense that if I do something with the following workflow, the embedded PDF graphics do not export the correct fonts into word: (note, this is not the primary one I'm using but by all rights, should work according to your explanation...)

 

  • Print my book
  • select print to pdf as the print driver (doesn't matter if I use the adobe or microsoft driver)
  • open acrobat dc pro
  • save to word document

 

I tried a test which was to take type some text in indesign and change the text to Finale's Maestro font. Then exported to PDF and opened that in acrobat, converted to word and the text comes in as times new roman. In this case, there is no embedding. Docx in word doesn't have the fonts embedded in it. They are there as references so there is NO reason it would not export the font name reference. I tried exporting to HTML and sure enough, the referenced font in HTML was times new roman.

Seems like a bug to me.

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
July 7, 2020

the problem isn't in the pdfs my music software is producing. As I mentioned before, I sell pdf versions of the indesign books with the embedded music all over the world to people who do not have finale's maestro font. The bug is in the export to word process within acrobat.

 

workflow is:

 

  1. Generate exercise {n} in finale, export to PDF
  2. create inline frame in indesign,
  3. right click in frame and "place"
  4. select previously created PDF, crop, resize, etc.
  5. package indesign doc for publishing or print to pdf
  6. open file in acrobat pro
  7. export to html or word, fonts embedded into graphic at step 1 are replaced with times new roman

 

Again, the fonts are embedded properly. I'm able to print with 3rd party print house and view pdf documents on my android, iphone, windows and mac without having the fonts on those devices.


Based on what you are describing as your workflow, I think I can see at least some of the problems here!

 

When you place PDF into InDesign and then export the content containing that placed PDF, the placed PDF isn't maintained as a separate, differentiated entity. When you export from PDF, the content that was PDF placed into InDesign does not maintain its identity as a PDF object placed into a Word document. To Acrobat, that sheet music looks no different than the text. The PDF export to Word process treats the music no differently than text since the music is composed of text characters using special fonts; the music is not a vector diagram.

 

You may not (want to) believe this, but I'm actually surprised that the exported Word document came out as well as it did even though it is practically useless to you as-is.

 

I think I know a practical workaround for you.

 

(1)    Make a “working copy” of the PDF file so that you don't accidentally lose something.

 

(2)    Using the Edit Text and Images function, edit out the actual music portion of the pages, leaving only the text.

 

(3)    Export the renaming content to Word and make appropriate adjustments. The places on the pages where the music was should be blank at this point.

 

(4)    For each of the original music PDF files you have from Finale, open in Acrobat and export as high resolution (at least 600dpi) monochrome TIFF files.

 

(5)    Import each of the resultant TIFF files to their appropriate location in the Word document.

 

(6)    Note that if you are running Word on MacOS and have absolutely no intention of opening those documents in Word on Windows, you can skip step (4) and in lieu of step (5), import the origianl Finale PDF files directly into Word. (Importing PDF graphics into Word on Windows yields low resolution and quality raster graphics).

 

Let us know if this helps at all.

 

Note that if you ever use InDesign again, don't ever “print to PDF” from InDesign. Use the direct PDF export feature of InDesign. It yields much higher quality PDF.

 

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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