Changing Fonts used in a PDF

[runninghead_design]

Hi,

I appreciate I may encounter reflow, etc but I was just wondering if anyone knows how to replace one font in a PDF with another?

I've seen a few articles on the web but so far none actually work.

Seems like it's a really obscure and unusual task!

Thanks.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

PDF is really a final form file format for which the ability to edit content is very limited.

You can use the text touch-up/edit function to change the font of text strings, one at a time, assuming (1) the font is installed on your system and can be embedded into the PDF file, (2) all the glyphs used with the original font are in the replacement font, and (3) you are willing to deal with likely changes in line lengths and line wrap. You should also be aware that any special pair or track kerning, ligatures, etc. may be lost since Acrobat's text editing is fairly simple (in other words, forget all those wonderful OpenType features you may have used in your layout program).

Generally speaking, other than for the simplest of text edits, you are better off going to the original source document (InDesign, Illustrator, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) and fixing the issue (in this case changing the font used) there and then subsequently regenerating the PDF file. That is most often the fastest, safest, and most reliable method for significant text edits, especially including changing of fonts.

          - Dov

[runninghead_design]

Thanks Dov. Good to know at least that this is not a thing Acrobat can do.

It's not possible to amend the PDF in AI (it would become unusable) nor do I have the original.
Got it from a client and just wanted to show them what it might look like if I changed to a different font, as per their request.
They'll just have to use their imagination

[Dov Isaacs]

Great use case, but alas difficult to do.

What you might do instead is copy and paste some of their text into a new InDesign, Illustrator, and even Word file and format it with the font they propose and let them see that, letting them use their imagination in terms of how it would look for the entire document.

          - Dov

[runninghead_design]

Hi Dov, sent a Message regarding a possible bug in Acrobat.

Some characters get replaced by odd ligature characters (eg- "f" and "i" characters become the "fi" character) in links.

Just a headsup in case that message fails to arrive.

[Dov Isaacs]

Got it and will respond off-forum via e-mail within the next day or so.

          - Dov