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magdalenas68667772
Participant
March 16, 2020
Question

fonts in Acrobat forms

  • March 16, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 578 views

When I design a form what fonts should I use (in text fields) to be sure that users of the form will have the same view of it? I mean if f.ex. I'll use Open Sans or some fancy bought one, it will be replaced if somebody doesn't have the font, right?

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    2 replies

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    March 16, 2020

    I can't agree with the recommendation setting Arial for form fields in particular. It's no better than any other font. Here's why

    - there are a "base 14" fonts which a viewer MUST support or supply or do something sensible with. These are the Helvetica, Times-Roman and Courier families. Not any similarly named font! These are at the top of the font list. These fonts don't have to be embedded so they make the smallest file. If you like Arial, then use Helvetica.

    - all other fonts, without exception (except some Chinese, Japanese, Korean fonts) MUST be embedded - the whole font. This means everyone will see the same font, whether they have it or not. Arial is a pretty big font so it will add a fair bit to the file size.

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    March 16, 2020

    PS this discussion applies ONLY to form fields. Text in annotations and on pages has entirely different rules!

    M
    magdalenas68667772Author
    Participant
    March 16, 2020

    Yes, I asked only about form fields. Thank you very much!

    P
    ProlificUser
    Participating Frequently
    March 16, 2020

    Arial would be the most preferable one. Most of the usual fonts are available in everyone's systems. An unusual font might not render the document properly for people who do not have that particular font in their system. 

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