/t5/acrobat-discussions/fonts-missing-when-editing/td-p/11682178Dec 15, 2020
Dec 15, 2020
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I open a PDF document to edit it.
Teh whole document is written using AlbanyWTIC font. I try to edit and it switches to a Minion font. I try to select the AlbanyWTIC font and it is not available in the list of the fonts.
What a mess guys, what a mess!
Can you get something working smoothly instead of pushing out two dozens softwares each carrying a bucket of problems?
/t5/acrobat-discussions/fonts-missing-when-editing/m-p/11682853#M290587Dec 15, 2020
Dec 15, 2020
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One of the requirements for editing text within a PDF file using the font in which that text is formatted is that you must have a copy of that font installed on your computer system, regardless of whether the font is embedded in the PDF file. (There are both legal and technical reasons for that!)
Thus if your PDF file's text is using the AlbanyWTIC font, then in order to edit that text in Acrobat, you need to have the AlbanyWTIC font installed on your system. If you don't have that font installed, it will switch to a default font.
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
/t5/acrobat-discussions/fonts-missing-when-editing/m-p/11682853#M290587Dec 15, 2020
Dec 15, 2020
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One of the requirements for editing text within a PDF file using the font in which that text is formatted is that you must have a copy of that font installed on your computer system, regardless of whether the font is embedded in the PDF file. (There are both legal and technical reasons for that!)
Thus if your PDF file's text is using the AlbanyWTIC font, then in order to edit that text in Acrobat, you need to have the AlbanyWTIC font installed on your system. If you don't have that font installed, it will switch to a default font.
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Now believe it or not I could not find that font anywhere: I have checked any other reasonalble application I had on my laptop (Adobe/MicrosoftOffice/Corel), nothing!
I ended up downloading it from a website, installing it then shutting down and on again adobe and it was finally there.
My question would be: if Adobe has recognized a font and formatted the text following that how comes it cannot show it in the list of available fonts?
I couldn't find a font by that name (Albany WTIC) anywhere. Where did you find it? Was it truly a “free font” that you were able to download? Many fonts available on the web are actually pirated.
In any case, if your PDF file has a subset of the font embedded within it, Adobe Acrobat and other PDF readers can display the text using that font. But as I previously wrote, the fact that the font is embedded in the PDF file is not sufficient to allow it to be used for editing. The font must actually be installed on your system for that purpose.
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
This particular font file originated from Agfa-Monotype and you have no right to install and/or use it either personally or commerically.
Interestingly enough, the font is setup to totally disallow any font embedding. I suspect that the PDF files you received used a different version of this font (one that allowed embedding) or a different PDF creator (that ignores embedding restrictions).
Sorry! 😞
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Well, it means I will have to remove it from my machine...
Embeddable or not it worked for me!
As a kind suggestion I would invite Adobe to find a workaround for that "ghost" font issue: if it is reproduced on the editable pdf either it should be available for use or it is not reasonable to leave the user "in underpants"; all the user wants is just editing the pdf in a consistent manner without a different font from the one that is already detected and reproduced.
Sorry, but there are both legal but more importantly some very severe technical issues why we cannot use the embedded font for editing (modifying and/or adding) existing text in a PDF file.
- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
I fully agree Dov and I understand where Adobe comes from in relation to that.
At this point I would love having a compatibility check when opening the file and the possibility to pick a font that is really available on my installation to be used!
I believe many users do not buy an Adobe license to put flowers and drawings on the pdf documents but rather to edit them in a decent manner.
Anyway, that's adobe's choice, I can just chip in with my customer's voice to express unsatisfaction with something that wasted 2 hours of my time yesterday...
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