How do I embed a Courier font into an existing PDF

Report · Apr 24, 2025

I have Adobe Acrobat Standard

Report · Apr 24, 2025

Hello Steve!

I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out to us.

In Adobe Acrobat Standard, you have the option to embed fonts into a PDF. However, it's important to keep in mind that not all fonts are embeddable. This includes certain versions of the Courier font, which may have licensing restrictions. If you want to try embedding the Courier font into an existing PDF, here’s how to do it:

Open your PDF in Acrobat Standard.
Go to File > Properties.
Click the Fonts tab.
- This will show you the fonts currently used and whether they’re embedded.

If Courier is listed but not embedded, you’ll need to print the PDF to Adobe PDF to force embedding:

Here's how:

Go to File > Print.
Select Adobe PDF as the printer.
Click Properties next to the printer name.
Under Adobe PDF Settings, make sure "Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts" is unchecked.
Also, under the same settings tab, make sure "Embed all fonts" is checked.
Save the new PDF.

Embed Fonts Using Preflight: (Acrobat Pro only)

- Open the Preflight tool by going to Tools > Print Production > Preflight.
- In the Preflight dialog, select PDF Fixups.
- Choose Embed missing fonts and click Analyze and fix.

To learn more, see this Adobe article: How to Embed Fonts in a PDF | Adobe Acrobat

This process often forces Acrobat to embed fonts—including Courier—if they're installed and embeddable on your system.

Note: If Courier still doesn’t embed, it might be due to font licensing. In that case, you can try using Courier New or another fixed-width font with embedding rights, or recreate the PDF using a program like Microsoft Word, where you can control the font embedding more directly before converting to PDF.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.