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A
Anonymous
August 28, 2015
Answered

I want to use adobe sans mm in editing a document

  • August 28, 2015
  • 3 replies
  • 119278 views

Hi all,

I'm trying to edit a document but get a warning that the font adobe sans mm is not available on my system. It appears all the text in the document has been created in that font. It uses an alternative font, but not one that resembles the original at all. I would like a closely matching font, or even better just be able to use adobe sans mm. Otherwise, you can see my amendments if you look closely. I've found an arial font that will do as a substitute but want to do better.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

    Correct answer Bo_LeBeau

    Adobe Sans MM and Adobe Serif MM are fallback fonts that Acrobat uses whenever a font is not embedded in a pdf.

    These fonts are Multiple Master fonts that only exist within Acrobat and are not available at the system level.

    According to Dov Isaacs at Adobe, you must have a font actually installed in your system to be able to use it to edit a PDF.

    Think of these as virtual fonts that don't actually exist on your computer, so therefore they can't be used to edit a PDF.

    You can see them and you can print them, but you cannot access them.

    The only exist within Acrobat and only come into play as a default font that Acrobat utilizes whenever the actual font that was used was not embedded.

    (Multiple Master fonts never really became popular and are no longer produced. They have been superseded by OTF open type fonts)

    3 replies

    Hazem365
    Hazem365
    Participant
    August 30, 2020

    Sorry if this is a bump or reply is too late. Both AdobeSansMM and AdobeSerifMM may be indeed Metric Master fonts. However they may be converted to installable OTF files via any free font editing tool eg. FontForge. Then they can be installed into your computer and used in any document as you please. 

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    August 30, 2020

    Yes but that surely violates Adobe's licensing. 

    B
    Bo_LeBeauCorrect answer
    Participating Frequently
    August 30, 2015

    Adobe Sans MM and Adobe Serif MM are fallback fonts that Acrobat uses whenever a font is not embedded in a pdf.

    These fonts are Multiple Master fonts that only exist within Acrobat and are not available at the system level.

    According to Dov Isaacs at Adobe, you must have a font actually installed in your system to be able to use it to edit a PDF.

    Think of these as virtual fonts that don't actually exist on your computer, so therefore they can't be used to edit a PDF.

    You can see them and you can print them, but you cannot access them.

    The only exist within Acrobat and only come into play as a default font that Acrobat utilizes whenever the actual font that was used was not embedded.

    (Multiple Master fonts never really became popular and are no longer produced. They have been superseded by OTF open type fonts)

      Dov Isaacs
      Dov Isaacs
      Legend
      August 30, 2015

      To augment Bo's correct response ...

       

      (1)   A document could absolutely not have originally been created using Adobe Sans or Adobe Serif. They are not installed or otherwise available for normal application use. As Bo indicates, they are special substitution fonts used by Acrobat and some other Adobe applications. It you open a PDF file and look at the Fonts panel of Document Properties (Ctrl-D), for a particular font entry, the only place you would see Adobe Sans or Adobe Serif would be as the font listed as Actual Font. This is the case in which the creator of the PDF file didn't embed the font and Acrobat has to try to find the font installed on the user's system or use a substitution font. For fonts such as Helvetica, Times, and Courier, Acrobat has the “smarts” to use system fonts Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New respectively since they generally have identical set widths to the original fonts. Missing ITC Zapf Dingbats are replaces with Adobe Pi, and for anything else using a Western Latin character set, Adobe Sans or Adobe Serif is used depending on whether the original font was a san serif or serif style. These two Multiple Master technology fonts have the capability of matching the set widths of any other Western Latin font.

       

      (2)  There are some very limited situations in which Adobe Sans and/or Adobe Serif can end up showing as the font of the text and possibly even embedded in a PDF file. That is the situation in which a PDF with non-embedded fonts and for which the fonts are not installed on the user's system is printed from Acrobat to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance, a process known as “refrying a PDF file” which is strongly discouraged by Adobe for some fairly obvious reasons. Since the original font cannot be found, Acrobat outputs PostScript using Adobe Sans and/or Adobe Serif in the PostScript stream and feeds that to the Distiller which them embeds those fonts in the refried PDF file.

       

      (3)  If you are trying to get the look of Adobe Sans, whether or not you are trying to edit existing text in a PDF file or add text or even create text in a new document, use Myriad Pro. Adobe Sans was based on an early Multiple Master Type 1 version of Myriad. Myriad Pro is the closest font in terms of design and metrics to Adobe Sans. In terms of Adobe Serif, use Minion Pro. Adobe Serif was likewise based on an early Multiple Master version of Minion. Minion Pro is the closest font in terms of design and metrics to Adobe Serif.

       

      - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
        naveenk39376364
        naveenk39376364
        Participant
        May 19, 2016

        Hi Dov,

               I tried myriad pro but it is some what differ from adobe sans , I need to use same like adobe sans mm. I tried minion pro also that too not work out. so can you please tell me the steps how to download adobe sans mm font for acrobat dc pro. Or please any exact matching font please do the needful. thanks in advance.

        A
        Anonymous
        August 29, 2015

        Hi ,

        If you want that specific font for your PDF,you could simply download that font from the web and would be able to edit the PDF in that particular font.

        Regards

        Sukrit Dhingra

        Dov Isaacs
        Dov Isaacs
        Legend
        August 30, 2015

        Wrong! Adobe Sans is not a font “downloadable from the web.” And for that matter, it cannot even be licensed.

         

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