Turning font to vector instead of embedding when creating PDF (unintended)

[sPretzel]

Hello,

Acrobat 4.0 appears to transform some fonts to vector while embedding other fonts when creating a PDF. These fonts are both involved in a transparency context. Why are not all fonts embedded?

Thanks.

[Test Screen Name]

Still running 4.0? Amazing? It doesn't support transparency, which was added in 5.0. But 4.0 also contains nothing to convert fonts to vector.

How exactly do you create the PDF? Include apps, version, OS etc.

[sPretzel]

Hello Test Screen Name,

Thanks for your response. I am aware of the limitations of Acrobat 4.0, including the fact that it doesn't support transparency.

I am printing to PDF here from Illustrator CS4 (yes, it's also old) on Windows.

Upon further testing, the Acrobat does embed the font for some sizes (smaller font sizes) but not all sizes. That really puzzles me. If I remove the transparency in the font, then all font sizes are embedded properly.

Whether the font is embedded or not also depends on the background. With a plain colour background, embedding of the font is fine but if the background is an image, that's where I run into the aforementioned problems.

[Test Screen Name]

Very much expected, because Illustrator will have to flatten the transparency. In fact, printing to PDF from Illustrator isn't considered the best way to work. You don't need to touch the PDF printer, just save as PDF from Illustrator CS4.

[sPretzel]

Actually, it's Acrobat that flattens the document, not Illustrator. That being said, you expect this process to apply to some font sizes and not to others? As I mentioned, the font is embedded in the PDF for some font sizes and not for other font sizes, all that for the same font! That doesn't make any sense.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

On behalf of Adobe …

The moment you create PDF via distillation of PostScript (which is what you are doing if you “print” to a PostScript driver and distill the resultant PostScript), transparency flattening occurs. It occurs in Illustrator which generates the PostScript — it does not occur in Acrobat (and for that matter, Acrobat 4.x doesn't even know what transparency is, much less be capable of flattening it). Why? Because PostScript doesn't support live transparency! Thus, when you have live transparency in an Illustrator document, when printing, transparency must be flattened as part of the process of generating PostScript. If text is involved in an area where there is transparency, unless the text is totally overlaying transparent content underneath it, the text will either be outlined and/or rasterized. That is why fonts used for such text are not embedded.

Quite frankly, if you are dealing with PDF workflows that involve transparency in any way, shape, or form, you really are dealing with Neanderthal versions of software that were not designed for modern PDF publishing workflows in which live transparency and color management are really requirements. Acrobat 4.x was released over 17 years ago (1999) and Creative Suite 4 programs were released over eight years ago.

          - Dov

[Test Screen Name]

No, it can't be Acrobat 4. It doesn't understand transparency so how could it flatten it.  When you print from Illustrator it sees that the print driver (Adobe PDF) doesn't support transparency, so Illustrator flattens. So the Adobe PDF printer gets flattened information. Your results are normal - Illustrator flattens only when it needs to, so it doesn't need to touch things with no background and a solid colour; even if transparent, it can just make a new solid colour. Font sizes may also be involved, as Illustrator has to decide whether to rasterise or vectorize. Illustrator's flattening settings and presets apply.

[sPretzel]

Hi Dov and Test Screen Name,

I thought the flattening was handled by the printer (Acrobat), not Illustrator or any other application that may be used before printing. But you know the software better than I do. I'm glad I learnt something as I always thought this was done by Acrobat 4.0 precisely because it doesn't handle transparency. The fact that the document is flattened does not bother me.

That being said, I still can't make sense of the fact that for the same background (picture), the same font atop and the same level of transparency, some font sizes are embedded (not rasterised or vectorised), and other font sizes are vectorised (I don't think I have come across a scenario where it's rasterised yet in the context of my current issue). I would expect the same treatment to apply to ALL font sizes: the font is either embedded or vectorised, regardless of its size. This is exactly what occurs when the background is not a picture, but a plain solid colour background: the font is always embedded. Perhaps one of you can explain what might be happening here.

Thanks.

[Dov Isaacs]

Without the actual artwork (i.e., the Illustrator document itself), we really can't give you a definitive diagnosis of what's occurring with your particular document.

What we can say is that outlining and embedding is not, at least by design of the software, dependent upon point size utilized. Note that if you are using a particular font outside an area of transparency, that text won't be outlined and the font(s) will be embedded.

          - Dov