Stop Acrobat from embedding fonts

Report · Jul 03, 2016

I have a PDF with rich text fields that use base Acrobat fonts (Times New Roman). But for some reason every time I edit+save the form, Acrobat insists on embedding the fonts and bloating the file size. Is there a way to force Acrobat to not embed fonts?

Report · Jul 03, 2016

No. Fonts that are used in fields have to be fully embedded in the file, so the user can have access to them when they fill in the file.

Report · Jul 03, 2016

Thanks for the response.

But I thought that the base fonts are universal and do not need to be embedded...

I know it's possible to remove embedded fonts after it's embedded. I just rather they don't get embedded in the first place.

In any case, the fonts are not important -- it's more important to keep the file simple and light. Is there no way to minimise the need for embedded fonts?

Report · Jul 03, 2016

That's true. If you use a "base font" (like Helvetica) then it doesn't need to be embedded. "Times New Roman" should be in that list as well, but maybe it's used for something else in your file? The problem is that once a font is embedded it's almost impossible to get rid of it, unfortunately.

Report · Jul 03, 2016

What "something else" might it be used for? And shouldn't that something else also not require embedding base fonts?

I tried to check, but for some reason the Preflight tool is disabled on this document. No idea why. (The PDF isn't secured.)

Report · Jul 03, 2016

Something else could be the actual static contents of the file.

How did you originally create this file?

Report · Jan 08, 2024

Whatever Adobe says about fixing this problem is wrong. This is an ongoing problem as of today (01/08/2024). I am running the current version of CC. Every PDF I make contains embedded Microsoft fonts (Antigua, Times New Roman, Arial). Yes I am on a Windows platform but I am using Extensis font manager. None of these fonts exist in any of my docuents yet they always show up embedded in my PDFs. Why? This is causing confusion with my customers and service vendors. I cannot get rid of this annoying behavior.