Cannot embed Adobe Garamond Pro in PDF

[Joyful_contributors16B8]

I have a CC subscription, and installed Adobe Garamond Pro from TypeKit.

I am using this font in a Microsoft Word docx. I set the "Embed fonts" option in Word. I save it as a PDF, and Adobe Garamond Pro is missing in the PDF - it has been substituted with Times New Roman.

As I understand it, the license for Adobe Garamond Pro does allow for embedding in PDFs, so why is it not working?

Thanks.

[Dov Isaacs]

Exactly how are you creating the PDF file from Microsoft Word? If you are running Windows, there are multiple ways of creating PDF from Word. If you create PDF by using Acrobat's Save as Adobe PDF menu item in Word or the Create Adobe PDF function in the ribbon, text using Adobe Garamond Pro will appear as such in the resultant PDF file, Adobe Garamond Pro being properly embedded in the PDF file.

However if you create PDF by using general Save as function and selecting the PDF option, you are using Microsoft's own PDF creation which cannot properly handle OpenType CFF fonts, i.e. it doesn't know how to properly embed them in PDF files it generates. Thus the font substitution.

Use Acrobat's PDF creation from Word and the problem will go away, again assuming that this is Windows.

           - Dov

[Joyful_contributors16B8]

I don't have Adobe Acrobat installed - so there's no way to embed fonts properly in a PDF without buying Acrobat?

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

To answer your question, yes, currently in order to embed any OpenType CFF font in a PDF file created from within Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, you need Acrobat. Even within Adobe, we've complained to Microsoft about this bug/shortcoming in their PDF creation (since we hear about it from customers such as yourself). Microsoft has chosen, so far, to ignore this.

Maybe  you can succeed in convincing Microsoft to fix their PDF save feature to at least handle OpenType CFF fonts correctly.

            - Dov

[Joyful_contributors16B8]

Okay, good to know. Thanks.

(I have installed the trial version of Acrobat, and now I can indeed "Save as Adobe PFD" and the font is correctly embedded. So yeah, it's a Microsoft issue. 😞 )

[Test Screen Name]

Which CC subscription do you have? The all apps subscription does include Acrobat already. 

[Joyful_contributors16B8]

I just have the Photoshop/Lightroom subscription. I don't really need the other apps, or Acrobat for anything but this.