Embedd fonts AND Editable PDF?

I wonder if maybe an InCopy workflow with InDesign template files might be the way to go...

I'm surprised Bob didn't suggest this. Preumably if your university is licensing Creative Cloud it includes InCopy. The question would be if your faculty members would have access.

@JEBCWMCA Several things I noticed in your post.

If you're using Canva and you're at a University, note that Canva can't create a PDF that's fully compliant with the PDF/UA standards for accessibility (which is required for most, if not all, academia in the US, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere). Here's a tech-blog that explains the different US laws for accessibility.  https://www.pubcom.com/blog/us-laws/all/

Generally, fonts should be embedded into the PDF at the time the PDF is exported from the source file. But Canva gives little or no control over this.

So a PDF exported from Canva is a hot mess that will need substantial remediation in Acrobat or other tools to bring it into compliance.  This is not an efficient workflow.

After researching online it seems one can either have an editable PDF (mostly I see Acrobat used for this) or embed fonts into a PDF via InDesign.

There's something not right with this "either/or" statement.

First, the font must be embedded into the PDF (at the time it's exported) in order for it to be editable. Otherwise, the text can turn to gibberish when someone attempts to edit it...because the font's glyphs aren't embedded.

Second, editing tools are extremely limited in a PDF. It's not a word processor or desktop publishing design program, so it's difficult to change large amounts of text and have it reflow correctly. Doesn't matter whether you use Acrobat or another company's PDF software. The file format wasn't designed to be changed or heavily edited.

 

I'm even trying to see if I can create something in Microsoft Word but the fonts seem to be the real issue here.

Trying to understand your project. I think you want some templates to give admin staff and faculty so that they can fill in the details and publish the final PDF themselves. Correct?

You're not the first person to want this! But it's a tough workflow to accomplish.

Word might be your best best. You can create form controls in the Word file (expandable text blocks that can be edited as needed) and because it's Word, there's no need for your staff to learn a new program. They can export to an accessible PDF from Word and distribute the final PDF.

And Word can accommodate your branding requirements: color, fonts, layout appearance. You will, however, have to learn how to use Word, something that most designers don't do. But it can be done. Our shop has done this type of template for our clients to use.

It really depends how much editing is needed? If you could share an example of what needs to be edited, that would be helpful.

If we're talking about changing small things like a name, a price, or a time, you can add form fields to your PDF and export as an interactive PDF.

This will change the colour-space of the PDF to RGB.

But it will enable the end-user to modify those bits of information without otherwise mangling your design.

For the fonts, it works as follows: If you set the font of a text field in InDesign's Buttons and Forms panel, the font will not be embedded. The user will need to have the font installed on their system. This might not be such a problem if you choose to use free fonts, such as any Google fonts, etc.

If you want to use a pro font that you have bought: Many of them, though not all, allow embedding.

To embed the font, open the interactive PDF in Acrobat, select the text field, and select the font you want to apply to that field. If Acrobat does not show a warning that the font cannot be embedded, that means the font can and has been embedded. In that case, anyone with the PDF can fill in the field and will be able to use the font you have selected, even if they do not have it installed on their own system.

If you want to set the font to be embedded in InDesign (rather than in Acrobat), it is not possible to do so natively. My (free for short forms) add-on, FormMagic (https://www.id-extras.com/products/formmagic/), will let you do this (and a lot more, such as setting alignment and colours) in InDesign.

HTH,

Ariel

Let's be clear..PDFs are an end product. While basic editing is possible, you would indeed need to embed the entire font by choosing zero as the percentage for subsetting, but even then there's no assurance that the entire font will be available.

In short, you're chasing rainbows here because beyond the most basic edits, recreating the PDF from the original document is the proper way to go.

I believe that the logic is that fonts are embedded to allow display and print, with the fonts often subsetted and encrypted to prevent inadvertent distribution. That does not enable editing unless, possibly, the user has the complete, presumably licensed font on their system.