Embedding font full character set

Report · Mar 27, 2018

I am creating a PDF in InDesign (CC 13.0 Mac) for use with another program. This other program identifies << and >> as field markers for populating variable data. As a result, I need my InDesign PDF to contain the full character set and not a font subset, to cater for any character that may appear in my data.

However, there is a whole mix of information online and I have been unable to find anything with a clear, working, guide for how to embed my font as a full character set. The majority of sites indicate that simply setting "Subset Fonts When Percent Of Characters Used Is Less Than" to 0% will do the trick. However, if I save my InDesign document using both a 100% subset and a 0% subset, in both PDFs the font in “Properties” is described as "(Embedded Subset)". The full character set for the font is not being embedded.

I have tried saving with "Standard", "High Quality Print", and "PDF/X‑1 2001" options, thinking maybe one of these was overriding my 0%, but have had no successful embedding of the full character set.

Can anyone help? When saving an InDesign document as a PDF, how to I ensure that the full character set for the font is embedded?

Report · Mar 27, 2018

Yeah, that's a popular misconception. Embedding a full font in a PDF file does not let you edit the text in the PDF, using the embedded font. You'll need to have the original font actually installed on the system, anyway.

Report · Mar 27, 2018

I've tried with three different fonts, Arial, Calibri, and DIN-Regular. All are installed for both programs.

Report · Mar 27, 2018

Frankly, I dunno of no good reason for embedding a full font in a PDF file. If you're going to use some third party tool that claims it can edit text in PDF using *fully* embedded fonts... well, I don't believe that.

When they say: *fonts are fully embedded*, in fact it's just about glyph definitions, possibly width metrics, but not kerning information, OpenType features, etc. To be short, it just won't work.

Sure you can go your own hard way, if you have enough spare time...

Report · Mar 27, 2018

It's not actually editing the PDF, instead it is:

Reading the position of <<
Reading the field name within << >>, e.g. <<address>>
Reading the font of the whole <<field>>

It then replaces <<address>> with "1 Sample Street" in the position of <<, with the same font as <<field>>. The original PDF is unchanged.

I know it's possible because I have one version of my PDF where DIN-Regular is described as "(Embedded)", without the subset. I just don't know how to replicate it.

I'm not sure if it helps, but here is some quoted text from the help pages:

"Few problems should be encountered with the text within RTF, DOC/DOCX, PDF and TNO files..."

"In particular, the values of variables are returned in the same font as used by the text in the imported file, the imported files must have access to all of the glyphs of the font that are required to return the values of the variables." I know there are limitations to the glyphs, but that's okay, I just need InDesign to export/save with the full font, like the help pages indicate it can.

Report · Mar 27, 2018

Take a look at this thread. Hopefully, you'll find some answers there.