PDF Font Extractor

How to use the pdf font extractor

1. Choose a PDF.
2. Read which fonts are embedded and which will be substituted.
3. Save any embedded font program you need.

About this tool

This lists every font the document declares and marks whether each is embedded or left to the reader to substitute — which is the question behind most "why does this look different on my machine" problems. A substituted font has different metrics, so line breaks move and spacing changes.

Where a font program is embedded, it can be saved. The important caveat is that an embedded font is almost always a *subset*: only the glyphs the document actually uses, marked by a six-letter prefix on its name. The prefix is stripped here for readability, but the file still contains only those glyphs — a subset from a document containing no letter Q has no letter Q, which is why extracted fonts so often appear broken when used elsewhere. It is not a fault in the extraction.

Type0 fonts, which is how a PDF carries anything with more glyphs than a byte can index, keep their real descriptor on a descendant font rather than on the font object itself, so the extractor follows that indirection. A tool that does not simply reports such fonts as not embedded.

One thing worth stating plainly: extraction is a technical operation, not a licence. Fonts are software, and their licences generally permit embedding in a document while not permitting installation from someone else's. This gets the file out; whether you may use it is between you and the licence.

Common uses

• Finding out why a document renders differently elsewhere.
• Identifying the typeface a PDF uses.
• Checking that a file sent to a printer has its fonts embedded.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the extracted font have missing characters?

Because it is a subset containing only the glyphs the document used. That is how PDFs embed fonts, and it is not a fault in the extraction.

What does it mean when a font is not embedded?

The reader substitutes a font it has, with different metrics — so line breaks and spacing shift. It is the usual reason a document looks wrong on another machine.

Can I install a font I extracted?

That depends entirely on its licence. Most permit embedding in documents and not installation from them. Extraction is a technical operation, not permission.