An interesting conundrum

[woody649]

I just uploaded a print-on-demand book to both Amazon KDP and Barnes and Noble Press. Rather than risk their conversion, I chose to upload a PDF of my file for the book, which was created entirely in Microsoft Word 2016/2019. I created a PDF by using the Word Export as PDF function, and Amazon accepted it.

Not so Barnes and Noble. B&N reported that the file was not usable because fonts were not embedded. So I opened up the Word file and "printed" it to PDF using the free virtual printer doPDF. B&N was happy with that, and the book has now been put into their queue for sales on the B&N web site.

Does anyone know anything about the inner workings of Word's PDF export function? I'm gobsmacked that it doesn't embed fonts. Is there a toggle somewhere to turn on font embedding?

[terrie]

woody: Does anyone know anything about the inner workings of Word's PDF export function?

Short answer...no...



Longer, but skipable, answer:

Perhaps because I don't trust Microsoft and because I loathe Office/Word and because I don't have Office/Word installed on any of my systems although my sister (whose systems I support) does use Office/Word but I set her systems up and, I have always encouraged her to use either Acrobat's printer instance (or a 3rd party print-to-pdf) rather than Word's because the last time I did try using Word's PDF'ing (just to see what it would produce), it took so long (not that big a document) that I aborted it so I've never looked to see what options might be available for Word's PDF'ing. Microsoft always seems to have the need to screwup stuff like PDF'ing...




I guess my question to you would be....


Why use Word's PDF'ing when you have (generally) more control/options with either a 3rd party print-to-PDF or use Acrobat's printer instance?



Terrie

[woody649]

Originally Posted by terrie

Short answer...no...

Why use Word's PDF'ing when you have (generally) more control/options with either a 3rd party print-to-PDF or use Acrobat's printer instance?

An excellent question. My only answer is, "Because it was there."

What I have learned is that, by default, Word's export to PDF does not embed fonts. There is a way to turn it on: once in the 'Save As" screen, there's a box for Options. You won't see an option for "Embed Fonts"; the option is "PDF/A." The 'A' is for "Archival," and PDF/A embeds fonts so the document will always display properly even if viewed on a system that does not have the document's font(s) installed.

The only way I could test it would be to create a test document using some arcane, obscure font and then remove the font and open the PDF to see if the font still displays correctly. I also don't know if, once you check PDF/A, it stays checked as a default or if you have to remember to turn it on each time.

So in the future I will eschew using the export function and go back to "printing" PDFs using my trusty (and free) doPDF virtual printer.

Lesson learned.

[Steve Rindsberg]

>> The only way I could test it would be to create a test document using some arcane, obscure font and then remove the font

And that after making sure it's not one of the arcane, obscure fonts that gets installed with Office or Windows. Not sure which but one or the other (both?) of them squirrels away extra copies of fonts all over the place. I was trying to do some tests re embedding myself and when nothing seemed to be working (ie, could NOT get it to substitute fonts), pointed Agent Ransack at the PC and said "Show me all the TTF/OTFs out there".

Un.
Be.
Lieve.
Able!

[terrie]

woody: Lesson learned.

Ain't life grand! '-}}



One other reason I have had my sister use a print-to-PDF (vs. Word's PDF'ing) is that this approach can be consistent working for all her PDF'ing needs even if she's not in Word--basically, she only needs to remember one approach. Additionally, the print-to-pdf software has globally set options (at least in the ones I've used) so that if there are exceptions/special situations one can create a group of settings for the special situation, save that and then select it when needed...



Terrie

[terrie]

steve: it's not one of the arcane, obscure fonts that gets installed with Office or Windows.

Is it Meiryo (meiryo.ttc and meiryob.ttc)? Office needs this font to install correctly.



I learned this when I was using the "2ManyFonts" utility to remove all the extra (Windows) fonts in Windows 7 (and later, Windows 8.1 and my guess is that Windows 10 and 11 also could use this utility to clear out extraneous fonts) which are mostly non-latin fonts--see Removing Win7 Non-Latin Fonts which I need update with the info I have for Windows 8.1.




Terrie

[woody649]

I forgot that we use Word's export to PDF function at work -- a lot! Most of my work output gets converted to PDF in order to be compatible with an on-line permitting and record keeping system the town has adopted. So I tried it out today. The magic setting is found after you click Export and then tell it to save as a PDF. That opens a dialogue box asking where you want to save it and what you want to name it.

Near the bottom of that box is a button for Options. That opens another dialogue box, near the bottom of which is the choice for PDF/A. I did one report that way, and when I went back in later to convert another document I found that the setting is persistent.

But for my own use, I think I will follow Terrie's approach and go back to using my PDF virtual printer.

[Steve Rindsberg]

>> The magic setting is found after you click Export and then tell it to save as a PDF.

Or choose File | Save As and choose PDF for the save type.

[terrie]

woody: The magic setting is found after you click Export and then tell it to save as a PDF.

Ahhhh...thanks for that info...



Terrie