Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

jmt356
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Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by jmt356 »

Embedding fonts into a pdf.

I am trying to embed all fonts into my pdf. I am doing this through Bluebeam Bluebeam PDF Revu x64 Standard Edition Version 7. I am told in the Bluebeam forum that I could embed the fonts to a pdf being printed from MS Word if in MS Word, in the Print dialogue box, I click Properties and in the Layout tab, click Advanced and there, under Printer Features, the very last two options under PDF EmbedAllFonts and PDF SubsetFonts are set to Default or True. They are set to Default and so in theory, the fonts should be embedded.

However, when uploading my pdf to a server that requires them to be embedded, I am getting an error that one of my fonts is not embedded. The Bluebeam forum users insist that they are embedded. The server says they aren’t.

Is the fact that the file with the embedded fonts is about the same size as the file without the embedded fonts serve as evidence that the fonts are not in fact embedded? If fonts are embedded shouldn’t a file be about 20 times as large? Isn’t it the difference between a 20 mb file (embedded) vs. a .5 mb file (not embedded) as opposed to .52 (embedded) vs. .51 (not embedded) or .52 (embedded) vs. .52 (not embedded)?

Thank you
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JMT

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HansV
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by HansV »

TrueType font files (.ttf) can be as small as 35 KB (Wingdings 3), and most are in the 50 KB-400 KB range. The really big ones contain a lot of unicode characters.
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Hans

jmt356
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by jmt356 »

So would a document with Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, and Symbol font be about the same size as the .5 mb pdf or would it be 20 times bigger?
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JMT

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HansV
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by HansV »

The basic Times New Roman font on my PC is 400 KB, Book Antiqua is 152 KB and Symbol is 68 KB, together 620 KB.
But shouldn't PDF EmbedAllFonts and PDF SubsetFonts be set to True instead of Default?
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Hans

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John Gray
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by John Gray »

File size may also depend on whether the entire TTF file is embedded or just the glyphs that have been used in the document.
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jmt356
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by jmt356 »

The BB forums informed me that Default and True are the same thing. When you say together 620 kb, you mean that is the total sum for all of the letters and characters used for each font? What if the document has some letters in English Times New Roman and some in Arabic? And same for Book Antiqua? Wouldn't that double the size of each font set?
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JMT

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HansV
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by HansV »

The file sizes I mentioned are for a complete font. In the case of Times New Roman, that includes Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic and various mathematical and technical symbols, so if the entire font is embedded, it wouldn't matter whether you use Arabic or not. If only the characters used in the document are embedded, you'd need much less than the full 400 KB. But I have no idea how Bluebeam embeds fonts.
Best wishes,
Hans

jmt356
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by jmt356 »

These are my file's sizes when I print to PDF in Bluebeam using the following settings:
Embed all Fonts and Subset fonts set to True: 492 kb file
Embed all Fonts and Subset fonts set to Default: 492 kb file
Embed all Fonts and Subset fonts set to False: 298 kb file

The fonts I use are Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, and Symbol. The file contains English and Arabic characters.

If Bluebeam were really embedding the fonts, then wouldn't the file be 918 kb (298 base file plus 620 for the fonts)? Or is it possible that the fonts are embedded and it is only 492 kb because I'm only using a few characters from the Times New Roman font (e.g., brackets, decimals, etc.)?

Since the file is only 194 kb bigger when I try to embed the fonts, the fonts aren't being embedded because
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JMT

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HansV
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Re: Embedding fonts in Bluebeam

Post by HansV »

As I mentioned, I don't know whether Bluebeam embeds the whole font or just the characters used in the document, or something in between.
Best wishes,
Hans