“The font can’t be embedded (license restrictions)”: What to do when a font can’t be embedded in a PDF

Why printers ask for this

A font license decides where the font may go, and part of it is written into the font file as an embedding setting. Windows shows it as Font embeddability: Installable, Editable and Preview/Print fonts can be embedded, and Restricted fonts can’t. Programs that make PDFs are required to respect the setting, so InDesign warns that it can’t embed the font and exports the PDF without it. That’s the font’s license at work, not a fault in your export.

Without the font, the PDF only names it. The printer’s system either swaps in a substitute, which changes the letter shapes and can move line breaks, or stops the job. Word can do something else: with Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded ticked in its PDF options, it turns that text into pictures of the letters, which print soft and can’t be edited. Some fonts allow only a bitmap version to be embedded, with the same result.

Restricted fonts often come from free font sites, demo or trial versions, and fonts licensed for one use only. Fonts from Adobe Fonts, and open-source fonts under the SIL Open Font License, which covers most of Google Fonts, are licensed for embedding in PDFs, so they rarely cause this.

How to fix a font that can’t be embedded

1. Find the font. InDesign names it when it warns you on export. In the PDF, open Document Properties (File → Properties, or Menu → Document properties in newer Acrobat) and the Fonts tab: an embedded font says “Embedded” or “Embedded Subset” after its name. The free print-ready checker lists every font that isn’t embedded and the pages it’s used on.
2. Check its embedding setting. On Windows, search for Fonts, open the Fonts control panel, select the font and read Font embeddability at the bottom of the window (maximize it if the detail is hidden). Restricted means no embedding. On a Mac, check the license that came with the font, or where it was downloaded from.
3. Ask the foundry. Many sell a license, or a version of the font, that allows embedding in PDFs for print. Don’t use a tool that changes the embedding setting: the font will embed, but you’re breaking its license.
4. For headlines, logos and short lines, convert the text to outlines. Illustrator: select the text and choose Type → Create Outlines. InDesign: select the text frame and choose Type → Create Outlines. Adobe notes that some fonts restrict outlining too, and outlined text can’t be edited, so keep an editable copy.
5. For body text, switch fonts rather than outlining whole pages: outlined text loses its hinting and every typo means outlining again. Pick a close match from Adobe Fonts or an open-source font, both licensed for PDF embedding, and check the line breaks and page count after the swap.
6. Word: if text in the PDF looks blurry, it was turned into a picture. Change those words to an embeddable font, then use File → Save As → PDF → Options and tick ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A), which embeds the fonts.
7. Export the PDF again and check the Fonts tab: every font should now say Embedded or Embedded Subset, or not appear at all if it was outlined.

Or send it to us

• Find every font that won’t embed, including inside placed PDFs and logos
• Outline display type and logos where the license allows it
• Match body text to a font licensed for embedding, keeping your line breaks and page count
• Send a print PDF with every font embedded or outlined, plus an editable copy