Comments on: Office 2007 PDFs – Not (always) accessible

By: sherif

sherif — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:52:18 +0000

I tried to use “save as pdf and xps” tool in office 2007 to save word file with many mathematical equations as pdf but there were errors in some of math. equations (strange shapes instead of equations) after the first pages.

By: Mikel Ward

Mikel Ward — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:59:12 +0000

I tried exporting my two-page resume.

If I use Cambria, the file size is 182 KB, even tho Cambria is listed as an embedded font. For some reason Arial (“ArialMT”) is also embedded.

If I use only Arial, the file size goes down to 65 KB.

If I export from OpenOffice 2, the file size is 43 KB, with Cambria embedded, with no apparent loss of formatting.

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:58:42 +0000

Have you tried the Office 2007 PDF pluggin then? That might be able to do it, if it’s an MS font.

By: George Harman

George Harman — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:48:14 +0000

Had to use an xbar for statistical equations (average.) It is in the collection on word but only as WP MathB font. Adobe wouldn’t convert it into .pdf format claimed it was a
“[ Error: WP-MathB cannot be embedded because of licensing restrictions. ]
[ Font vendor (Alts) does not permit this font to be embedded in PDF. ]”

I cant find it in any of the other acceptable Word XP fonts. The only workaround is a pain! when you use it hundreds of times.

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:58:32 +0000

One of the test team kindly mentioned how you can check (in Office 2007) with Publisher (more on that later):

Open Publisher
Type something into a textbox, and format in the font to test.
Go to tools > commercial printing tools > fonts.
Check the dialogue for “may not embed” restrictions.

And trying that, it does indeed say “may not embed”.

The file properties say “Font embeddability: Editable”, but the licence line is blank, and there is nothing else relevant and readable in the file itself except the URL:
http://www.adobe.com/type/legal.html

Which leads onto legalese that I don’t feel qualified to try and translate!

By: thooper

thooper — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:05:23 +0000

Adobe say otherwise:

“All fonts produced by Adobe Systems can be embedded in Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) files, as well as other types of files”
http://www.adobe.com/type/embedding.html

“Adobe permits embedding certain typefaces into documents for the purposes of viewing and printing only. Documents with embedded typefaces may not be edited unless those embedded typefaces are licensed to and installed on the computer doing the editing.”
http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/licenseqa.html#q23

“Embedding: Editable”
http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/P/P_1729.html

Also, looking at the version of the font installed on my system, ‘Embedding rights’ is ‘Editable embedding’

“Editable: Fonts with an editable embedding permission can be embedded in electronic documents, and the embedded font can then be used by the recipient of the electronic document to view, print and further edit or modify the text and structure of the document in which it is embedded. These changes or edits can then be saved in the original document. Several fonts in the Adobe Type Showroom, including all Adobe Originals typefaces, other Adobe-owned typefaces and certain third-party font foundry typefaces, allow for editable embedding.”
http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/info/embedding.html

Am I looking at the wrong property, Or do we have different versions of the font?

By: Jeff Bell [msft]

Jeff Bell [msft] — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:03:25 +0000

Alastair -
Unless we can determine that we are reading the permission bits wrong, (and we are re-checking this) then the only solution for you is going to be for font vendors who want to permit font embedding to mark their fonts accordingly. As you note, there may be other tools out there that interpret these rights differently and if you do have the rights to embed these fonts, you may need to use one of those other tools to do so. (Perhaps Adobe the font vendor has an agreement not to sue Adobe the Acrobat producer?)

Not sure what is happening to drop the image on reflow. Let’s take that up over e-mail.

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:20:41 +0000

Jeff – thanks for the update, but without the ability to embed fonts we’ve bought, it means the pluggin is not an option for us.

How does acrobat get around that?

Also, have you looked at how they come out when re-flowing the document? I couldn’t see why the image disappeared.

By: Jeff Bell [msft]

Jeff Bell [msft] — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:59:19 +0000

Alastair – good to hear that switching fonts cleared up the issue for you. The PDFs we generate will embed fonts, but only if the rights bits in the font are set to indicate that the font may be embedded. It turns out that these bits are not always set the way that your license agreement as the purchaser of the fonts would lead you to expect, but the bits are all we have to go on.

The copy we have of the Myriad Pro Condensed font does indicate that it may not be embedded. You may get better results with other fonts you have licensed.

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:59:52 +0000

Hi Jeff,

You are right, it’s not a standard font, I’ll try again tomorrow with a standard one.

Still, I’m used to Acrobat being able to embed fonts (that’s half the reason we use it), it this not possible with MS Office PDFs?

Patrick: I have a little experience, but because we had formatting issues between it and MS Office it’s not a route we have tried much.

Since you need Acrobat Pro to even check the accessibility, we’ve tended to stick with Office & Acrobat.

Is the link read out using the built in reader? That might give an indication if it’s really a problem.