How to ensure proper font embedding in PDF form generated from Writer?

[ThierryH2]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently struggling with a PDF embedded issue.
When I convert my Writer form into PDF it looks like the “DejaVu Sans” font I’m using in some form areas (text input, drop down lists,…) is not recognized as part of the embedded fonts setup of the document.

Evidence with Pdffonts output:

name                                 type              encoding         emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- --- --- --- ---------
BAAAAA+DejaVuSans-Bold               TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes yes    395  0
CAAAAA+DejaVuSans                    TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes yes    405  0
DAAAAA+LiberationSans                TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes yes    410  0
DejaVuSans                           TrueType          WinAnsi          no  no  no     412  0
FAAAAA+OpenSymbol                    TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes yes    400  0

As you can see, I have font “CAAAAA+DejaVuSans” embedded, but another font is reported : “DejaVuSans”.
And, indeed, I’m using DejaVuSans font for normal text within the page (it works fine), but when I’m using it in form areas, the font is missing on non-Linux computers (only “small dots” are displayed by the PDF reader tool).

Any suggestion to force Writer to tag this font the same way, whether it is part of the “normal” page, or part of a form attribute ?
(if my analysis is right, it looks like a bug, isn’t it ?)

Thanks

[triple5]

Hi ThierryH2, thank you for that question, it is now almost 5 Years old, did you find a solution?

I have the same Problem with the most current libreoffice community (25.2.2.2)
Pdf readers that are embedded in Chromium/Chrome derived browsers display a fallback font, in both windows and linux, the same for Floorp/Firefox and derivatives.
However in Adobe Reader on Windows (25.001.20435) there is no fallback font and I just get the dots, and when I use one of the dropdowns the message:

Die Schrift “LiberationSans” konnte nicht gefunden oder erstellt werden. Einige Zeichen werden möglicherweise nicht korrekt angezeigt oder gedruckt

Here I have a font that ist not installed on the system. If I install the Font “LiberationsSans” in Windows it will work. However I want it embedded, of course, so there is also a bug in Adobe reader, that doesn’t fallback to some default font.

[mikekaganski]

Embedding complete fonts into PDFs for editing (which is required for use in form controls) is a missing feature. It is possible in theory; Adobe Acrobat can do that (but Adobe InDesign can’t, as far as I know).

[EarnestAl]

You might care to look at this bug report and the discussion, however just the linked comment might be sufficient, 50879 – form exported as pdf does not embed all required fonts (see comment 61) and of course comment 61

[MisterT]

I’m still facing the same issue indeed.
As @mikekaganski is suggesting, it looks like it is not going to be solve soon…