When I export my .odt to PDF, bold type is converted to normal. Can I correct this?
Please provide a sample ODT, and some relevant information: LibreOffice and OS details (including versions); which application you use to view PDF?
I have uploaded an ODF file and a PDF file to jimberry.org/example_test.html.
I am using Ubuntu 17.04 and LO 5.4.3.2
PDFs are opened with Document viewer
sorry! you were too quick 
try again
Ah, so some specific font is needed for the test? How can I get it?
Ahh! sorry, i will replace with a standard font and repost
I have changed to Symbola font and re-uploaded. The same issue with this font. New Times Roman might be a more universal font, but I don’t have it at the moment - I will download it and try again.
Please use e.g. Liberation Serif, or something. At least I have it. And testing with it on my LO 6.2.4.2, it seems to work.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet - here I used Liberation Serif, and set two first words to non-bold, to show the difference
My LO Writer doesn’t seem to allow newly added fonts, but the replaced examples I have now uploaded to
https://jimberry.org/NoBoldinPDF.odt and https://jimberry.org/NoBoldinPDF.pdf show that the exported PDF shows most fonts without bold, only DejaVu Serif has accepted the bold as in LO Writer.
I just saw your response.
I have now tried Liberation Serif and that seems to work as well, but a script face is what is required. I wonder why PDF can’t do what Writer can do. I can understand why a Writer document may not give the same results on diferent computers, but PDFs built on the same machine as the Writer source document should be able to do the same bolding as Writer when on the same machine, surely?
Given that you use font effects (outline, shadow), I’m not sure that the characters are drawn by PDF. Possibly LibreOffice outputs a vector picture (with text layer to allow copying)… in which case, it would be wholly LibreOffice bug. But I can’t test ATM - and I advise you to test using a later LO version first, and if needed, file a bug report.
PDF can obviously cope with bold DejaVu and Liberation but not other serif fonts. I will try to get a newer version of LO, but Ubuntu 17.04 seems to not like it so I will need to get the latest LTS Ubuntu and try again.
It seems that, when exporting a LibreOffice Write document to pdf, only the shadowed layer of a bold font gets exported as bold
See https://jimberry.org/WhyNoBold2.png
If newer versions of Ubuntu and Writer do not improve on this, I might just have to use a screen dump of the text instead of the text itself in the final LO Writer document before exporting to PDF.
Workaround feasible? Have you tried to print out as a pdf file? Probably install cups-pdf for that reason, but Ubuntu should provide a pdf printer from installation on.
Yes, I have tried that, but get the same (non) result
It appears you are using faked bold on some of the fonts.
I only checked the Abyssinica SIL, Bludhaven, and Symbola fonts - but there is no Bold weight for these fonts.
They only have a Regular weight available.
Most likely you used the Bold button in LibreOffice which creates a faked bold by enlarging the characters.
Unfortunately LO does not indicate that this is happening like more advanced applications do.
(This is not likely to be fixed due to the LO “usability guru” being clueless, and a condescending arrogant jerk.)
When the text is exported to the PDF the regular font is embedded (since there is no actual Bold font).
DejaVu Serif and Liberation Serif work because there are actual Bold fonts available which get embedded in the PDF.
Could you please mention the bug report with inappropriate response from “usability guru”?
Despite personally I find decisions of our UX team rather controversial quite often, I understand that no one else but them is doing that work; and since I don’t have energy to join their team, I need to take what doers decide. Your answer deserves an upvote; still, your habit of accusing everyone who is in disagreement with your majesty’s ideas, and your frequent usage of dirty language about others, don’t let me do that.
1+ for lol.
@LibreTraining - Thanks! Although not the answer I was looking for, you have explained why it can’t be done aside from finding a suitable script font that includes a true Bold font.
I will try Scribus to see if it has a better workround.
I have now found some bold Script fonts which are acceptable when exported to PDF
See some examples here
Thanks everyone for your assistance!!!